Category Writing
Vary your vocabulary
This afternoon’s class focussed on alternative words for common adjectives. Have you ever used any of these before? happy => CHUFFED sad => GUTTED good => TERRIFIC bad => DIRE angry => CHEESED OFF interesting => MIND-BLOWING attractive => STUNNING shocked => FLABBERGASTED Over to you … Can you think of a situation you have […]
Letter or email of complaint
Dear Mr. John Smith I’m writing cos I wanna complain about the shitty service I received from the workers of your holiday resort in Apr. of this year! That is the opening of a letter of complaint. The message is clear but the way it is expressed is poor, very poor. How do you suggest […]
Not another “sometimes”!
I read it too often in my students’ writing tasks, this word SOMETIMES. Now just as I tell them, I’ll tell you. There are many other words or phrases which can be used instead to avoid repeating it. Here are just 3 of them: every so often once in a while every now and then […]
Different spelling and meaning but the same sound – HOMOPHONES
The afternoon session was spent working with homophones – words which sound alike but have a different spelling and meaning, e.g. HERE and HEAR. The class was divided in groups of three and each team had to write a short story using the wrong homophone. Here are some extracts from the stories. Can you spot […]
Acronyms for texting/messaging
The afternoon session in class 215A was dedicated to acronyms (short forms of phrases or sentences) commonly used for messaging. Here are a few we discussed: ASAP => as soon as possible THX => thanks XOXO => hugs and kisses IMO (IMHO) => in my opinion (in my honest/humble opinion) BTW => by the way CYE […]
Other ways of saying RICH
Very low-level learners of English are familiar with the word poor and its opposite, RICH. Interestingly, even though they improve their linguistic skills, they still find it difficult to use alternative words for RICH, other than saying HAVING A LOT OF MONEY. If you are of guilty of doing the same, here are some replacements to […]
Make your writing more varied
We had an article writing workshop in the second session of class today. One of the things mentioned was the importance of not using the same word many times in a text. Just take a look at some examples below. The topic of the article was the main differences between a child’s life 50 years ago […]
