Writing methodology - Advanced Editing & Proofreading Practice & Feedback

If you enjoyed our introductory / middle school / B1 - B2 session on editing and profreading, you'll love this Advanced session. This easily replicable model is ready-to-use, plug-and-play, student-centred and at the same time, a great personal challenge for teachers.

Advanced Usage : the making of made

Are you ever unsure of, or even caught unawares by, English mades?

            made by, made for, made from, made in, made of, made on, made out of, made to, made up, made up of, made up with, made with ...

So do it! Join us for explanations and explorations so that you don't have to fake it 'til you make it.

Advanced Vocabulary : sit, seat, sitting, seating

Do you sit or be seated? Do you sit someone or seat someone? Is it a sitting or a seating? A siting or a seating? What about sit up and sit down, or a sit-in and a sit-down? Or a sit rep?

Advanced Use of English Vocabulary : still not yet already? any more?

Have you still not finished already? Are you still to start? Or yet to finish? Already done it or done it already? We could go for a full hour on the distinctions and nuances of these simple little words.

Advanced Vocabulary : er, who does that?

The easiest way of saying who does what in English is to add "-er" to the verb thus talk > talker. Of course, this is not the only way. Variants and exceptions abound, traps lie in wait and sometimes competing and commons forms from the same origin mean completely different things.

Advanced Use of English : agree (or not)

You might think that using "agree" and its family in English accurately and appropriately does not present too many problems, however at an advanced level, and for E2L / ESL and E1L users, you would be wrong. Discussing agreeing is more tricky than it looks and, like so many other words and phrases at these levels, nuance is everything.

How are your English as a Second Language Skills?

Chile's National Curriculum is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programme, yet many teachers and students are functionally at an English as a Second Language (E2L or ESL) level and so an E2L programme would likely be more appropriate. How about you? What are your E2L skills like?

Advanced Use of English : just and only

 

This session does not just consider how and when to use just or not just, nor does it only review the last one or the last time. We also look at considerations of uniqueness and fairness.

Advanced Use of English : Be a good sport

Do sport, make sport, be a sport. Sport v sports. Or perhaps games. And where and who. Talking about sport may be one of the most popular of human pastimes, and can be a great lead-in to other topics.

Advanced Use of English : Using Fillers

 

Fillers are a feature of spontaneous and authentic speech and properly managed, serve an essential function however the uncontrolled use of fillers can make a speaker seem unconfident, uneducated, unsophisticated and even unintelligent, losing comprehensibility and credibility. Non-native speakers also run the risk of using fillers inappropriately, of over-using them or of stumbling and hesitating when a filler would have been helpful.

Advanced Use of English : relations or relationships, it's relative

Relations, relationships, relatives, relative, related, in relation to, be related to, the other relations ... international relations or relationships? to be related to or relative to? These are complicated connections. Can you relate? Join us as we explore what looks like an easy distinction. Spoiler alert. It's not.

Advanced Use of English - Don't use a dummy

Beginning a sentence with "it is" or "there is", aka cleft sentences, is common in speech, however the use of these dummy subjects is stylistically weak, especially in writing, lowers language register and can be vague or confusing. English has several different ways of avoiding dummy subjects; join us as we explore them. 

Advanced Use of English - cleft sentences using "what" and "all" aka inversions aka transformations

 

A cleft sentence is one where sentence order is changed so as to give more emphasis to a particular element. This session reviews sentences beginning with "what" and "all" where the real subject is yet to appear. 

Advanced Use of English - relative clauses

You can define people, things, places and activities with a relative clause beginning with who, that, which, where, when, whose or whom.  What are Defining Relative Clauses, Non-Defining Relative Clauses and most problematic of all, Reduced Relative Clauses some of which function as post-modifying adjectivals?

Advanced Use of English - modals of deduction

 

He might have. She must have. They can't have. Well done Sherlock!

Advanced Use of English - modals of obligation

Do you have to do it? Must you do it? Perhaps you ought to. Or should.   

And that chocolate - mustn't I eat it? Or shouldn't I?

Advanced Use of English Vocabulary : F-bombs

 

The F-bomb is old, it has been used for centuries, and was not always taboo. Known as "the most versatile word in the English language" and as the "great Australian adjective", the eff-word seems de rigeur in today's movies, television programmes and online media. This session considers how, when and why one of the most popular vocabulary items for learners is used, and its multiplicity of functions and of meanings, from both social and academic perspectives. 

Advanced Use of English Practice & Feedback : inversions

One of the complexing things about English is that certain expressions or constructions require an inversion, such as "never have I ever" or "rarely will you see". Join us as we review Advanced inversions in this Practice & Feedback session.

Advanced Use of English Practice & Feedback : transformations

The primary feature of Advanced English means knowing different ways of saying the same thing, aka as "range". One effect of this is that when a word changes, so do other elements of the sentence which is what we explore in this exercise. 

Advanced Use of English Grammar : 'Ats off to at

Not everyone can say they love prepositions, and one particular thorn for many is the when, how and why of "at". In this session we review familiar uses and traps, patterns and whyfors for (in? on? by? from?) using "at".