teach English writing

Ideas to Improve Writing Style

July 13, 2014May 25, 2014 by eslwriter

ESL student writing – especially narrative and descriptive pieces – can be flat, dull and homogeneous.

Overuse of simple verbs is one problem that can fix that style problem. Tired verbs like be, find, go, say and see are easy to write in proper. Sure the sentence is grammatically correct but writing is a lot more than just good grammar, ain’t it? Sure, it gots to have style.

Here are a couple of exercises which I uncovered in a terrific book, 500 Word Theme by Harry Kroitor and Lee Martin (1994).

Editing for Style: Tired Verbs

Read the paragraph. Pay attention to the tired verbs (e.g. be, can, go, etc). rewrite the paragraph.

bug-2 The Volkswagen is unexcelled for dependability.

Protected: TTP Writing Class Week 8

December 2, 2015April 20, 2014 by eslwriter

ESL Student Writing Tips

July 13, 2014April 15, 2014 by eslwriter

This image nicely summarizes how ESL students can learn to be better English writers. There are 10 tips to learn English writing skills.

Writing Class Week 7

June 15, 2014April 13, 2014 by eslwriter

This week the class will learn new English writing skills and review material. These activities will help the students learn the English tools they need for the mid term exam. The exam questions are below; print the exam questions from this doc.

ESL Writing Activity #1

This is an activity which we did not have time for last week. This writing activity will be on the mid term exam.

Choose two things which might not normally be compared. Find three ways to describe how they are similar. Write a full paragraph with a topic sentence, proof and a conclusion.

Here is an example by a middle school student, about