Paragraphs: An overview

Summarising

Here is a great website that exlpains how to summarise a news story.

A Wordle cloud of our Smith reference

Click here.

How can you make this sentence LONGER?

This website is great! Click on the grey parts of the sentence to see hoow you make the sentence longer!

Is my writing formal?: A Common Problem

Writing in an academic style is a big challenge for EFL students. The most common problem is formality. 

Are you too casual? Have you used you used simplistic language, idioms or slang?

Are you overly formal? Have you used language that is too polite? Can you say it with less words?

In this exercise, you must match the formal and informal expressions with the same meaning. 

This exercise allows you to identify some common errors with formality. 

Thesis Statements: Help!

Thesis statements can be very hard for students to learn.

What is a thesis statement?

Here is a good explanation.

The main idea of an essay or report, sometimes written as a single declarative sentence.

Here is a quiz where you can check if you can identify a thesis statement.

How can I become better at writing thesis statements?

You should try to find many examples to see different styles.

Try theses quizzes. Quiz 1, Quiz 2, Quiz 3.

Paragraphs: Bringing Order to your Writing

Here is a quick quiz about the order of sentences in a paragraph.

Do your Counter Arguments look sick?

Here is a great website on counter arguments. It will help you develop your own counter arguments and then write a paragraph about it at the end. Don't for get to check your answers.

An Essay Explained

Here is a helpful website. It is a model Cause and Effect essay with explanations about the writing and the grammar used in the essay. The explanations are in blue. This should be useful for making your essays look better.

Cause and Effect Sentences

Here is a quick exercise to practice cause and effect sentences. Follow the intructions and check your answers.

My sentences(S) don't look(V) correct (C)!

Are you have trouble making correct sentences? This is a common problem for a lot of students.

This problem often happens when students forget to put the elements of their sentences in the incorrect order. This website has a quick quiz where you can practice choosing sentences that have their elements in the correct order.

The next website also works on this problem but it focuses more on sentenes for academic essays. Once again you have to put the elements of the sentence in order. Bu this time you have to do it one word at a time.

Write paragraphs that will knock your reader out!

The Paragraph Punch website in an online tutorial that helps you improve your paragraph writing skills. It takes you through the step by step process of writing a great paragraph.

Enjoy!