🇺🇸 A creative writing course with an American specialist 🇺🇸

To make this happen I had to win a grant, but I did, so you get to take the course for free! 🎉

Tentative syllabus (subject to minor changes):
- Narrative Writing (Dialogue, Monologue, Setting, Character, Figurative Language, Personification, Scene)
- Getting ‘Cozy’ with Crafting Poetry (Ideas, Images/Sensory Details, Sounds, different types of Poems)
- Essay Writing (Personal Statements/Essay with Attitude/Analysis Essay)

Additional topics could be different genres/writing forms (travel writing, TV Scripts) or a more in-depth look at teaching techniques, anchor texts, stylistic devices, etc.

Each unit will include example texts and analysis of literary elements to inspire our own writing. Writing activities will be followed by an in-class Read Around, where we read our drafts to the class, notice what we each did well, and gain inspiration for our writing revision process. Additionally, we will examine the teaching strategies and explore how to adapt to your own teaching contexts. In particular, we will focus on approaches to providing writing feedback to students, the Read Around, and analyzing anchor texts.

📅
Schedule: Monday 16:30-18:00 MSK
Course duration: 14 weeks
Starting date: 11 September

❗️❗️❗️
- Limited number of places, admissions on a competitive basis
- Compulsory attendance
- Certificate upon successful completion.
- Only for teachers working in Russia.
- Commitment to complete is a must!!!

There are a few places left.

Message me @iraluts 💌

Fall 2023: new groups (and good old ones). Now enrolling! 🎉

🍁 Writing

1. IELTS writing
Several groups, different levels - tons of writing, tons of feedback.
https://vk.com/market-47977221?screen=group&w=product-47977221_3696544%2Fquery

2. Writing with New Scientist
A writing course based on articles from the New Scientist magazine and geared towards IELTS prep. A perfect pre- or post-IELTS course.
https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_5061302%2Fquery

3. Writing Essentials
A great introductory writing course. You will try different tasks, both from exams and real life, and gain the confidence you need to write.
https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_5043592%2Fquery

4. Creative Writing
A full-blown creative writing course with an American specialist! The cherry on top is this course is free - all because I won a grant for you! Commitment to write and to complete the course is a must.

🍁 Speaking

1. Speaking with New Scientist (C1+, C2)
A speaking course based on articles from the New Scientist magazine and geared towards IELTS and C2 Proficiency Speaking tasks, but also good for those who have a penchant for deep, meaningful discussions.
https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_5911089%2Fquery

2. Speaking with TED (C1, C1+)
A speaking course for those who want to make sure their speaking skills are always at the ready, be it for a business meeting or an international exam (IELTS and CAE).
https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_5538677%2Fquery

3. "House of Cards" (C1+)
A speaking + lexis course based on this TV show and geared towards exam prep.
https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_3547885%2Fquery

🍁 Old groups you can join

1. General English C1: Outcomes Advanced
https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_6185850%2Fquery

2. C2 Proficiency
This is more of a general English course with some exam preparation rather than an exam format based course. Flipped classroom. Lots of additional materials. Now doing "Expert Proficiency" Unit 5.
Schedule: Friday 16:00-17:30 MSK.

🎉 All enrollments are now open.

The enrollment process looks like this:
1. I'll ask you to tell me a bit about yourself in a private message. Questions might include: What is your experience of learning English? What is your experience of writing? Have you taken IELTS? What are your course expectations?
2. If you want to enroll in a writing group, I'll give you a placement task. For most groups, it's an IELTS-like essay.
3. We'll schedule an interview.

💌 Message me @iraluts

📊 A way to avoid repetitions in IELTS Writing Task 1 📊

Take a look at this perfectly correct paragraph written by a student.

📝 "Over half of the budget was spent on salaries for teachers and other workers in all the years. In 1981, the percentage of Teachers’ salaries amounted to 40%, followed by 28% of Other workers’ salaries. A decade later there was a slight change for both categories, with the figure for Teachers’ salaries increasing by 10% and that for Other workers’ salaries going down by 6%. In 2001, the figures for both groups saw a decrease, with 45% and 15% respectively."

It's not a bad technical denoscription, but at high levels even technically correct denoscriptions might not be very successful. One flaw of the paragraph above, apart from the mechanical feel, is that the names of categories are repeated three times each! The solution to this problem is not synonyms, of course.

My paragraph:

📝 “Teachers’ salaries comprised the largest share in all three years, with the figure varying between 40% and 50%. Other workers’ salaries were the second largest spending category in 1981 and 1991, with 28% and 22% respectively, but the figure almost halved in 2001, becoming the third largest.”

My version is both devoid of repetitions and easier to process because of a different approach to grouping.

📝 Yet another post about examples in IELTS essays 📝

First and foremost, what do we need examples for? To illustrate a point. Take a look at the example below from a student's paragraph. What does it illustrate? Does it do that successfully?

📝 "The inability to solve certain issues arising in populations due to insufficient funding can be detrimental. One example of this is the epidemic of HIV, a virus originating in Africa in the past century, which could have been taken under control, if not eradicated, with a timely intervention of international organisations and the local authorities. In the absence of adequate help to the population, the problem quickly became global and continues to be so, despite all the effort of the international community and individual countries."

So what do we want to illustrate (judging by the topic sentence)? How the inability to solve certain issues can be detrimental. But does the example actually contain anything detrimental? Not really. The example illustrates the importance of timeliness. The actual detriment, however, is not exemplified. What would demonstrate the actual detriment would be words like "die, death, suffer, pain" and other negative words.

Suggested rewrite:

📝 "The inability to solve certain issues arising in populations due to insufficient funding can be detrimental. One example of this is the epidemic of AIDS, a disease that remains largely incurable, not only causing millions of deaths worldwide but also subjecting those infected to a life of misery. The disease, however, could have been taken under control, if not eradicated, had sufficient funding been allocated to this purpose timely."

OK, now we have "disease, incurable, death, subjected to a life of misery." This version sounds more "detrimental" than the original.

So make sure the examples illustrate what you want them to illustrate.

🌻 Can you worsen your writing by rewriting? 🌻

I typically say that the only way to improve your writing is to rewrite religiously. And I honestly believe in the power of rewriting.

But a student asked me today, "Irina, has this ever happened that by rewriting your piece, you actually made it worse?" It's a great question.

Yes. This has happened.

I often write for my students. I can write quickly. But sometimes what I write quickly is very simple, so I decide to add complexity intentionally to demonstrate a certain grammar structure or a higher band score. And sometimes the result is artificial and ugly. Understanding the difference between elegant complexity and ugly complexity - and, more broadly, between good writing and bad writing - is an important skill. I hope I've mastered it.

The second version is typically better, of course. But "second" is not always "better."

Do you rewrite religiously? Is the second (or the umpteenth) version always better?❓

More questions:

1️⃣ If you joined my live stream, can you please drop me a line or a comment here what your experience was.

2️⃣ If you know how to save a live stream on Telegram (if it is at all possible), can you also drop me a line.

Me doing IELTS speaking live on Telegram

📅 9:45 am Moscow time

📅 every day, 13-20 September

🦋 A great IELTS paragraph 🦋

"This is a great paragraph!" says Irina never rarely. But I do give credit when credit is due.

So, today I want to share a great paragraph written by a student (who wished to remain anonymous).

Topic: "Housing and road problems can be solved by moving big businesses, factories, and their employees from the city to the countryside. To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

🦋 Student's first body paragraph, as is:

"First, the reduction of business and industrial activity in the urban center will inevitably result in the decrease of traffic there as fewer people will flock to that area on a daily basis. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that employees, relocated to the countryside, will no longer have to commute to the city center, thus not creating congestion and occupying parking space. Even more important is the fact that businesses’ customers as well as delivery trucks supplying necessities to factories will also have a different destination and opt for other routes, leaving roads free. As a result, the traffic load will be more even in both the city and rural areas."

The cherry on top is the paragraph was written in a matter of minutes, in class. It is great, isn't it?

🌼 Another great IELTS paragraph 🌼

Irina sharing two great paragraphs written by students in a row? Granted, this is unprecedented. But credit is due, so I am happy to give it.

Topic: "Some people think that a lot of scientific research today is a waste of time and money. To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

🌼 Student's second body paragraph, as is:

"Another reason why spending money and time on research is rarely meaningless is that even unsatisfactory outcomes can be turned to advantage. There are, indeed, studies whose findings are disappointing; this does not mean, however, that investing in them may not pay off. Take, for example, medicines whose inefficacy or adverse effects are revealed in trials. Even though they cannot be put into production right away, the information received in the course of their development is likely to facilitate further scientific progress, or they can be repurposed, as has happened to the popular medicine called Viagra, originally aimed to help patients with angina. All this proves that although effort put into a research project may initially appear futile, it is still possible to reap rewards from it."

By Ekaterina Kuznetsova

This one is great too, isn't it?