ELEX now open! A two week fully-funded program in the USA for teachers!

If I amassed a fortune, I would establish a grant or a scholarship because I have benefited from getting some myself. 💎 and ELEX are two prime examples - two awesome, all-expenses-paid exchange programs in the US I am extremely grateful to have been a participant of.

ELEX applications are now open. And they have two cohorts this cycle!

Please apply for the TESOL track and win - I will be presenting, so I hope to see you in Florida! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Find out more: https://www.elexprogram.org/

How about a live stream on writing the ELEX application? Would you listen to one?❓

🦋 One main tip for writing a successful grant application 🦋

Yesterday, I consulted a fellow teacher on writing an application for a big prestigious grant. 

Here are some bits of the application essay. Do you think they are good ones?

📝 "It's about recognizing that each student is unique, with their own dreams, aspirations, and challenges. As an educator, my goal is not merely to impart knowledge but to inspire and empower students to reach their full potential. I believe that every moment in the classroom is an opportunity to instill confidence, curiosity, and a lifelong love of learning."

📝 "My motivation as a language educator, as a leader to my students goes beyond language proficiency; it extends to nurturing global citizens who are culturally aware and empathetic. Language learning is a gateway to understanding and appreciating the rich tapestry of human cultures. It is through language that we build bridges of communication, understanding, and friendship."

These pieces are certainly beautiful, but, in essence, they are completely empty. They make me want to roll my eyes and blow raspberries. Don't write things like that. 

If there was one main tip I could give to applicants, it would be: Be your unique, personal, awesome self in your application. Don't hide your personality behind cliches and vague phrasing. Stand out. More importantly, do so in your writing because writing is your foot in the door. 

The parts above are published with the permission of the applicant. In our one-to-one, we got rid of this emptiness and found the applicant's unique features instead. 🦋

Live stream with some tips on writing a successful ELEX application (or any application):

📅 Tuesday, 31 October, 16:00 Moscow time

ELEX is a two-week fully-funded exchange program in the US for teachers. I am a proud ELEXer 2023. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Find out more: https://www.elexprogram.org/

A double-niner now! 💪

📝 9 9 8.5 8.5

My unending gratitude to two wonderful people in the Uzbek IELTS community - Alisher Soliev and Diyorbek Hayitmurodov - for their support and inspiration. 💜

📝 My IELTS essay 📝

Topic:

"Some people think that the family is the main influence on children’s development, while others believe that there are other effects (such as television, school, etc.). Discuss both these views and give your opinion."

My answer:

"What exactly has the most pronounced impact on children is still a matter of debate. While a whole host of factors undeniably play their role, I believe familial influence is the most profound one.

The factors other than the family include but are not limited to such external forces as school, peers, television, and social media. These might indeed instigate children to make certain choices or to pursue certain activities that they otherwise would not. For example, while a good school might encourage a student to study and instill hard work as a value, thereby laying the groundwork for a successful future, social media might do the opposite by contributing to the development of clip thinking or by promoting superficial beauty as a value, neither of which is likely to be conducive to future success. Since a child can be swayed into potentially life-changing decisions by some factors from their external environment, it might be reasonable to say that these factors play a role.

I, however, believe parental influence is the ultimate formative force in terms of the child’s upbringing. One reason for this is that this influence starts immediately after the child is born, which means a lot of reactions and behaviors are engrained long before the child is even aware of them. Equally important is the fact that, regardless of how much time children spend at school or online later in life, they still spend the overwhelming majority of their early life with their families. Given this, they indelibly acquire more habits and values from their family than they possibly could from other sources. On a final note, the potential influences discussed in the previous paragraph are often down to parenting choices too in that the school the child goes to or the TV programs they watch are a result of actions done by parents, whether intentionally or not. All of this shows that parental influence is what underpins most life outcomes that extend well beyond childhood.

To conclude, it is likely that children are to some extent shaped by absolutely everything they encounter. The extent of the environmental influence, however, can be considered very limited, unlike that of the familial background as this influence starts much earlier in life, has more presence, and affects the other factors as well."

382 words

#Irina_writes_IELTS

More IELTS writing by me:

1️⃣ VK Donut: https://vk.com/donut/iralutse

2️⃣ Boosty: https://boosty.to/irinalutsenko

🦋 Cohesion in writing a successful grant application 🦋

There isn't much else I love more than working on writing. 💜

Today, a fellow teacher and I looked at her application essays for a big prestigious grant. Clearly, cohesion came up - there is no writing without it. But it can work slightly differently in writing that is not exam writing.

Here is an example of "before-after."

📝 Before: cohesion lacking

"One of my instructors during the CELTA course kept mentioning tirelessly: “Do not teach the lesson plan you wrote. Teach your students.” To be honest, what he meant didn’t come to me immediately. Now I’m certain he was talking about building a partnership."

📝 After: improved cohesion

"One of my instructors during the CELTA course kept repeating tirelessly: “Do not teach the lesson plan you wrote. Teach your students.” I didn't understand what he meant back then. But now I do – he was talking about building a partnership."

What can be more enjoyable than helping someone succeed in their application by adding cohesion to their essay? 💜

Writing a winning grant application

This is a webinar by three awesome teachers who have won quite a bunch of prestigious grants. We will share our insights and tips on writing a winning application - be it for a grant, an exchange program, or a scholarship.

The hosts:
- Irina Lutsenko
- Maria Merziapova
- Elizaveta Zanozina

The plan:
- General tips
- Limiting beliefs
- How to find what to write about
- Examples of our writing submitted for the grants above
- Failures and mistake: what not to do
- Q&A

📅 Tuesday, 7 November, 19:00 MSK, around 90 minutes
📅 Saturday, 11 November, 17:00 MSK, around 90 minutes

🌹 Price: 1500 RUB.

❗️ There will be no recording, but the participants will get the pdf of the presentation.

💌 Pm me to sign up @iraluts

⭐️ It was written in the stars... A new IELTS Writing group!

📅 Tuesday 10:00-11:30 Moscow time

This was made possible because my "Writing with New Scientist" group was rescheduled to Saturday 10:30 - and you are welcome to join too!

💌 Message me at @iraluts

Links and denoscriptions:

IELTS: https://vk.com/iralutse?w=product-47977221_3696544%2Fquery

Writing with New Scientist: https://vk.com/iralutse?w=product-47977221_5061302%2Fquery

Clearly I don't post enough Stories...

Please boost my channel to enable it to post Stories. 💜💜💜

https://news.1rj.ru/str/irinalutsenko?boost

📝 Writing a winning grant application 📝

Last week we conducted two webinars on writing grant applications. "We" is a stellar team - Elizaveta Zanozina, Mariia Merziiapova, and myself - with a bunch of grant awards under our belts.

We got some great questions I want to answer publicly.

1️⃣ Is it difficult to win a grant?

Not really. The thing about winning a grant is you don't actually know how that happens - you don't see the other applicants, you don't see their writing, you don't see the decision makers. What you do to win is just submit your writing and then go about your life. Is that difficult? No.

If you writing is successful, you'll get to the interview stage. Is this stage difficult? It might be for some types of people, for example, for introverts like myself. But, anyway, you show up, smile, and just answer the questions. We survived.

2️⃣ Did any professional teachers or writers read your applications?

No, none of us had our writing read by anyone.

But it's a good idea to have your writing read by:
- previous or current program participants: they can give you insight as to whether your application matches the program mission;
- professional writers or writing teachers: they can help you make sure your writing is smooth and readable;
- your friends and/or colleagues: they can help you make sure your personality shines through in your writing.

3️⃣ Where do I get inspiration for the letter of motivation? Are there some websites I can look at?

The most important source of inspiration should be your life. I personally believe it's a bad idea to google how to write letters of motivation or even to read other people's essays. Everything you find online will also be found by other potential participants. Tap into your own inner resources and make your application unique. The decision makers read hundreds of applications. It will play in your favor to stand out.

Live stream with some tips on writing a successful ELEX application (or any application):

📅 Today, 13 November, 16:00 Moscow time

ELEX is a two-week fully-funded exchange program in the US for teachers. I am a proud ELEXer 2023. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Find out more: https://www.elexprogram.org/

📝 Setting off your paragraphs 📝

Another thing I keep pointing out more often than I would like...

❌ Don't

"What exactly has the most pronounced impact on children is still a matter of debate. While a whole host of factors undeniably play their role, I believe familial influence is the most profound one.
The factors other than the family include but are not limited to such external forces as school, peers, television, and social media. These might indeed instigate children to make certain choices or to pursue certain activities that they otherwise would not. For example, ..."

✅ Do

"What exactly has the most pronounced impact on children is still a matter of debate. While a whole host of factors undeniably play their role, I believe familial influence is the most profound one.

The factors other than the family include but are not limited to such external forces as school, peers, television, and social media. These might indeed instigate children to make certain choices or to pursue certain activities that they otherwise would not. For example, ..."

Please, insert an empty line between your paragraphs! Pretty please. 💜

In word processors, you can also press "Tab" or even hit "Space" three or more times - this will shift the first line of the paragraph to the right, thereby setting it off. But this doesn't work on social media.

If you don't do either, you create a wall of text - and no one wants to read a wall of text.

🦩Too many "and"s 🦩

This is one of the most common problems I have to point out. The sentence below, which is from a student's essay, contains four (!).

📝 "The convenience and efficiency of digital tools often tempts people to connect with friends and family via instant messengers or video calls instead of investing time and effort in organising personal meetings and shared activities."

When I ask students to rephrase, their go-to solution is typically "as well as" or the like. But this wouldn't be a good sentence either:

📝 "The convenience along with efficiency of digital tools often tempts people to connect with friends as well as family via instant messengers or video calls instead of investing time together with effort in organizing personal meetings coupled with shared activities."

The real problem is not "and." The real problem is that we are snowed under with nouns.

This is a much better rewrite:

📝 "The convenience of digital tools often tempts people to connect with others via instant messengers or video calls instead of engaging in shared activities in person."

Other rewrites? Share in the comments.

🦩 Too many "it"s 🦩

This is another common mistake, but it's a bit more subtle and a lot more dangerous. First, all the "it"s and "its"s must clearly refer to specific nouns, and, second, they must all have the same use in one sentence. Otherwise, a sentence can be confusing.

📝 To wit, this is a sentence from a student's essay:

"On the other hand, reading news online has its own merits too. First, it is its accessibility - it takes less than a minute to open your device, click the icon and receive information."

This is too many "it"s overall, and the first two in the second sentence are downright confusing.

📝 My rewrite:

"On the other hand, reading news online has merits too. One is accessibility -- getting the news this way takes very little time as all the person has to do is click an icon on their device."

Other rewrites? Share in the comments.

🦩 A free lesson in typing 🦩

Here is a free lesson in typing up a text (including a message):

- capitalize the first word in a sentence
- add punctuation at the end of a sentence
- don't put a space before a punctuation mark
- do put one after (I can't stress this enough - just one)
- and, finally, put one - I really can't stress this enough - just one space between words.

✉️ This looks unappealing, to put it mildly:

hi,Irina ! i would like to sign up for a writing course

✉️ I imagine it isn't much harder to type this:

Hi, Irina! I would like to sign up for a writing course.

Pause before you hit "send." Or at least edit your message after you do. If you want to make a good impression that is.

‼️ Fair warning: Everyone who sends me badly formatted messages will be forwarded this post and kindly asked to re-type. I am not even kidding.

📊 Punctuate my IELTS Task 1 overview 📊

"Punctuate my overview for this task," Irina asked her students because this is how she has fun in her IELTS writing classes.

It might not be as easy as it sounds though. Try your hand in the comments.

"Overall in each country one type of grain is the primary source of calories whose consumption by far exceeds that of the other two rice in Cambodia wheat in Egypt and Poland and maize in Mexico Egypt shows the largest total caloric intake while Poland the lowest being the country that shows no consumption of one type of cereal namely maize"

PS: Don't get any wrong ideas. This is how I do indeed have fun in my IELTS writing classes.