IELTS Writing is like a delicious layered cake you get to have for dessert after you eat your stinky Brussels sprouts (i.e. reading and listening).

🦋 Please welcome our next Writing Incubator workshop:

🦋 "Feeling the Words: using the five senses in writing" by Elizaveta Zanozina

A good text is like a good croissant. It should fill your nostrils with its rich buttery smell and your mouth with its almondy notes. You should hear it crunch under your soft fingers, its chocolate filling warming your fingers. Its perfect shape and color should make your eyes go wide - a sign of wanting more and more.

Let's face it: not every croissant is like this. Let alone a text. But what if we try to change that?

In the workshop, we are going to practice using the five essential senses in our own writing by creating both traditional denoscriptions and mixing the unmixiable.

📅 26 May, Sunday, 11:00 am MSK, Zoom

🦋 The workshop is free. To join, write a comment on this post finishing this sentence frame: "IELTS writing is like + food + explanation."

For example, "IELTS Writing is like a delicious layered cake you get to have for dessert after you eat your stinky Brussels sprouts (i.e. reading and listening)."

💌 Then message me to get the link to the workshop @iraluts.

Irina's Sunday morning ☀️🌲📝

The morning sun was yelling at her, ruthlessly and insistently, "Irina! Irina! Irina! Wake up, wake up, wake up!" As if the yelling was not enough, it decided to burn her face with its bitter, acidic touch.

Irina complied and stumbled to the kitchen. The mumbling of the bubbling coffee pot was more reassuring.

IELTS joined the cacophony of the morning concert.

Task 1 whispered ever-so tenderly, "Irina, write me first. Look - just three lines. Forest industry. You will smell the pine trees as you write, I promise."

"Irina," Task 2 roared, "Write me first," its roar reverberating and bouncing off the walls.

"No, Task 2! This is no way to lure me into writing! Tone it down!"

Irina sat down at her computer. A subtle coniferous smell emanating from the keys as she clacked away...

My imagination can run wild sometimes, especially with proper guidance. But seriously though, can you think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning than doing some writing, both creative and IELTS?

Sick and tired of writing for exams? Do you want to find your voice and share your message? Then this course - one of my favorite courses to teach - is exactly what you need. 🌻

"Write for real" is a course for people who want to write for real readers and share real thoughts. To hell with writing for exams - it’s time to write for real!

🌻 What will you learn to do?
- hook your reader and keep them engaged;
- write an effective noscript;
- write an effective introduction and conclusion;
- write concisely and precisely;
- use stylistic devices;
- try out different types of posts (from listicles to travel stories);
- format and punctuate.

🌻 Some examples by students:
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2022/09/knocked-down-by-beauty.html
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/08/a-finger-licking-dinner-dish-no-unicorn.html
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2022/07/saying-no-to-human-zoos.html

📅 Summer 2024: Friday 14-15:30 MSK
📅 Course duration: 2 months (8 classes)
🌻 Price: 8000 rub a month (4 sessions). Feedback included (one answer a week).

More: https://vk.com/iralutse?w=product-47977221_3696542%2Fquery

💌 Dm me @iraluts

Super-excited!!!!!!! I loved being a guest on this podcast!!!!! 🩷🦋

Beyond grateful to Mukhammadali, Alisher, and the video team for this podcast! I loved the experience! 🩷

Happy Sunday and happy watching! 🦋

🦩 Reducing the word count 🦩

There is little I love more about writing than reducing the word count on my own texts.

Yesterday, I submitted three speaker proposals for TESOL 2025 in California 🇺🇸. The word limit on one proposal is 300 words. The first reduction – from 380 words to 320 – is easy. But when it comes to the final edit, you have to fight for every word.

Here are some examples of my fights:

1️⃣
Original:
I give students a piece of text and ask them what potential writing tools they notice.

Reduced:
I give students a paragraph and ask them what potential writing tools they notice.

2️⃣
Original:
While the examples come from my work based on articles from “The Guardian” and “New Scientist,” the fundamental principles behind the activities are the same for any kind of reading.

Reduced:
While the examples come from my work based on articles from “The Guardian” and “New Scientist”, the fundamental principles are universal.

3️⃣
Original:
While I use these activities in my creative writing club, they can be used in different writing classes (except academic writing).

Reduced:
While I use these activities in my creative writing club, they can be used for different purposes.

Your turn. Reduce the word count of this piece:

“I give students a task that requires them to write a full coherent text. The task itself can be different and depends on the course requirements. For example, in this specific case, I asked students to write a letter to the editor with a response to the article we read.”

My overview for this awful task 📝

"Overall, out of the given fruit types, oranges predominated in exports, followed by lemons, grapefruits, and other types. While different countries were the leading exporters of different types of fruit, the largest suppliers in terms of total volumes were South Africa, the USA, and Mexico."

📝 Share yours in the comments.

#IELTS #ieltswriting #ieltswritingtask1

Writing about myself is like treasure hunting – there’s always a chance to stumble upon some something unexpectedly valuable.

🦋 Please welcome our next Writing Incubator workshop:

🦋 "Self-presentation in writing: How to write about yourself even if you hate it" by Maria Botina

Writing about yourself oftentimes feels just as cringy as the interview question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” Ideas are aplenty, yet doubts also abound. What should I write? I have nothing special to say…

It’s time to leave the doubts in the rear view mirror and calmly work out the strategies to approach each piece of writing with specific goals and examples in mind. This is what we’ll do in our next Writing Incubator workshop.

More specifically:

- We will learn about the types of writing where self-presentation is required: motivation letter, statement of purpose, objective statement, personal statement, covering letter.
- Brainstorm ideas and examples of what makes you special and interesting for the reviewers.
- Learn to identify which of them will work best in what type of writing.
- And, of course, practice!

📅 9 June, Sunday, 11:00 am Moscow time, Zoom

🦋 The workshop is free. To join, write a comment on this post with a creative ending to “Writing about myself is like … .”

💌 Then message me to get the link to the workshop @iraluts.

Writing your own bio is not as easy as it sounds. 📝

Since I am a regular speaker at different ELT events, I already have a whole host of bios of different lengths and with different foci. This is why I could afford to have some fun writing my bios in today’s “Writing Incubator” workshop.

Here are two:

1️⃣ Irina Lutsenko is a dynamic and practice-oriented English teacher with 20 years of experience under her belt … who shudders when she hears “linguo-didactic methods.”

2️⃣ Irina Lutsenko is a self-employed writing teacher who – surprisingly – doesn’t share her breakfast pictures on her socials. A passionate writer, she skips breakfast because morning is her sacred time for writing IELTS answers.

On a more serious note, writing a bio can be hard not only because there is typically a strict word count limit (from 30 to 100 words), but also because you need to tailor it to each specific purpose.

3️⃣ Here is my serious bio for my talks about writing at the MISIS university conference in May:

"Irina Lutsenko is a dynamic English teacher with 20 years of experience under her belt. An alumna of three American exchange programs, Irina is also an avid test taker, boasting IELTS 9 (twice) and CPE A (twice). Irina's passion is writing – she writes tirelessly and inspires others to follow suit. On her mission to empower as many people to write as possible, she designs her own authentic writing courses. Her students write – from essays to novels."

See how each of my bios, fun and serious, focuses on a different aspect.

What’s your bio? Share in the comments (a fun or a serious one). Word limit: 50 words.

It. One tiny word, one giant source of confusion. 🦩

All the sentences below (written by students) contain the same mistake: "it" is used in different meanings and/or to refer to different nouns inside one sentence. Don't do that. And offer your rewrites in the comments.

1️⃣ "The development of such infrastructure is, however, of paramount importance as without it it might be challenging for individuals to have an active lifestyle."

2️⃣ "ChatGPT might make some jobs obsolete. Even more worrisome is the effect it can have on students' understanding of the topics, making it shallow and insufficient."

3️⃣ "Some believe that it is the government’s responsibility to address this crisis as it has the power to influence people’s behavior by introducing new laws and regulations." *

* The last sentence also contains an "implied antecedent" mistake. Find out more here: https://news.1rj.ru/str/irinalutsenko/317

#IELTS #ieltswriting #ieltswritingtask2

IELTS Writing Task 1 Overviews Sprint: 10 days, 10 overviews

It's plain and simple: Join the sprint to write one overview a day for 10 days. Every day, you will get one IELTS Writing Task 1. Within the next 24 hours, you have to write your overview. Then you get mine to compare and the next task.

Dates: 12-23 June
Start: 12 June, 10 pm Moscow time
Place: Telegram chat, no real time meetings
Price: free
Feedback: no individual feedback
Important:
- This sprint will feature tasks with figures only.
- If you don't write by the deadline, you have to leave.
- If you don't write, but don't want to leave, no worries - you can stay if you pay a fine of 1,000 RUB (for each instance of not writing an overview).
- Deadline: 10 pm Moscow time every day.

How to join:

To join, write an overview for the attached task in the comments (use the "spoiler" feature on Telegram). Then message me to confirm @iraluts. 💌

When you message me, please introduce yourself properly. My name is Irina Lutsenko - I want to know yours. Nameless subscribers and people with nicknames or aliases won't be admitted. 🌷

We're off to the races! Stay tuned for the next sprint in July! 🏃‍♀️

#IELTS #ieltswriting #ieltswritingtask1

💌 IELTS General Training Task 1 💌

The town council has announced the plan for a new cinema (movie theater) in your town. They have called for opinions on this. Write a letter to your town council. In your letter,

- Suggest a location for the cinema
- Suggest what kind of movie the cinema should show
- Explain what effect a new cinema will have on the town.

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Irina Lutsenko, and I am writing in response to the call to share opinions on the plan to build a new movie theater in New Haven.

Regarding the location, I believe the best one would be right in the center, near New Haven Commons. This location would make getting to the movie theater convenient for everyone. Additionally, there is now an empty building which used to be a store and which closed down during the pandemic. Placing a movie theater there would be a good idea as the building would finally be put to good use.

Given that New Haven is a university town, with Yale and the University of New Haven located in it and NorthEastern within a ten-minute drive, I think the movie theater should offer a range of art-house and independent movies. Students tend to dislike Hollywood blockbusters, giving preference to content that gives food for thought.

Finally, I am convinced that a new movie theater will give the town a new, much-needed life. Barely out of the pandemic, people – and students in particular – are eager to go out. If they have a place to do so, the town will get its vibrant, lively atmosphere back, one it used to be famous for.

Thank you for considering my opinion.

Yours faithfully,
Irina Lutsenko

8.5+

#Irina_writes_IELTS
#ieltswriting

Coherence and cohesion - the cornerstone of any IELTS essay 🦩

Flaws in CC can be hard to notice.

To help my students practice this skill, I sometimes create the following exercise for them: I take a good paragraph I wrote, disrupt CC in it, ask students to identify the flaws, and, finally, invite them to rewrite the paragraph.

Try walking in my students' shoes.

📝 Topic: "In many countries, people are now living longer than ever before. Some people say an ageing population creates problems for governments. Other people think there are benefits if society has more elderly people. To what extent do the advantages of having an ageing population outweigh the disadvantages?"

Body paragraph 1: the flawed version

"It cannot be denied that large elderly populations put a strain on different state institutions, for example, the pension fund. Thus, younger populations have to experience a significant burden as taxes are raised for them. On top of this drawback is another one – the pension fund might have to be replenished by using the money allocated to other purposes. Yet another downside is the healthcare system as budget allocations and personnel have to be supported additionally. Aging populations thus exert a burden on those in other age groups, albeit indirectly."

Body paragraph 1: the original, with CC in place

"It cannot be denied that large elderly populations put a strain on different state institutions. One such institution is the pension fund, which has to be replenished either by using the money allocated to other purposes or by raising taxes for the younger populations. Another is the healthcare system as it has to be provided additional support both in terms of budget allocation and personnel. Aging populations thus exert a burden on those in other age groups, albeit indirectly."

Did you notice all the flaws? Was it easy?

#IELTS #ieltswriting

Titles speak louder than posts

Coming up with a memorable post noscript is no mean feat. One technique you can use is taking an existing idiom or proverb and changing it to fit topic of the text. The technique also works for taglines and sentences you want to be memorable just because.

It's a lot of fun too. Look at what my students and I came up with while practicing the skill:

1️⃣ Commas speak louder than words – and dashes speak even louder than commas. (This one is mine. I am so very proud of it.)

2️⃣ The cake is always sweeter on the other plate. (Vera)

3️⃣ A chat with your bestie a day keeps a therapist away. (Valentyna)

And some variations of "I came. I saw. I conquered." from an essay writing class:

- I cried. I thought. I wrote.
- I came. I wrote. I erased.
- I wrote. I cried. I erased.

Your turn. Take one of the proverbs below and change it to create a memorable noscript or tagline. Try to keep the original rhythm.

- The grass is always greener on the other side
- An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
- Rome wasn’t built in a day.
- When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
- Actions speak louder than words.

Share in the comments. 📝