On marathons...

Please, please, please never ever call any of my projects "marathons" unless I do. 💔

I have never called any of my projects "marathons" and I ask, beg, implore that you do not either.

The word marathon has made its way into common parlance in education. Anything is a marathon. As a runner and a writer, I oppose this trend vehemently and vociferously because of the true meaning of the word.

So what is an actual marathon? It's a distance of 42.195 km. The average marathon time is 03:48 - it's 3 hours and 48 minutes of running non-stop! I run 25-27 km a week. The longest distance I have ever run in one go is 13 km. I don't know first-hand, but I can imagine how hard it is to run an actual marathon.

I therefore do not call any of my projects marathons - intentionally so.

My projects are courses, sprints, clubs, bootcamps, and workshops. These word choices are intentional too.

That said, I can actually see myself launching an educational marathon. But what would be an educational project commensurate with running a real marathon? Writing a 42,000-word novel? Writing one IELTS answer a day for 42 weeks or writing 42 IELTS answers non-stop? What else? 🏃‍♀️

I am thrilled to announce the summer season of my legendary Creative Writing Club! 🦋

It’s perfect for people who want to unleash their creativity and have fun writing in English.

🦋 Here is how it works:
- I prepare inspiring creative writing prompts and exercises;
- We meet on Zoom for some pre-writing practice;
- We write on our own over the following five days;
- We share and review each other’s works on a collaborative Google doc;
- We meet again, and the cycle is repeated.

🦋 The nuts and bolts:
- There will be four sessions meeting weekly on Sundays 7-28 July;
- The schedule is Sunday 10 am MSK. One session is around 45 minutes.
- Not participating in online sessions is OK as long as you keep in touch, write, and review other people’s work in time.
- If you join, you have to write one work and review one participant’s work every week.
- The project is free, but if you don’t write or review other people’s work by the deadline, you’ll have to leave.
- Our club chat is on Telegram.

🦋 If your creative juices are flowing and you are itching to participate, write a creative ending to the phrase "The pale pink sun rose over the city like ... " in the comments.

💌 Make sure you message me to confirm @iraluts. When you do, 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.

🌻 Here are two stories from the previous seasons:

- "Fixing starts with the tap" by Timur Khamzin https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/10/fixing-starts-with-tap.html

- "A tree, a home and a life. Split in half." by Svitlana Demchenko https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-tree-home-and-life-split-in-half.html

PS: This project is in no way helpful in IELTS prep. If anything, it might be detrimental. ‼️

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.

Start: 11 July, 9:45 am Moscow time
Place: Telegram chat, no real time meetings
Price: free
Feedback: no individual feedback
Important:
- This sprint will feature maps and floor plans 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: 9:45 am Moscow time every day.
- Limit: 50 participants

How to join:

To join, write an overview for the attached task in the comments, using the "spoiler" feature. 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.

PS: People who call this a marathon will break my heart and won't be admitted either. 💔

#IELTS #ieltswriting #ieltswritingtask1

Giving away three one-to-one consultations with me for free

Because I want to give back to the community 💜

For a chance to get a one-to-one consultation with me for free, just write a message to me explaining why you need it @iraluts.

In your message:

- Introduce yourself;
- Explain what kind of help you need and why you need it;
- Explain why you think I am the right person to help.

I will choose three people who I think I can help the most. 💜

Important:
- Word count limit: 100 words.
- Deadline for accepting applications: Tuesday, 16 July 13:00 Moscow time.
- Messages from anonymous subscribers or accounts with aliases will not be considered.
- Messages with sloppy formatting will not be considered.

📅 All meetings will take place on Zoom, on Thursday, 18 July, between 14:00 and 19:00 Moscow time (precise time to be decided together). One meeting is 50 minutes.

💜

Personification: a stylistic device that can yell, murmur, wink, and mock 🦋

Personification is the stylistic device we played with in my Creative Writing Club today. This device involves attributing human qualities to inanimate objects.

Here are some examples from our creative session:

🦋 The closed door ...

- The closed door was grinning at me, daring me to open it. (Ekaterina Kachalova)

- The closed door was winking at me with its keyholes as if trying to say "Don't give up, pal!" (Yuliya Gamza)

- The closed door was murmuring in low deep voice as if inviting her to approach and dare take a peek inside. (Evgenia Karabatova)

🦋 The morning cup of coffee …

- The morning cup of coffee was shouting at me angrily: "Wake up, you sleepy bastard. You're late!!" (Ekaterina Kachalova)

- The morning espresso slapped me right in the face. (Taisiya Voloshina)

- The morning cup of coffee waltzed with me through my morning routine. (Lana Gagaeva)

🦋 Your turn. Finish one of the beginnings with personification in the comments:

- The closed door was
- The morning cup of coffee …
- The essay …

Image by the wonderful Anna Skopina 💜

#creativewriting

🌻 My Creative Writing Club 🌻

The summer season of my Creative Writing Club has come to its inevitable end. And it was one of the best seasons ever. The participants were awesome and the engagement was off the charts! Look:

Our Google Doc is 129 pages or 52,966 words long! We have 579 active comments (and counting) - and I mean just Google comments in the special boxes on the right. Plus, there are hundreds of reactions in the forms of hearts and stars.

I want to give you a sneak peak of - and an opportunity to participate in - our last session, in which we studied some fancy stylistic devices.

1️⃣ Polysyndeton = repetition of conjunctions in close succession

For example: "I'm so sorry for missing the deadline for the writing - so much was happening to me, it's ridiculous! My brother's birthday party turned into a disaster, and then my dog suddenly had a puppy, and my best friend moved to Belgrade, and the rain kept pouring down, and my head was exploding... Anyway, I truly am sorry." (By Lana Gagaeva)

2️⃣ Zeugma = the use of a word to modify two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense

For example: "When he emigrated, he left his job, his apartment and his heart in Saint-Petersburg. He took a flight to New-York early in the morning, never to return, carrying only a small backpack and a dead weight in his soul." (By Anna Skopina)

Your turn. Write a comment about your love for writing - or the lack thereof - using polysyndeton or zeugma or both.

And stay tuned for the next season of my Creative Writing Club. It is free and will remain free because I want to give everyone an opportunity for a creative outlet in the company of like-minded writers. 💜

Image by the wonderful Anna Skopina 🌻

#creativewriting

Coherence and cohesion demystified.

It's plain and simple. This workshop on coherence and cohesion will feature:

- explanation of the difference between coherence and cohesion;
- a summary of most common cohesive devices and techniques (at least eight - yeah, it's not just adverbs or pronouns);
- examples of good and flawed or even non-existing CC;
- exercises and quizzes.

All examples will be based on my IELTS essays, but the fundamental principles are the same for essays in different exams.

📅 Schedule: Saturday, 3 August, 11:00-12:30 Moscow time

📌 Price: 1500 RUB

📍 Place: Zoom

💌 To sign up, dm me at @iraluts

❗️ You will get the pdf of the presentation, but there will be no recordings!

Why don't I record my sessions? ❓

If I decided to make a recording, I would have to ask you to mute yourself and switch off your video, or you would want to do that yourself. But I encourage participation and questions. I don't want to be a talking head, nor do I want to speak into silent black boxes on the screen. I want to be a real live person and expect the same in return. (And don't get me started on potential privacy concerns of the participants.)

#ielts #ieltswriting

Beyond thrilled to announce a joint webinar with Vladimir Pavlovich! 🎉

In our webinar "CPE & IELTS essays: Tips and Tricks," we will compare the skills tested in these international examinations and share model answers we have written for both exams.

The beauty part is you can tap into our expertise for free. Find out more and sign up using the link below. 💜

https://c2pavlovich.com/webinars/2

IELTS Writing Task 2: A really bad paragraph - but why?

One of the things I love doing to my model essays is ruining them to demonstrate a certain point.

And this is exactly what I did in our joint webinar "CPE vs. IELTS essays: Tips and Tricks." See if you can spot what's wrong.

📝 Topic: "Environmental problems should be solved by one international organization rather than each individual government. Do you agree or disagree?"

📝 Body paragraph 3:

"The third reason is that many serious problems affect parts of the Earth that do not belong to one particular country and therefore do not fall under the responsibility of one government. One vivid case in point to illustrate this paradigm is the plastic pollution in world oceans in the form of giant plastic chunks working in conjunction with microplastics having been found as deep as the Mariana hole. Another paragon of seriousness is the depletion of the ozone layer. Not only expecting one country to expend their resources on such major problems would be unfair as this would place an uncalled-for burden on it, but also it would divert the valuable resources from its other issues and priorities. Never will such problems be solved, in turn, if no country is tasked with solving such problems, albeit compounding them."

Which assessment criterion (or criteria) is/are a disaster: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy? Why?

Key: Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. There are A LOT OF awkward phrases there, both in terms of vocabulary and grammar.

#ielts #ieltswritingtask2 #ieltswriting

🌻 Fall 2024: new groups and good old ones 🌻

Click the links for details, schedules, and testimonials. Don't need a VK account to view.

🌻 Writing

1. IELTS writing
A long and thorough skill-building course. Several groups, different levels, tons of writing, tons of feedback.

https://vk.com/market-47977221?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. Different levels.

https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_5061302%2Fquery

3. Write for real: blogging, non-fiction, creative non-fiction
This course is about finding your voice and sharing your message in writing. To hell with exams - it’s time to write for real!

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

🌻 Speaking

Speaking with New Scientist (C1, 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. Very rich in lexis.

https://vk.com/market-47977221?w=product-47977221_5911089%2Fquery

🌻 General English, old groups

1. General English C1: Outcomes Advanced
Schedule: Tuesday 20:00-21:30 MSK

2. C2 Proficiency with New Scientist
A general English course based on articles from the New Scientist magazine with some CPE preparation (speaking and writing tasks). Flipped classroom.
Schedule: Friday 16:00-17:30 MSK.

All classes are taught in real time, on Zoom.

🌻 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 goals and 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 or IELTS-like essay.
3. We'll schedule an interview.

💌 @iraluts

PS: I also have secret groups. One student made a joke - there is a whole underworld of Irina's writing groups. It's not a joke. Very old and experienced students of mine can get admitted. 🦋

Coherence and cohesion demystified.

It's plain and simple. This workshop on coherence and cohesion will feature:

- explanation of the difference between coherence and cohesion;
- a summary of the most common cohesive devices and techniques (at least eight - yeah, it's not just adverbs or pronouns);
- examples of good and flawed or even non-existing CC;
- exercises and quizzes.

All examples will be based on my IELTS essays, but the fundamental principles are the same for essays in different exams.

📅  Wednesday, 28 August, 11:00-12:30 Moscow time

📌 Price: 1500 RUB

📍 Place: in real time on Zoom

💌 To sign up, dm me at @iraluts

❗ You will get the pdf of the presentation, but there will be no recordings!

Why don't I record my sessions? ❓

If I decided to make a recording, I would have to ask you to mute yourself and switch off your video, or you would want to do that yourself. But I encourage participation and questions. I don't want to be a talking head, nor do I want to speak into silent black boxes on the screen. I want to be a real live person and expect the same in return. (And don't get me started on potential privacy concerns of the participants.)

IELTS Writing Task 2: Task Response

To highlight a certain flaw to my students, I sometimes write two similar versions of the same paragraph and ask to identify the better one.

Here are two versions of the beginning of the first body paragraph on this topic: "The numbers of plants and animals is decreasing in most countries. Why is this happening? What can be done about it?" 🐼

Which has better Task Response? Why? ❓

1️⃣ "Both reasons for this development stem from human activities. The first one is that as the population of the planet grows, people increasingly encroach on territories where wildlife lives. They do so for a range of purposes, from construction and expansion of cities to clearing the land for farming and agriculture."

2️⃣ "Both reasons for this development stem from human activities. The first one is that as the population of the planet grows, people increasingly encroach on territories where wildlife lives. They do so because they have to invade plant and animal habitats and since the number of people is high, it, in essence, replaces biodiversity."

Key: The first version has better Task Response because it develops the previous idea by introducing purposes (= something new). The second version simply repeats the previous sentence in different words.

Don't confuse repetition of ideas and development of ideas.

How would you develop the idea further? What would be your next sentence? Share in the comments. 📝

#ieltswriting #ieltswritingtask2

Speaking with New Scientist - my speaking course based on articles from the "New Scientist" magazine

I don't teach a lot of speaking courses (my passion for writing is well-documented). But I do have a couple of groups - we can get a respite from writing, while still discussing deep, thought-provoking, IELTS-y topics.

📝 The course is very rich in language too. To wit, here is a typical worksheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tqn0xkQ38AtbiixHA9hHSfrHvMPT3P16IDOwOuSBSjQ/edit

Schedules, testimonials, and other details at (you don't need an account to view): https://vk.com/market/product/speaking-with-new-scientist-47977221-5911089

💌 @iraluts

Patterns and sentence structures 📝

I am a huge fan of patterns and sentence structures that sound awesome and complex, but also natural and unique - not as if they were taken from a grammar section in a text book.

Here are some sentences like this from the "New Scientist" magazine:

1️⃣ "Right now, garment workers, as well as being underpaid and overexploited, are also producing an inefficient and downright bonkers amount of clothing." (as well as + ing)

2️⃣ "You might want to control any malicious feelings of envy you have and cultivate benign envy, so that another person’s success motivates you to achieve more rather than making you try to undermine them." (rather than + ing)

3️⃣ "Left unchecked, loneliness can have a physiological impact as detrimental to longevity as smoking or obesity." (reduced clause - left unchecked)

4️⃣ "More surprising is the fact that as the country has ascended to the top of the well-being charts, its economic development has remained remarkably flat." (inverted word order: more + adjective + is + subject)

5️⃣ "If pills aren’t necessarily the answer for people with insomnia, neither are overly simplistic behavioural interventions." (If + negative + neither.)

These sentences can almost go straight into your IELTS essay, can't they? 💜

My view on writing is that it is such sentences that give your answer beautiful complexity, unlike, say, the infamous inversion.

If these are the types of sentences you want to use in your writing, join my my "Writing with New Scientist" course. It's a writing course based on articles from the New Scientist magazine and geared towards IELTS, but with much less pressure and much less format than in a traditional IELTS writing course.

Find out more in the product denoscription below (you don't need an account to view):

https://vk.com/market/product/writing-with-new-scientist-47977221-5061302

💌 @iraluts