🦋 We'll burn that bridge when we come to it...

Yes, burn. This mix of idioms is bound to make your reader smile and jazz up your text - whether that be a CPE article or a blog post.

To learn to put some humor into your writing, why don't you join our Writing Incubator workshop this Sunday?

🦋 "Writing Incubator" is a series of workshops by stellar professionals who love writing. Please welcome our fourth workshop of the season: "Humor in Writing: Next Level" by Evgenia Karabatova

In this workshop, you'll practice some devices that will help you weave humor into your narrative so seamlessly that readers laugh without quite knowing why.

The humor isn’t magic — it’s craft. And you’re absolutely ready to master it.

📅 23 November, Sunday, 11:00 am MSK, Zoom

💌 The workshop is free. To join, message me @iraluts with a meaningful ending to this comment, "Wow, I can't miss this one! I'd love to join because ... ."

❗️ Please note that this is a workshop, not a webinar or a lecture. If you join, you have to write. "Ghosts" will be kicked out. We don't record our workshops, so it's a safe space to participate.

🦋 Writing Incubator - where writing skills hatch 🦋

My #IELTS Writing Task 1 sample answer 🐸

When I first saw this task, I thought someone misreported it. But then I saw it again - and decided to write.

One problem I see is that there is little information. My first version was basically over after the overview. Another problem is that it's not exactly clear what to compare.

Anyway, here is the 233 words I managed to produce. (It seems I was playing a game "Write more words").

"The diagram shows the fire evacuation plan for the second floor of a student residence hall. The floor has seven bedrooms and two emergency exits with staircases leading to two different meeting points outside. The exit routes, however, are not evenly distributed: one is reserved for three rooms and has a more spacious access area, while the other will have to accommodate occupants from four rooms in a smaller space.

The first staircase, leading to Meeting point 1, is close to bedrooms 1-3, with rooms 1 and 2 adjacent to each other and room 3 on the opposite side. The doors of all three rooms are a short distance from the exit, which ensures that all occupants can reach the staircase quickly. In addition, this exit access area is spacious as there is an empty space the size of a room proximate to the staircase.

The staircase leading to Meeting Point 2 is designated for bedrooms 4-7, all adjoining each other, with rooms 4-5 located fairly close to it and rooms 6-7 further down the corridor. In front of the exit is an elevator; as it must not be used during a fire, its occupants will have to leave it and evacuate via the stairs. Given the potentially larger number of evacuees and the position of the elevator, this evacuation path is likely to be more crowded in the event of a fire."

Let me know what you think.

🐸 https://news.1rj.ru/str/irinalutsenko

#Irina_writes_IELTS #ieltswritingtask1

To praise or not to praise?

A lot has been said about AI, but I am facing one dilemma no one else is talking about. 

Praise. 

With the advent of AI, I've been getting more and more impeccable or near-impeccable #IELTS essays. I understand they might not be AI-generated. They might be AI-enhanced. But they are still not original student's work. 

So how do I praise the student or the essay?

In the past, I might have said something like, "You really did a great job this time. I like the way you ... ." 

I can no longer say that. I cannot say, "You did a great job."  Who is that "you" that did a great job? 

At present, I refrain from praising any writing that has a distinct AI smell. 

Talk to me. ❤️

IELTS Writing Task 1: articles with category nouns 📊

In #IELTS writing Task 1 pictures, you see ordinary nouns without any articles. This is because these nouns are just diagram labels, not parts of full, grammatical sentences.

When you write your answer in full sentences, you must treat these diagram label nouns as usual nouns and use articles accordingly.

❌ This is wrong: "Only 10% of water was used in garden," or "Less water was used by industrial sector."

A singular countable noun must have an article - or be turned into a plural noun.

✅ Fixes: "Only 10% of water was used in gardens," or "Less water was used by the industrial sector."

I know this sounds very basic, but even high level students make this mistake. Make sure to proofread your answer for missing articles.

#IELTS Writing Task 2: boosting your lexical resource for a "work hard" topic

Topic: "In education and employment, some people work harder than others. Why do some people work harder than others? Is it always a good thing to work hard?"

Sometimes you might have great ideas, but you get stuck at the key word and produce a paragraph repeating "hard work" 100 times, like:

1️⃣

I personally believe it is usually good to work harder than others. First and foremost, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it is only hard work that results in outstanding achievements, giving the person a competitive advantage. In education, for example, hard-working students are more likely to get admitted to prestigious universities, while in the workplace, it is hard-working employees that usually get promotions and performance bonuses. Admittedly, there are situations when hard work does not lead to the desired success, whether it be due to blatant injustice or unfortunate circumstances. Even so, the person still benefits by acquiring valuable skills, building resilience, or earning a good reputation.

Let's try to boost the lexis in this essay now. Here is my original paragraph. Pay attention to how I substituted "hard work."

2️⃣

I personally believe it is usually good to expend effort and work more diligently than others. First and foremost, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it is only sustained effort that results in outstanding achievements, giving the person a competitive advantage. In education, for example, industrious students are more likely to get admitted to prestigious universities, while in the workplace, it is industrious employees that usually get promotions and performance bonuses. Admittedly, there are situations when a strong work ethic does not lead to the desired success, whether it be due to blatant injustice or unfortunate circumstances. Even so, the person still benefits by acquiring valuable skills, building resilience, or earning a good reputation.

❤️ Finally, here is my list of lexical items that will help you boost your lexical resource on the topic of hard work:

- industrious, industriousness, industry
- work ethic, demonstrate a strong work ethic
- they exert considerable effort
- they expend effort
- sustained effort
- work tirelessly
- diligence, diligent, those who apply themselves diligently
- persevere / perseverance
- effortful, arduous activity

And two essays on this topic by me (as well as many other IELTS answers) are available behind the paywall.

#ieltswritingtask2 #Irina_writes_IELTS

#IELTS Writing Task 1: "Other"

If you've seen enough IELTS tasks, you'll know the pesky "other" category is very common. Why pesky? Because sometimes it's hard to weave it into the sentence smoothly.

Sentences like "The category "other" showed no change" might be correct, but they don't show much skill.

Different solutions are possible, but here are two important things to do:

1️⃣ See if you can use a shell noun: other what? Other regions, other purposes, other uses, other reasons etc. This will probably allow you to have a better sentence structure.

2️⃣ It must be clear that you mean "other than the listed categories." Typically, "other" is the smallest and the last category - but not always!

Here is my sentence for the task in the picture.

"The government was responsible for 6% of water used, while the remaining purposes (unspecified and grouped together under “other”) accounted for a mere 3% of water consumption."

And here are some sentences from other answers:

1️⃣ "Finally, when it comes to smallest volumes, Africa’s use makes up 3.35%, and that in the other regions around 2.5%." (Here, "other" can be smoothly woven into the sentence as the last region in the task.)

2️⃣ "The remaining shares are significantly smaller: 18% come from unspecified regions and a further 10% from Asia." (Here, "other" wouldn't work because it's not the last category. So I resorted to "unspecified.')

Any other ways? Share in the comments. ⬇️

This post is an answer to a question from a subscriber. I like good questions. ❤️

#Duolingo English Test

🦋 Please welcome our fifth and last Writing Incubator workshop of the season: "Writing for Duolingo English Test" by Maria Botina (Duolingo 160 out of 160!!!)

What can possibly you do in terms of writing in a 60 minute exam where writing takes 1, 3, 5 minutes? How does one get ready for that? If the whole exam is online, can you even take notes, make a plan?

This is what we’re going to go over in our workshop. We’re going to discuss:

- Types of writing at the Duolingo English test

- How to work with unfamiliar tasks with a huge time crunch

- Best practices and criteria for each question type

And … actually practice! We will write some tasks from Duolingo right there in the workshop!

📅 14 December, Sunday, 11:00 am Moscow time, on Zoom

💌 The workshop is free. To join, message me @iraluts with a meaningful ending to this comment, "Wow, I can't miss this one! I'd love to join because ... ."

❗️ Please note that this is a workshop, not a webinar or a lecture. If you join, you have to write. "Ghosts" will be kicked out. We don't record our workshops, so this is a safe space to participate.

🦋 Writing Incubator - where writing skills hatch 🦋

I tried my hand at #Duolingo writing

This test might seem like a joke compared to #IELTS, but the time constraints are no joke at all.

⛸ The prompt:

"Writing is a tool for many, used for self-expression, interpersonal communication, or professional achievements. When do individuals choose to write, and what motivates them? Explore what aspects of writing they might enjoy, and identify the challenges they often encounter during the process."

⛸ Timing: 5 minutes (for crying out loud!)

⛸ My answer (as is, with typos):

"People might choose to write in a variety of situation, with the most common one, probably, being the urgent need to share or to discuss whatever is bothering or inspiring them. Writing might be a better choice for this as it allows the person to take time to analyze and explore the issue, which is in stark contrast to the spontaneous nature of speaking. In my opinion, the time to think is ecatly the reason people find writing a more appropriate – and more enjoyable – activity. There is less pressure to rush or to finish. This, however, brings with it a hidden challenge: the danger of never finalizing the piece. Interestingly, on the opposite side of this danger is another probelm writers often face: the fear of the blank page."

129 words

Judging by this, I would be able to write a 387-word IELTS essay in 15 minutes... But would I? Besides, what I wrote for Duolingo wouldn't cut it in IELTS. But then again, I would have time to edit...

Anyways, it was fun to try something new. Have you taken Duolingo English Test? How was it? Do you think it can replace IELTS or TOEFL?

This might be the most challenging #IELTS essay topic ever:

Throughout history, people have dreamed of living in a perfect society, but they have not agreed on what an ideal society would be like. What do you think is the most important element of a perfect society in the modern world? How can people work towards achieving an ideal society?

What would you write? Do the quiz below to see the element I wrote about. Vote for what you would write, and the "correct" answer is my answer.

In fact, topics like this are only hard when you see them for the first time. If you see them in advance, you can prepare: work with your teacher, read other people's answers, talk to chatgpt, memorize some lexis. I've written my essay, so I'm ready. ✅

#ieltswritingtask2

My C2 Proficiency (aka #CPE) essay 🐸

I don't often write for C2 Proficiency, but this topic is interesting to me on a personal level. Besides, I wrote an IELTS essay on a similar topic, so I was curious to write a CPE one too and compare.

(I am not sharing the input texts because there would be too much text for a Telegram post.)

"It is often said that laziness is the driver of progress. Yet, laziness is not encouraged, while hard work, industriousness, and perseverance are. Why do we value effort? Is it always a good idea to reinforce industry and diligence?   

Contrary to popular belief, humans are not intrinsically lazy creatures seeking to avoid expending effort when possible. In fact, people often opt for a more challenging task because what was effortful to achieve seems inherently valuable, so much so that people take unreasonable pride in poor outcomes. Yet, this innate human trait can be tapped into in order to cultivate diligence: a person is more likely to persevere if what they are rewarded for is effort rather than the outcome. Particularly striking is that this phenomenon, known as learned industriousness, can help motivate the person to exert effort not just in one area of pursuit, but in many. 

While this idea might seem appealing and even inspiring on the surface, I believe that on a deeper level, it is limited, if not outright detrimental. My major objection is that we live in the world of outcomes: grades at school and KPIs in the workplace. By reinforcing effort, we might set the person up for failure as they might have to face not getting admitted to a university or not getting promoted – all despite lavish praise for all the effort that they expended. Another danger is that industry, if not channeled in the right direction, might be wasteful. For example, a gifted musician might spend years industriously pursuing mathematics and art at the expense of rest or developing their talent. If they neither enjoy this nor achieve outstanding results, they might wonder one day what all this effort was for – and not get a convincing answer.  

Therefore, I believe that focus on effort is very short-sighted, so focus on the outcome is still necessary. At the same time, rewarding effort and rewarding the outcome are not mutually exclusive. Combining both might be the best approach. After all, if we take unreasonable pride in a poor outcome just because of our all-out effort, the pride we take in an outstanding feat that we put effort in will be not just reasonable – it will be meaningful. 

To conclude, while there is value in reinforcing effort – industriousness is a highly desirable trait in life – I think we embraced it too readily. Excessive focus on effort to the detriment of outcomes is not a viable approach in education or in the workplace because it distorts the person’s perception of their own skills and needs. As is often the case, balance is the best approach."

🐸 This essay was written for my "Writing with New Scientist CPE track" group. More about the course: https://m.vk.com/product-47977221_5061302 

🐸 And here is the post about an IELTS essay on a similar topic: https://news.1rj.ru/str/irinalutsenko/623

#Irina_writes_cpe

January is a good time for creative projects and exam workshops. ⛄️

Mark your calendars for:

1️⃣ Creative Writing Club

Unleash your creativity, get more practice, and have fun writing in English!

Starts 11 January, 11:00 MSK

More: https://vk.com/market/product/creative-writing-47977221-1461432

2️⃣ "Small Stories Big Ideas": short story reading club

Discuss thought-provoking stories — and ask the writers themselves! The writers — participants of my Creative Writing Bootcamp — will be joining the sessions, so you'll be able to ask them about their stories, stylistic devices, and their writing process.

Starts 18 January, 12:00 MSK

More: https://vk.com/market/product/a-reading-club-47977221-6876490

3️⃣ #IELTS Writing Task 1 overviews

A workshop on writing overviews - the most important part of the IELTS Writing Task 1 answer.

10 January, 13:00 MSK

More: https://vk.com/market/product/ielts-writing-task-1-overviews-47977221-11113395

4️⃣ Teaching #IELTS writing with model answers

A workshop for IELTS instructors on how to make the most of IELTS model answers (both W1 and W2)

11 January, 13:00 MSK

More: https://vk.com/market/product/teaching-ielts-writing-47977221-5648169

5️⃣ Teaching writing for #Duolingo English Test

A workshop for Duolingo instructors to give you a clear understanding of what Duolingo English Test writing looks like and how to better prepare your students for it

24 January, 11:00 MSK

More: https://vk.com/market/product/teaching-writing-for-duolingo-english-test-47977221-11687384

⛄️ 💌 @iraluts

Did you start the year strong?

Share in the comments! ⛸⛸⛸