Say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and then say more

How do you answer when your team leader asks if you know how to do something? Team leader Ben tells of his experience with a highly skilled migrant on his team. Read the text below while you listen to the first half of Ben’s description. Then listen to the second half and see how much [...]

 

Look at tenses

The story below comes from my local community newspaper and was written just after the 2011 Australian Open tennis final. In this task, we focus on verbs and tenses. Fill the gaps below with the correct form of the verbs ‘to be’, ‘to have’ and ‘to win’. Mothers can do anything Kim Clijsters put motherhood [...]

 

When to use ‘a’ and when to use ‘the’?

Articles: Decide whether to fill the gaps in the story below with either ‘a’ or ‘the’. Then read on and check your answers. Accident brings ducks luck Four ducklings orphaned after their mother caused a three-car accident on a Wellington motorway recently have been taken in by a local duck sanctuary. The four youngsters and [...]

 

Before you write…

Before you write, you usually need to speak and listen. To do most workplace writing tasks, you need to discuss and clarify the task before you begin. I’ve created a general workplace scenario below with a range of questions. Various questions may be useful to you, depending on your task and how complex it is. [...]

 

Become your own teacher

“OK. Practice is useful. But what if I keep making the same error each time I write?” What if you do? You’ve lost nothing. But you can try to improve by choosing one structure or phrase to focus on each time you write. If you know the rule or correct form for this structure, then [...]

 

Use it or lose it: Keep a writing journal

“I need to write in English for work. That’s hard enough. Why should I spend more time writing in English after work hours?” People often ask this question when I suggest that they keep a regular writing journal in English. My short answer is ‘practice’. Let’s assume that you have identified target phrases and sentence [...]