A large part of writing well has to do with knowing what not to write. This is much harder than it sounds: students who lack good training tend to write whatever comes […]
Go off-topic in a writing exam and lose marks
Michelle Ng
I'm Michelle Ng (吳若琦), an Oxford-educated bilingual political writer and English writing coach based in Hong Kong. I'm currently an English columnist for Ming Pao, and a Chinese columnist for 眾新聞. I have written for Hong Kong Free Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Vancouver Sun.
Hitting the high notes
At one point in her operatic career, Maria Callas became so portly that in a performance where she sang next to live elephants on stage – they were there as props – […]
Going beyond DSE English
The way I see it, developing an eye for good writing is a bit like wine-tasting. Taste this sample. What makes it work, and how does it compare with the samples you […]
Exam essay writing tips: how to use examples and quotations properly
The three-paragraph script below was written by a candidate who sat for her UKiset. To differentiate her text from mine, I’ve put her copy in italics. Exam writing topic: “It is important […]
Rescuing a near-hopeless IB English essay
A student who sat for her International Baccalaureate English exam wrote the following essay for its writing segment. For ease of reference, I’ve numbered the paragraphs in her piece. The writing topic […]
Scoring high on the argumentative essay
“You know the meaning of ‘dull as dishwater’?” I asked a writing student the other day. I was using “dull as dishwater” to characterize many of the argumentative essay topics English teachers […]
Teach writing by dancing up a storm
Among the things I revisit to maintain my sense of wonder is this one-minute video clip dating back to the1970s showing the choreographer Balanchine teaching the great dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov the role […]
Polishing Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng’s English
The letter was meant for the English-speaking world but it never saw the light of day there. Last month, after the Wall Street Journal published an editorial holding the Hong Kong courts […]
