College application essay makeover
I came across this personal statement on the website of a mainland college prep agency that specializes in writing such documents on behalf of university applicants. Since the company displayed the piece to give prospective clients an idea of what they can offer, they must have thought of it as well-written. I found it severely…
英國升中試的閱讀理解到底有多難？
“我有個朋友，兩個兒子的母親，她老公是英國人，家裏說英語，孩子們在Harrow International School讀書，按理說英文應沒問題？但他們去考11 Plus ，也沒法駕馭英文卷裏的閱讀理解!” 有學生家長曾跟我說。
My daughter can’t figure out what’s in the picture. I can’t either.“
“My daughter can’t figure out what’s in the picture. I can’t either. Can you you teach her how to write an essay when pictures like this appear in exams? Thank you” 前幾天，一個女兒在英國就讀Year 5的家長，跟我吐槽女兒Mock Exam裏的一條看圖作文題目有多難。 英國中小學給學生發的看圖作文題目我接觸過不少，的確，那條學生家長也難倒的題目, 可能是我見過的看圖作文題目裏最難的: 這麽沒有 meaning 的圖片，怎樣write a story based on it? 我建議可以好好運用聯想力。圖片中的少男，讓我想起我曾經的住所的附近，傍晚經常能看到少男們展示滑板花式，估計這個年紀的男孩喜歡通過展示體能確立自我。他脚下的木條讓我想起我小時候到泰國旅行觀賞的bamboo dance。另外，我注意到少男的背後毫無人烟，所以我可以把故事設在清晨。 Below is my response to the question： Finally, all…
寫 narrative essay 的竅門
英國學校有時求學生寫narrative essays, 而經常出現的narrative essay topics之一是游記。 下面這篇來自Year 6 學生的游記， 犯了典型的錯 – 把旅游當天的所見所聞平鋪直敘地說一遍就了事。所以縱使學生grammar和 setence structure方面掌握得不錯，要確保能拿到高分，最好還加插旅途中的心靈體會。我的rewrite 演示了如何這麽做。 My day at the Lake District Student The clear blue sky was filled with pigeons, a peaceful sight for me to behold as the boat I was in swung me back and forth. A gentle freeze blew in my face. When I went…
如何應付Eleven Plus英文卷的寫作部分
在英國，有讀小學的孩子的香港家長，都不會對Eleven Plus 考試陌生（簡單來説，要入讀英國的頂尖公立中學和私校，就必須在11-12嵗期間,拿到優秀的Eleven Plus成績）。對在香港長大的學生來説，Eleven Plus 英文卷的困難程度，可以用以下幾張圖表達.
Navigating narrative writing
When I began to write professionally several years ago, the type of writing I dreaded the most was the one that seemed the easiest at first glance: narrative writing. How tricky could narrative writing be, you might ask. After all, in our everyday conversations, we constantly recount happenings to others, and we do so effortlessly…
Writing aid for the argumentative essay
Ask any secondary school student to name the English assignment they hate the most, and they are most likely to say “the argumentative essay.” Indeed, the strain of having to fake interest in arguing for or against a topic is soul-sapping enough. The fact that this form of writing is difficult to master alienates students…
Two responses to a DSE English essay topic
In the early 1980s, when the Chinese Communist Party permitted overseas Chinese to set foot in their homeland again, Cecilia Chiang made her way from the US to her native city of Beijing: in the intervening decades, while being abroad she had reinvented herself as a restauranter and leading proponent of Chinese cuisine; she was…
Go off-topic in a writing exam and lose marks
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 to mind. They tend to include even more irrelevant material when they are working under the time pressure of an exam: with adrenaline…
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 already know? Keep weighing and questioning, and over time, you’ll develop a sense of what’s good. Below is a “wine-tasting” exercise, consisting of…
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 to stop procrastinating” 1. Certainly, every person has bad habits. Some people may be in the habit of speaking rudely; some tend to…
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 she was given: “The best way to understand the true nature of society is to study its dominant trends in art, music and…
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 routinely assign. It’s not exactly their fault: students have to tackle this kind of writing questions in public exams, so teachers have to…
Come Write Like Michelle 