Instructions for an assignment

Listen to a university teacher giving instructions for an assignment to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

I want to explain a few things about your essay.

First of all, the deadline. The deadline for this essay is October the 18th. Not the 19th, not the 28th, not two days later because your dog was ill or your computer broke – the 18th. If it's late, I won't mark it. I won't even read it – you'll fail the assignment! So, please hand it in on time. You can even hand it in early, if you like!

You can email me the essays at j.hartshorn@lmu.ac.uk. That's H-A-R-T-S-H-O-R-N. I'll reply to say I've got it. If I don't reply within a day, it might mean I didn't get it, so please email me again to make sure. You can also bring a paper copy of the essay to my office, but let's be kind to the trees, OK? Email is better for the trees and for me.

Don't forget that you must reference every idea or quote you use that isn't your own idea. And the last page of your essay should be a list of all the books you used, in alphabetical order, not in the order you used them!

And lastly, make it easy for me to read! That means use a clear font. Arial is best, but Times New Roman is fine too. Not Comic Sans please! Size 12 font for the essay, and size 14 for the titles and subheadings. And use page numbers. Any questions?

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

What do you find difficult about writing essays?

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Worksheet78.64 KB

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Language level

A2 Pre-intermediate

The difficult things in writing an essay are how to develop an idea and how to arrange a matching word.

If I am writing an essay in English , so the most difficult thing is the vocabulary.

For me, gathering information from scientific sources and writing in English are more difficult than other problems. Secondly, I have a lot of difficulty in learning new vocabulary. There are many synonyms with little differences and it takes a lot of time to learn them. I work 12 hours everyday and when I arrive home I don't have enough energy to practice all my English skills.

I'm Italian and therefore, about writing essays in English, I find difficult to translate the way of expressing myself in a language much more simple as English.

Ahh.... By the time I hear his instruction, I would have been sleeping, cuz his tone of voice sounds like a cradle song...! Sorry, professor!

I need tutoring on writing academic essays.

Hello Lexzy22 There are several essays in our Writing skills section: - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/upper-intermediate-b2-writing/opinion-essay - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/advanced-c1-writing/essay-about-women-science - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/advanced-c1-writing/opinion-essay We also have a section on writing academic English in general (https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/writing-purpose/writing-purpose). I hope you can find something useful on one or more of those pages! All the best Kirk The LearnEnglish Team

Be honest,to begin with,I am bad at English,i have been learning English for 8months,believe me,I put stern efforts into my English,but I am still bad . Subsequently,simultaneously I try to improve my all parts in English,so i need your help,pls how to advance your English,every part is the same ...Writing Essay is my major problem in English,due to the fact that sometimes I even can't understand the meaning of the topic,and it is really arduous to express my ideas about broad and difficult topics..And sometimes,I do not have lots of information about topics,even in my native language,i do not write in English ,nor do I write in my own one..It really undermines my all passion about learning this majestic language..Hope that I will be given advice ..Sincerely yours,Reshad from Azerbaijan..

Hello Reshad, Many people find it hard to see their progress when they are learning a language. However, if you have been learning for only 8 months then I think you are making impressive progress as your comment was clear and easy for me to understand. You might find it useful to take our online test to assess your level: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/content One you have done that, you can use our search too to find content at the right level and on the right topics or skills. The search tool is on the same page as the level test - just scroll down a little. ~ You might also take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions page: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/frequently-asked-questions On that page you'll find answers to many questions which many learners have, including how writing can be improved. Good luck! ~ Peter The LearnEnglish Team