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?

Download

Worksheet78.64 KB

Try another listening

Language level

A2 Pre-intermediate

Dear team. From the lesson above. If it's late, I won't mark it. I won't even read it – you'll fail the assignment! 'won't' it's mean 'will not'. But the foreign people like me, 'won't' and 'want' is similar in sound. So, sometime we confuse with 'I won't mark it' and 'I want mark it' . Similar in sound but very different meaning. Thank you for your explanation for me

Hi fahri, To help hear the difference, listen out for the word 'to' after 'want'. - I want to mark it. - I won't mark it. Only 'want' is followed by 'to'. There's no 'to' after 'won't'. Best wishes, Jonathan The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you very much sir. The answer is really help me. I am glad for it.

Dear team. From the audio above. 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. 'trees' is it mean 'plants' or anything else??? Thank you very much for your attention and answer.

Hello fahri,

In this context, 'trees' is used to represent 'the environment'. This is an example of the rhetorical device called Synecdoche:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you very much sir

I think it hard to write out by word what you want to say so I don't know how to write a good essay

Once I finish brain storming, I think I can start writing. ;)

I find ordering and connecting sentences on writing essays. I also have problems with choosing stylistic words.

I think I always difficult to write an essay. You have to read lots of books or spend a lot of time searching on the Internet for needed information. Then you have to connect all these pieces of text in one plus add some thought of your own and don't forget about quotes and references. And check your essay a couple of times and recheck in again, format it and don't forget about the deadline. Telling the truth, I've never been good at essays in my school or university days. I often found this work quite boring.