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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Language level

A2 Pre-intermediate

I am interested in the IELTS essay that structure coincides with university essays?

Hi SergeySSSS,

Yes, IELTS essays are similar to university essays in structure. Both types will start with some kind of introduction to the topic or argument, explain the topic or develop the argument in the body paragraphs, and finish with a conclusion which summarises the main ideas in the essay.

But, there will be differences as well. There are many ways and structures to write an essay. Which structure you use will depend on a lot of things, including what the topic is, what arguments you want to make, what source material you use, and what the instructor or university's requirements are. IELTS essays will also be much shorter than most essays for university.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello guys! How's it going? I think that to start a essay is very hard because is the introduction that will show if your essay will be good or not

There are a lot of difficulties that you will be faced when you decide to write an essay, especially if you are writing in a foreign language. The essay should be well structured, with separated paragraphs, the vocabulary should be huge with sophisticated words and we should follow the grammar rules. Also, the paragraphs should be related to each other without losing the meaning of the essay.

I agree with you and when you have a lot of knowledge about the topic you run the risk of the missing the point.

I found the preparation for a good essay outline is difficult. Because this is the step to collect all the best important ideas of the topic. In it, I will be able to give my essay a structure as well as detail any points which must be included in the final written piece of work.

When I write an essay, the difficulty is to think what to write. Sometimes, when l finish writing all the sentences I think of, the number of words doesn't get enough to meet the recommended number.

Dear team. From the lesson above: 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 question is: Why the university theacher use the 'past form' ?? (Your dog was ill....) . While he talk about 'the deadline' that refer to the future.

Hello fahri,

The speaker is thinking about an excuse that a student might give. The dog being ill would be before essay is handed in, so the speaker is imagining what the student might say: I'm sorry the essay is late but my dog was ill.

You can think of it as a form of implied reported speech:

The deadline for this essay is October the 18th. Not the 19th, not the 28th, not two days later because (you claim/say/tell me) your dog was ill or your computer broke.

The present form (because your dog is ill) would also be grammatically correct here.

Peter