Instructions for an assignment

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

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.3 (63 votes)

Hi Kaung Myat Zaw,

"Tree" is a noun. The teacher prefers to have the assignments digitally by email, not on paper. Since paper is made from trees, emailed assignments will use less paper, and protect the trees and the environment. That's why he says "let's be kind to the trees" - to encourage people not to use paper. As he says: "Email is better for the trees and for me."

I hope that helps to understand it.

Jonathan

LearnEnglish team

In this part of the speech the professor explains the importance of trees. If we use more pages then we are using more trees. So he advises students to use email to send their assignments and save the papers because papers are made from trees. I hope you understand.

Submitted by arizonova on Thu, 23/11/2023 - 07:26

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I don't have enough practice in writing essays nowadays. When I was at school, essays had a different structure and different requirements. That's why it's a little bit difficult for me to create essays.

Submitted by Bella-Happy on Tue, 24/10/2023 - 06:47

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I feel so grateful to know this amazing website where I can practice every time to enhance my English skills. Thanks so much.

Submitted by pikanov on Thu, 19/10/2023 - 04:35

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I love writing, and I like to follow the essay competition. Writing makes me recall and sharpen my memory. Write and write until the last because writing is anti-aging for me.

Submitted by Toan3002 on Mon, 16/10/2023 - 09:50

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"You still have to hand the essay in on time". As a matter of interest why in and on together? The examiner can explain it to me.
In my point of view, the most difficult section is developing ideas in the essay and correct grammar structure in English.

Hi Toan3002,

"In" is part of the phrasal verb "hand in", which means to submit a document for an official process. 

"On" is part of the time phrase "on time", which means "at the correct time" and "not late".

I hope that helps to understand it!

Jonathan

LearnEnglish team

Submitted by kenan.zero on Thu, 28/09/2023 - 17:46

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I want to write a straightforward, simple essay that anyone can understand. The simplicity and clearness of sentences is the most challenging thing for me. Today we have a lot of tools for writing and tech like AI. The fact that we can use it makes things much easier.

Submitted by AjengAmanatillah on Thu, 14/09/2023 - 02:34

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I still have difficulty finding sources to write essays and still have a bit of difficulty composing sentences, especially in English.

Submitted by kitalphar on Tue, 22/08/2023 - 14:36

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The ideas organization and the citations with APA norms, in general write is difficult