Essay writing: Module C “Conflicting Perspectives” – the introduction

Any guide to essay writing will tell you what an introduction should do. For example:
What is an introduction paragraph?
The introduction paragraph is the first paragraph of your essay.
What does it do?
It introduces the main idea of your essay. A good opening paragraph captures the interest of your reader and tells why your [...]

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Good academic writing source for seniors and university students

In answering a recent comment I found the following site from Monash University. It is very good.

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ESL for Law and Accountancy: ideas and help wanted

I currently have a student enrolled in a tertiary course in Accountancy. Now let’s be frank here: this takes me beyond my usual comfort zone as an English teacher. Do any of you out there have any suggestions for resources, or any ideas at all?
I have found the following:
1. At a very introductory level, but [...]

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Indirect or reported questions

A student the other day made a series of mistakes in his writing, things like:

My father asked me what sport will I like…
I wanted to know will you go out with me…

What is happening here is that the grammar of direct questions, the actual words someone would have said, is being mixed in with a [...]

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More on Journeys

That post on Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems has now had 2,743 individual visits. I thought I would share how I approach teaching this unit, keeping in mind it is not the only approach that would work.
First, I would have a study of the set poems for their own sake, almost (but not quite) ignoring [...]

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Good question: are fractions and decimals singular or plural?

Over on Old Teachers Never Die… a couple of weeks ago Antony Shen asked:
Speaking of “subject-verb agreement”. I hope you don’t mind answering me a simple question (not directly related). With countable nouns, in scientific styled sentences, do you say “0.1 apple” or “0.1 apples“? (as in zero point two rather than one fifth of an [...]

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Here’s what you’ve said

Thanks for 46,000 hits on this blog, bots and my own visits not counted, since starting in December 2006.
Thanks to all who contributed to the polls that have been in the side bar. There’ll be a fresh one later on.

If either of those appeals to you, express your view as a comment on this [...]

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An essay in progress: HSC Module A — "Brave New World" and "Blade Runner"

INTRODUCTION
This has now joined the other workshops on the pages here.
Hi I’ve written an incomplete essay on Brave New World and blade runner. Can you just read it and see if it’s going to the right direction and also what else can I write about?
Topic
Imagine you have interviewed the composers of the TWO prescribed texts [...]

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New writing workshop for HSC Module B

I have just worked an essay one of my coachees submitted a week or two ago. It is on Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, a novel many praise. It has even been turned into a noted stage production. “Simply awesome. Cloudstreet is a winner from beginning to end…something native, new, vast and unforgettable.” The Sydney Morning [...]

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Arthur Miller and The Crucible

I have some students from China now studying this play in Year 11 in Australia. This is interesting, as Arthur Miller has actually written about how the play was received in China. For example, in 2002 there was a new production in New York directed by British director Richard Eyre, a review of which you [...]

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