Common Mistake: Swinging for the Fences with Your Vocabulary - Life Cycle of a Big Fish Named Salmon

Pictorial presentations? Aquatic medium?

Discuss Both Views - Another Example of Not Addressing all Parts of the Question

I knew this would likely be missing from the answer when I read the question.

I said I wasn't going to explain how to do Task 1, and then did.

 A question like this one is dangerous because it contains just enough information that it is possible to describe all of it. Is that a good idea? Ask the 800 pound gorilla.

Back to Brazil! Every Part of the Question is Important!

Back to Clara and Belo Horizonte.

Even if you write a well-written essay, you need to remember to include all parts of the question in your answer.

A Task 1 Entry from the 9/9/6 club.

I use this term "9/9/6" club to refer to candidates who score highly in reading and listening, but below a 7 in writing.

We can see why.

Why use this "Some People Believe" nonsense if it is your belief too?

If I were asked my opinion on an issue and presented two views on that issue, if I agreed with one of them, I would simply STATE that opinion and ignore this 'some people' nonsense. 

Phallic Island - One of the Classic Two Maps from Cambridge IELTS

Even though I've assigned this task to my students many times, I think this is the first video review of someone on Facebook.

I'm sorry, neither the report nor the commentary is all that coherent, but I'm catching up on a month's worth of reviews I haven't archived here at the Temple.

Should you Take the Unpopular Side of a Discussion? YES!

I decided I wanted to write a task two tonight after reading the question that you see below.

As it turns out, I actually misread the question. Initially, I thought it was asking should

we be concerned about this? When actually it says “why should we be concerned about

this?” Well, as you'll see in my response, I question the question itself, which on the

whole, is not a wise thing to do in the IELTS writing paper. 

See, I have noticed a growing number of questions appearing that seemingly are

answerable on one side only -  that is, 95-99% of respondents are going to answer it

Brazilian? I would have though this from a native English speaker.

The second of the two videos from the previous blog post was from a writer in Brazil by the name of Carvalho, and it was the first time I'd reviewed an essay from that country.  There was a second Brazilian, also named Carvalho, in the queue of essay waiting marking, so I felt obliged to review hers too.

THe lack of grammar and vocabulary errors are similar to what one might see from an NES. However, that doesn't assure a good score on  the IELTS. See this video to hear why.

Anyways, the only problem with this essay is plain bad ideas.

Too Busy With Work Assignments, RL Teaching and your Ukulele to Speak the Word of IELTS?

At work, I've started up a company website, designed new recognition programs for our best students, overseen losts of changes and problems, but...

It's been the ukulele more than anything else that's then taking up my time. I love playing music , and I've got some new toys to help me process these weird numbers I come up with. Consequently, I haven't been doing much volunteer essay correction. It's sort of low on my list of personal priorities right now.