Irina Lutsenko: IELTS, writing, cohesion

Recent exam. My answer is available here: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/551

How long does it take you to decide whether to keep reading a book or to put it down? 📚 Not long, I bet. Just like meeting a person for the first time, we tend to judge stories in the first moments of our encounter, meaning by the end of the opening line, if not the first paragraph. But how do you write a great opening paragraph? To find out, join our "Writing Incubator" workshop "Writing an engaging intro to your story by Elizaveta Zanozina" this Sunday! 🦋 “Writing Incubator” is a series of workshops by stellar professionals who love writing. This is our final workshop of the season. In this workshop, we'll explore what makes an opening paragraph truly engaging. We'll read and dissect examples of memorable story openings, including your own favorites, unpack the craft behind what makes them work, and then try our hand at writing a first paragraph that pulls the reader in and keeps us, as writers, hungry to write what comes next. 📅 17 May, Sunday, 11:00 am Moscow time, in real time, on Zoom 💌 The workshop is free. To join, message me @iraluts with a meaningful ending to this comment, "Wow, I can't miss this one! I'd love to join because ... ." ❗️ Please note that this is a workshop, not a webinar or a lecture. If you join, you have to write. We don't record our workshops, so this is a safe space to participate. 🦋 Writing Incubator - where writing skills hatch 🦋

Are all IELTS test centers created equal? I have now taken IELTS in four different countries: Russia, the US, Uzbekistan, and one county in Europe that will remain undisclosed. Sometimes I hear people discuss whether one test center is better than the other. In my experience, all test venues are more or less the same. A test center wouldn't get accredited if it didn't meet certain criteria. Of course, some conditions differ and might matter. To me, what matters is lighting, temperature, and chairs. (The chairs in the Institute of Irrigation test venue in Tashkent are engraved on my heart forever. 💜) But these are subjective. And also subject to change over time. One thing is crucial though. And I realized it only in my latest attempt in Europe, when I looked down at the keyboard in horror. Some European keyboards are not QWERTY keyboards! Some letters and punctuation marks are on different keys! ❗️ This is really worth looking into. Other than that, it's worth focusing on skills, not in external conditions.

My IELTS 9 # 4 💪 Writing score breakdown: Task 1: 9989 Task 2: 8888 I've been writing task 1 like crazy over the past six months. Because I thought it was my weakness -- in my previous attempts the essay was always better. Well. Use it or lose it. Don't get complacent and keep writing! 💪

MAY 5 Part 1: The diagram shows the fire escape plan for a student accommodation in the second floor of a college Part 2: The media should include more stories which report good news. To what extent do you agree or disagree? #writing 📩 @cdireport_admin 🔗 cdireport.t.me

Recent exam. My answer is available here: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/618

#IELTS tasks from the internet. Part 2. There are a lot of IELTS tasks from real exams on the internet -- and I use them extensively in my classes. One important thing to understand about these tasks though, is that they contain mistakes. They are reported and reconstructed by test takers from memory after all. Mistakes in tasks with figures are very likely -- IELTS candidates who report the questions might indeed not remember the precise data they saw. Such mistakes might affect Task Achievement, especially the overview, because there might be wrong or unidentifiable trends and patterns. Yes, and we mustn't forget that, but ... Let's consider the attached task. It does look suspicious: the scales (the horizontal axes) on the four charts are not the same, and the countries seem somewhat random. Let's not clutch our pearls еhough. Let's brainstorm for useful language and paraphrasing techniques. 🍋 Here is some useful language: - the most exported fruit - the main / leading exporter - slightly less was sold by - exported half the volume ... did - showing ... metric tons in sales - the largest suppliers in terms of total volumes - the most prevalent type of fruit sold overseas - lemons, traded internationally by Turkey and Mexico in almost the same volume So if you get this task in your exam with different input data, you are ready language-wise, not to mention that many of these chunks will be useful for other tasks. So my opinion is: It's OK to use IELTS tasks from the internet, but be alert -- use your good judgment and don't trust them blindly. I think it's better to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff than to rely on the meager four tests a year we see in the official IELTS books. 🍋 See two great answers for the attached task: 1. By a C2 level student: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/501 2. By me (along with many other answers): https://t.me/irinalutsenko/551

#IELTS tasks from the internet. Part 1. There are a lot of IELTS tasks from real exams on the internet -- and I use them extensively in my classes. One important thing to understand about these tasks though, is that they contain mistakes. They are reported and reconstructed by test takers from memory after all. When I see the mistakes, I don't clutch my pearls. I use my good judgment. For example, in the attached picture, the task phrasing is clearly wrong -- the picture clearly does not show the process of making clothes. No biggie. Let's just trust our eyes more than random internet sources and write this in the intro: "The diagram shows the process of recycling plastic bottles in order to make new products." In my opinion, the mistakes don't render the tasks useless. That said, we need to be alert and to learn to spot the mistakes. Because if we only use the official IELTS books, we'll only have four tasks a year. And that's just a drop in the ocean. See two process descriptions by me, as well as many other answers, in a pdf collection here: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/551

#IELTS Writing Task 1: some simple yet less common grammar As you know, the marathon record was officially broken yesterday, when Sabastian Sawe shattered the two-hour barrier in London. As I was reading the articles, I was noticing one grammar pattern that I teach and that students are sometimes surprised by. Look: 1️⃣ Not long behind him was Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who was 11 seconds back in his debut marathon. 2️⃣ On Sawe’s heels for much of the race was Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, who faded during the marathon’s final stretch to take second place. 3️⃣ In second place, 12 seconds back, was Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, while her compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei finished third. What might be surprising is the inverted word order. Typically, in English, you would say, "Hellen Obiri was in second place," not "In second place was Hellen Obiri. This inverted word order is common with prepositional phrases in the frontal position. You can use it for tasks with figures (ranking) and maps (location): - In second place was ... - Not far behind ... was ... - Next to ... is ... a ... - In front of the building is a ... To practice, write an IELTS-like sentence about a real or imaginary task in the comments. Sources: 1) The Guardian; 2) CNN.

Two groups started recently: 1️⃣ IELTS Level: B2/C1 Test date: December Schedule: Sunday 10:30-12:00 Moscow time Course instructor: Anastasia A. More: https://m.vk.com/product-47977221_3696544 2️⃣ Writing with New Scientist (IELTS track) Level: C1/C1+ Goal: Warm up before starting a full IELTS writing course in September Schedule: Wednesday 12-13:30 Moscow time Course instructor: Anastasia B. More: https://m.vk.com/product-47977221_5061302 💌💌💌 @iraluts

ОБЭРИУты онлайн! 🖇Хочется поделиться с вами кусочком петербургской культуры! Как вы знаете, Петербург сходит с ума по обэриутам. Открылся отличный музей ОБЭРИУ в квартире Александра Введенского, а в театрах каждую неделю идёт какой-нибудь спектакль по прозе Даниила Хармса.  🖇Март в книжном клубе прошел тоже под знаком обэриутов. Чат клуба взрывался от обсуждений, каждый день появлялся новый квиз, а модератор встречи Ирина Луценко купила примерно 10 обэриутских книг. Само живое обсуждение длилось больше двух часов! Мы решили провести онлайн-встречу книжного клуба, чтобы и вам досталось немного нашей весны! 🖇Что вас ожидает:  встреча в zoom + чат (детальная информация, общение и обсуждение) Встреча состоится 16 мая (суббота) в 12.00. На ней мы обсуждаем прозу и стихи. Литература для чтения (короткие произведения): 1. Владимир Глоцер "Марина Дурново: Мой муж Даниил Хармс"   2. Александр Введенский "Ёлка у Ивановых" (пьеса)  3. Николай Заболоцкий "История моего заключения." Список стихов вы найдете чате. 🖇Модератор встречи — Ирина Луценко, преподаватель английского, спикер конференций, евангелист Creative Writing и просто хороший человек. Обсуждение обэриутов стало одним из лучших за всю историю существования моего клуба. И это редкая возможность услышать, как Ирина говорит на русском.  Итак, встречаемся онлайн: 📍16.05 📍12.00 📍Zoom (ссылка появится накануне) 📍Принять участие, попасть в чат: ЛС @vifslatofsla Читаем, обсуждаем! Ура! --------- 📚 Изнанка 📚

жили были в Ангаре      три девицы на горе      звали первую светло      а вторую помело      третьей прозвище Татьяна      так как дочка капитана ... Это Александр Введенский, авторитет бессмыслицы. А ещё Хармс, Заболоцкий, Олейников - наши любимые ОБЭРИУты. 💜 Приходите читать и обсуждать эту ... бессмыслицу? Вместе и решим.