IEP WRITING nternational exam writing guide 1.pptx

International exam writing guide- C2

1. INTERNATIONAL EXAM PRACTICE C2

2. WRITING Part 1 ESSAY You are required to base your essay on input material which will take the form of two texts, each approximately 100 words long. The texts will be based on a variety of authentic, contemporary sources You need to answer the question with between 240-280 words.

3. Read the two texts below. Write an essay summarising and evaluating the key points from both texts. Use your own words throughout as far as possible, and include your own ideas in your answers. Examinations are not fair. Making judgments about the ability of students based on examinations that take place just once or perhaps twice a year is simply not fair. So many students fail to show their true ability due to anxiety, stress and a number of other factors. Many students who do well in exams do so simply by cramming facts into their heads the week before the exam, to be forgotten by the following weekend. Surely assessment of the work done in class and at home throughout the school year would be a fairer system? Step 1: read the two texts below and write down to key points of each extract Extract 1. Key points: 1) Unfair to judge a year’s performance just once or twice a year. 2) This unfair system forces students to temporary parrot-fashion learning

4. Classroom assessment is idealistic. It’s all very well to talk about teachers judging their students work in the classroom, and students working alone at home on their projects, but everyone knows that continuous assessment doesn’t work like that. Teachers are only human, and tend to be softer on their students than an examiner would be (or, in a worse scenario, harder on a student they don’t like). Parents or older siblings help students with the projects they have to do at home, even if it’s just coming up with ideas for them. Exams may not be fun, but at least we get to see what each individual student is capable of. Extract 2. Key points: 3) Continuous assessment depends too much on the teacher who may be either too lenient or too strict. 4) Parents and siblings may give an unfair advantage to some students over their classmates who don’t have help at home.

5. Step 2: introduction. make a plain reference to the topic of the two texts The two texts express contrasting views on the hotly debated issue of school exams. Step 3 : Body paragraph (1) = topic sentence plus point 1 + point 2 [Topic sentence] The first author considers the annual assessment of students’ performance as inadequate. [Paraphrase the first (1) point] Knowing that your only chance to prove your competence relies on a couple of questions that need to be answered within a suffocating time limit cannot but fill you with anxiety. [Paraphrase the second (2) point] To make matters worse, even when the students manage to cope with the stress it is doubtful whether they gain any academic benefit. All they do is switch off their critical thinking and employ their parrot fashion learning. When the exams are over they ‘delete’ all this array of incongruent information. Therefore, they end up with lots of pains and no gains!

6. [Topic sentence] Conversely, the second text sees the exams as the only reliable means of school assessment. [Paraphrase the third (3) point:] If the students were continually evaluated throughout the year they would be at the mercy of the bias of their teachers. If the professors are positively predisposed they will inflate the marks and if they have any sort of conflict with their pupils they could use the marks as a form of punishment. [Paraphrase the fourth (4) point] Moreover, the project work that has often been hailed as the creative alternative of barren exams may prove to be a hoax. More often than not it is other family members that do the work and the students undeservingly reap the rewards. Step 4 : body paragraph ( 2) = topic sentence+ point 3 + point 4

7. [Topic sentence] While I agree that the exams entail counterproductive stress that may spoil the true meaning of education, I cannot overlook the fact that they are an objective and trustworthy method of evaluation. If the written tests accounted for a proportion of the pupils’ overall mark and the rest was completed with projects and class participation we could successfully combine the profits of these too seemingly contrasting methods. Step five: body paragraph ( 3) your opinion

8. All in all, the examinations can contribute to an objective assessment of school performance as long as they are combined with elements of continuous assessment. Step 6: conclusion: closing remark- no new ideas

9. All in all, the examinations can contribute to an objective assessment of school performance as long as they are combined with elements of continuous assessment. Step 6: conclusion: closing remark- no new ideas

10. CPE Essay: Structure Introduction Make a plain reference to the topic of the two texts. 1st body paragraph Topic sentence + Paraphrase point 1 + Paraphrase point 2 2nd body paragraph Topic sentence + Paraphrase point 3 + Paraphrase point 4 3rd body paragraph Your opinion ( you can omit this and include it in the conclusion) Conclusion Closing remark – No new ideas.

11. TIPS

12. Address the common ground, DO NOT LIFT FROM ORIGINAL TEXT

13. do something perfunctorily so as to save time or money. a person who has no money and no home to avoid financial failure while having money problems. experience hardship, especially financial. If a person or company is in the red or if their bank account is in the red, they have spent more money than they have in their account and therefore they owe money to the bank. If you do something on a shoestring, you do it with a very small amount of money to spend less money than you did before because you have less money a difficult time

14. MYTHS Common misconceptions about writing for Proficiency ▪️ You need to use lots of really fancy structures⁣. ⁣ ▪️ You won’t be graded for complex ideas⁣. ▪️ The examiner knows your grade after reading the introduction⁣. ⁣ ▪️The word count needs to be precise. https://sharpenglish.net/cpe-writing-criteria/00000

15. Sentence openers The first text suggests that….. The second text raises the issue of ….. The writer is of the opinion that…. Additionally, it is argued that….. The two texts contrast differing views of….. According to the first passage……. Personally, i ……………. The second text put forward…… I believe that……… In conclusion, it is my opinion that…… Linking points and arguments As opposed to In the sense that….. For this reason…….. Making generalisations On the whole…. In general….. For the most part…. As a rule…… It is often that…. It is usually the case that….. People to regard….. The reality is that….. USEFUL LANGUAGE

16. LINKERS QUIZ Being specific With respect to… In the case of… As regards… In terms of…. With the exception of….. From the ….. point of view…. They are seen as….. As far as ……are / is concerned…… Raising an argument Considering….. On the question of…. No one would dispute……. Giving one side One argument in favour of this is …. In support of….. It is true that…… Giving the other side At the same time…. In actual fact….. On the other hand…. In contrast to…. Set/ weighed against this is….. Attitude Personally… Unfortunately… Obviously… Evidently… Presumably… Naturally… fortunately

17. ESSAY WRITING CHECKLIST

18. ESSAY WRITING TIPS

19. https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/286980-improve-your-english-checklist-c2.pdf ESSAY LANGUAGE CHECKLIST ❌ avoid idioms in formal writings ❌ Avoid colloquial language and short forms.( don’t DO NOT) ❌ Do not refer to your own writing: ( I am going to write about…, this paragraph is about, here is a reason why…) ❌ Do not include new ideas in last paragraph. ✔ advanced conditionals ✔ inversion of order ✔ impersonal passives ✔ advanced collocations ✔ relative clauses. ✔ adverb clauses. ✔ hyphenated adjectives. ✔ possessives and compound nouns. ✔ subjunctive structures

20. ESSAY 2