1 00:00:03,530 --> 00:00:04,340 Okay. 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:05,120 Good morning. 3 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:05,830 Good afternoon. 4 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:06,710 Good evening. 5 00:00:07,390 --> 00:00:08,890 Wherever you're located. 6 00:00:09,100 --> 00:00:12,220 As you know, this class is a global course. 7 00:00:12,820 --> 00:00:15,280 So I have students from all over the world. 8 00:00:15,940 --> 00:00:16,600 Donna. 9 00:00:17,870 --> 00:00:18,920 Nigeria. 10 00:00:19,250 --> 00:00:20,330 Brazil. 11 00:00:21,740 --> 00:00:28,460 Cote d'Ivoire, France and Japan, Saudi Arabia, all over the world. 12 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:29,540 Okay. 13 00:00:30,470 --> 00:00:31,370 Yeah, everybody. 14 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:31,750 Okay. 15 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,130 You don't have to tell me where you're from, okay? 16 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:34,480 Don't do. 17 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:35,720 Please don't hold on. 18 00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:38,420 You know, Singapore. 19 00:00:38,870 --> 00:00:39,480 Everybody. 20 00:00:39,500 --> 00:00:40,310 Brazil. 21 00:00:41,110 --> 00:00:43,540 Some names I can tell where you're from. 22 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:45,940 Like the only people I know name. 23 00:00:46,970 --> 00:00:48,080 Like Elena's last name. 24 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,020 I know that's either a Brazilian or Portuguese name. 25 00:00:50,030 --> 00:00:51,800 Okay, everybody, please stop. 26 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,390 Stop putting stuff in the box. 27 00:00:54,390 --> 00:00:54,930 Okay. 28 00:00:56,530 --> 00:00:57,130 All right. 29 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:04,000 So in this live class, I'm going to be going over the general writing task number one. 30 00:01:05,260 --> 00:01:09,640 This is the live class for July 2020. 31 00:01:10,210 --> 00:01:17,800 As you know, I teach one live class a month and the focus this month is on the general writing test 32 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:18,520 and the one. 33 00:01:19,570 --> 00:01:24,130 So as we're going through this live class, it will be interactive. 34 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,990 There'll be some points during the class where you will be writing something alongside with me. 35 00:01:29,740 --> 00:01:30,910 I will look at. 36 00:01:31,390 --> 00:01:35,920 I will be looking at some of the examples of what students write. 37 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,040 Of course, you could note there are 60 students in this class. 38 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,180 So this is not about looking at every single example that's written. 39 00:01:45,170 --> 00:01:49,370 Pulling out and looking at some examples because there are things that we can learn from them. 40 00:01:49,670 --> 00:01:51,470 So this is a group class. 41 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:56,170 It is not a individual private 1 to 1 class. 42 00:01:56,410 --> 00:01:59,560 There's a group class, and so it involves group learning. 43 00:01:59,860 --> 00:02:05,290 So throughout the process today, I'll be looking at some examples of student writing so we can learn 44 00:02:05,290 --> 00:02:05,890 from it. 45 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:07,320 Okay. 46 00:02:07,830 --> 00:02:09,150 Let's go ahead and get started. 47 00:02:11,220 --> 00:02:16,320 And I would ask that everybody for the chat box is only for asking questions. 48 00:02:16,530 --> 00:02:19,800 So please, please, please stop noting countries. 49 00:02:20,100 --> 00:02:22,140 I appreciate it. 50 00:02:22,410 --> 00:02:25,470 But I want the chat box to be four questions. 51 00:02:26,950 --> 00:02:33,040 Four questions that will help me keep it organized and that will allow for me to be able to see somebody's 52 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:33,700 question. 53 00:02:38,420 --> 00:02:38,750 All right. 54 00:02:38,750 --> 00:02:46,580 So today in class, I'm going to first talk about I want to talk about moving from a band six to a band 55 00:02:46,580 --> 00:02:47,270 seven. 56 00:02:47,870 --> 00:02:54,040 A lot of students have trouble with being able to move their writing from a band, six or 6.5. 57 00:02:54,050 --> 00:02:54,920 They're stuck. 58 00:02:56,220 --> 00:03:01,200 At a 6.5 or six or 5.5 where they don't know how to move up into a seven. 59 00:03:01,650 --> 00:03:03,540 I'm going to talk about that briefly. 60 00:03:04,450 --> 00:03:11,770 I'll go over some of the in terms of the rubric, in terms of the score differences, and then we'll 61 00:03:11,770 --> 00:03:17,560 go over outlining a letter introductions on the letter and discussion points on a letter. 62 00:03:18,370 --> 00:03:26,500 And and then throughout that process, I'll be looking at some of the student introductions for those 63 00:03:26,500 --> 00:03:28,030 different aspects. 64 00:03:28,660 --> 00:03:33,190 We're going to start off by going over the basics of task number one. 65 00:03:34,730 --> 00:03:40,040 The reason why I'm going over the general basics of task number one is because I have students that 66 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,950 are at different levels within my class. 67 00:03:43,490 --> 00:03:46,370 Some people have never done the illness exam before. 68 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:51,110 Some people have taken the illness exam, unfortunately, six or seven times. 69 00:03:51,350 --> 00:03:54,290 So they're practically experts at the basics. 70 00:03:54,770 --> 00:04:00,530 But I have to cover for everybody, for every possible situation if I can. 71 00:04:00,710 --> 00:04:03,770 So first, I'm going to start off with the basics of task number one. 72 00:04:06,540 --> 00:04:11,520 So when we're talking about task number one, you have to be able to separate your paragraphs. 73 00:04:12,060 --> 00:04:18,420 I'm going to teach you and go over with you today about how to analyze, outline and write the letter 74 00:04:18,930 --> 00:04:22,770 with a minimum of 150 words written in under 20 minutes. 75 00:04:23,830 --> 00:04:30,100 The organization and separation of this information into paragraphs in the proper paragraphs is really, 76 00:04:30,100 --> 00:04:31,150 really important. 77 00:04:31,810 --> 00:04:35,710 One of the best things you can do with the general letter is when you're starting out. 78 00:04:37,060 --> 00:04:43,030 When you're starting out with a general letter, the best thing you can do is to do an outline. 79 00:04:43,950 --> 00:04:44,730 Doing our line. 80 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:49,320 Take 1 to 2 minutes and do an outline for each discussion point. 81 00:04:50,170 --> 00:04:53,380 You want to make sure that you note each discussion point. 82 00:04:55,070 --> 00:04:59,420 And then after you do an outline, you want to do an introduction. 83 00:05:00,460 --> 00:05:03,640 You want to explain why you are writing this letter? 84 00:05:04,330 --> 00:05:07,990 Do not mix the discussion points into the introduction. 85 00:05:08,530 --> 00:05:11,380 The introduction is one sentence by itself. 86 00:05:12,300 --> 00:05:16,290 And then normally you're going to have three discussion points. 87 00:05:16,620 --> 00:05:20,730 Normally, there are three different points they want you to talk about. 88 00:05:21,500 --> 00:05:24,830 Each one of those discussion points gets their own paragraph. 89 00:05:25,870 --> 00:05:28,240 So in terms of the process. 90 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:29,430 Right. 91 00:05:29,430 --> 00:05:30,690 You outline. 92 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:36,120 You write the introduction, and then you write a paragraph for each discussion point. 93 00:05:36,150 --> 00:05:37,800 That's proper structure. 94 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,190 Somebody just mentioned somebody named Rain. 95 00:05:43,990 --> 00:05:46,660 Just mention that rain is in Hong Kong. 96 00:05:47,530 --> 00:05:48,890 That they can't hear me. 97 00:05:48,940 --> 00:05:49,870 Ken, can you hear me? 98 00:05:49,900 --> 00:05:51,520 Can everybody hear me just fine? 99 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:58,820 Because I want to I want to make sure that this is just a problem for rain and not a problem for everybody 100 00:05:58,820 --> 00:05:59,480 else. 101 00:06:01,540 --> 00:06:02,200 Okay. 102 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:03,040 All right, good. 103 00:06:03,070 --> 00:06:03,440 Okay. 104 00:06:03,460 --> 00:06:05,380 I just want to make sure because. 105 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:11,100 If I'm doing all this talking and nobody is hearing me, then that's a problem. 106 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:12,300 Okay. 107 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:12,660 All right. 108 00:06:12,660 --> 00:06:13,660 So let's keep going. 109 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:14,730 Thank you very much. 110 00:06:22,050 --> 00:06:22,680 Okay. 111 00:06:23,470 --> 00:06:28,720 So when we're talking about the general letter, this is just some basic information. 112 00:06:29,700 --> 00:06:30,870 With the general letter. 113 00:06:30,870 --> 00:06:32,880 You're doing descriptive writing. 114 00:06:33,630 --> 00:06:35,550 And you're doing narrative writing. 115 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:40,310 You're doing both of those descriptive writing and narrative writing. 116 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:47,660 In writing a letter, you have to be very you have to really describe what you're talking about. 117 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,970 You have to really describe your ideas of what you're talking about for each discussion point. 118 00:06:53,750 --> 00:06:57,860 In addition to that, you're doing a type of narrative writing. 119 00:06:58,460 --> 00:07:00,380 You're telling a story, basically. 120 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:11,490 Whether it is informal, semi-formal or informal, it is narrative writing and it is descriptive writing. 121 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:17,850 So the more descriptive you're writing, the better you're going to score, the more visual it is, 122 00:07:17,970 --> 00:07:19,950 the more sensory it is. 123 00:07:20,070 --> 00:07:22,230 Descriptive verbs and adjectives. 124 00:07:22,230 --> 00:07:24,090 Those really help a score. 125 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:28,850 And then narrative writing when you're telling a story. 126 00:07:29,570 --> 00:07:33,170 When you're telling a story, all the parts fit together. 127 00:07:34,730 --> 00:07:36,380 All the parts fit together. 128 00:07:37,700 --> 00:07:41,210 So 1/2. 129 00:07:41,420 --> 00:07:45,860 A teacher or I'm teaching the general letter. 130 00:07:46,460 --> 00:07:49,850 So what I'm talking about does not relate to the academic. 131 00:07:50,870 --> 00:07:56,570 If I were teaching an academic class, I would not be talking about descriptive and narrative writing. 132 00:07:57,410 --> 00:07:57,700 Okay. 133 00:07:57,710 --> 00:08:02,060 This is so we don't don't don't mix things together. 134 00:08:02,180 --> 00:08:02,650 Okay. 135 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:05,090 The general letter is the general letter. 136 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:13,380 I wouldn't if I I've never mentioned this in an academic writing class, so it does not apply. 137 00:08:14,490 --> 00:08:15,540 Keep in mind. 138 00:08:15,660 --> 00:08:16,860 Be descriptive. 139 00:08:16,890 --> 00:08:18,240 Be narrative. 140 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:25,780 And of course, everybody knows that there are three types of letters formal, semi-formal and informal. 141 00:08:26,950 --> 00:08:31,960 Let me say something really quickly about the formal the formal and semi formal. 142 00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:35,980 For the formal and semi-formal semi-formal. 143 00:08:36,010 --> 00:08:39,310 There really is no difference in terms of the language. 144 00:08:40,070 --> 00:08:42,950 There's no difference in terms of the of the language. 145 00:08:43,610 --> 00:08:53,900 A formal a formal letter is where you're writing to a city council or to a store or to a government 146 00:08:53,900 --> 00:08:54,800 office. 147 00:08:56,210 --> 00:08:56,510 Right. 148 00:08:56,510 --> 00:08:59,390 You don't know who you're not writing to a specific person. 149 00:09:00,730 --> 00:09:03,940 That's how you understand when something is a formal letter. 150 00:09:05,430 --> 00:09:15,720 A semi-formal letter is wear is where you're talking to the manager of a place or your boss. 151 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:16,440 Right. 152 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:20,490 Or the or an administrator. 153 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:25,790 That's really the main difference between formal and semi-formal. 154 00:09:26,500 --> 00:09:30,220 There's no real difference in terms of the language that you would use. 155 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:31,540 Okay. 156 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:39,010 So some people think that they are completely different and the real difference is one of them. 157 00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:41,320 You're writing to a specific person. 158 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:44,080 The other one you're writing to just an entity. 159 00:09:44,410 --> 00:09:46,090 That's the best way to understand that. 160 00:09:49,590 --> 00:09:50,310 So. 161 00:09:57,470 --> 00:09:57,940 Okay. 162 00:09:57,950 --> 00:10:00,260 Before I keep going, I'm going to mention one more time. 163 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:02,570 Please keep your microphone off. 164 00:10:04,140 --> 00:10:07,320 Keep your microphone off if you can't keep your microphone off. 165 00:10:07,650 --> 00:10:12,960 I am going to have to put you out the class and I don't want to do that because I'm trying to record 166 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:13,650 the class. 167 00:10:13,650 --> 00:10:18,320 So if you see me turn off your microphone, that's me doing it. 168 00:10:18,330 --> 00:10:19,670 Please keep it off. 169 00:10:19,680 --> 00:10:20,210 Okay. 170 00:10:21,750 --> 00:10:25,200 How to move your score from a band seven to a band nine. 171 00:10:26,270 --> 00:10:27,860 This type of information. 172 00:10:28,740 --> 00:10:35,070 This type of information is information that applies to the general letter and that applies to the academic 173 00:10:35,070 --> 00:10:35,910 task one. 174 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:38,940 You want to have seen this cohesion? 175 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:44,320 A lot of times students rely on words like first, second, third, moral. 176 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:48,500 But furthermore, those are basic level transition words. 177 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:54,710 And a lot of students mess up their score because they overuse those words. 178 00:10:55,940 --> 00:10:59,480 Every other sentence or every sentence is first, second, third. 179 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:06,590 You know, it's it becomes very robotic, very clunky when you write that way. 180 00:11:06,620 --> 00:11:10,580 That's one of the things that's keeping you in the score of a 6 to 6.5. 181 00:11:11,090 --> 00:11:11,870 You have to use. 182 00:11:11,930 --> 00:11:13,530 You have to learn how to use language. 183 00:11:13,550 --> 00:11:16,640 Language that builds cohesion. 184 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:22,160 And a lot of times that's done with reference pronouns and other types of language that makes the cohesion 185 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:23,360 to be seamless. 186 00:11:24,420 --> 00:11:26,730 We've talked about segregating your paragraphs properly. 187 00:11:26,730 --> 00:11:27,960 We're going to go over that. 188 00:11:28,170 --> 00:11:33,330 And then you want to make sure that you're able to change word, form, paraphrase and use synonyms. 189 00:11:33,660 --> 00:11:38,970 The more of that that you do, the better chance you have of moving from a seven to a nine. 190 00:11:45,090 --> 00:11:52,590 In addition, you want to make sure that if you want to get a score of 7 to 9, that the majority of 191 00:11:52,590 --> 00:11:55,170 your sentences are mistake free sentences. 192 00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:59,670 This is a big, big mistake that I see in letters. 193 00:12:00,780 --> 00:12:02,940 I've seen people write letters before. 194 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:06,750 And the organization is very well is very well done. 195 00:12:08,070 --> 00:12:11,130 They have enough sentences in each paragraph. 196 00:12:11,220 --> 00:12:13,020 They have great information. 197 00:12:13,890 --> 00:12:20,700 But then they have a grammar or word mistake in in almost every sentence. 198 00:12:22,270 --> 00:12:29,350 And when you do that, when you do that, it's very easy for an examiner to just put you in a six or 199 00:12:29,350 --> 00:12:36,640 6.5 because you're not able to really write the majority of your sentences to be mistake free. 200 00:12:38,810 --> 00:12:39,170 Um. 201 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:43,340 You want to make sure that you show grammatical range just because you. 202 00:12:43,340 --> 00:12:45,230 Just because you write a letter. 203 00:12:46,140 --> 00:12:49,500 Does not mean you're allowed to write just simple sentences. 204 00:12:50,230 --> 00:12:52,060 They are grading you remember that? 205 00:12:52,060 --> 00:12:53,290 They're grading you. 206 00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:55,950 If just just think about it. 207 00:12:56,460 --> 00:13:01,980 If you are able to write all simple sentences and use simple, basic vocabulary. 208 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:07,860 If that was good enough to get you a seven, eight or nine, there would be no difference. 209 00:13:08,100 --> 00:13:10,860 We can't differentiate one student from the other student. 210 00:13:13,060 --> 00:13:14,620 That's why there is a rubric. 211 00:13:15,650 --> 00:13:17,090 That's why there is a rubric. 212 00:13:18,050 --> 00:13:23,840 And you want to make sure that when you're writing a letter, you have a very clear purpose and your 213 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:26,900 letter is fully developed and fully, fully developed. 214 00:13:27,530 --> 00:13:32,030 It shouldn't be where the first discussion point is one sentence. 215 00:13:32,300 --> 00:13:35,120 The second discussion point is three sentences. 216 00:13:35,150 --> 00:13:37,730 And the third discussion point is one sentence. 217 00:13:38,540 --> 00:13:40,460 That's not being fully developed. 218 00:13:42,020 --> 00:13:42,530 Right. 219 00:13:42,830 --> 00:13:48,860 And then when it talks about having clear purpose, they're talking about where the discussion point 220 00:13:48,890 --> 00:13:52,010 is, the purpose of that paragraph clear. 221 00:13:55,820 --> 00:14:03,110 Now when we're talking about the rubric, you have to be able to notice the differences, the differences 222 00:14:03,110 --> 00:14:04,400 of what they're talking about. 223 00:14:04,940 --> 00:14:07,580 A lot of students say, well, I'm stuck in a six. 224 00:14:08,030 --> 00:14:12,440 Like, my coherence is a six, or my task achievement is a six. 225 00:14:12,770 --> 00:14:15,350 And you have to be able to be able to know, what does that mean? 226 00:14:16,190 --> 00:14:17,270 What does that mean? 227 00:14:17,860 --> 00:14:20,020 So for example, we're TASC achievement. 228 00:14:21,010 --> 00:14:26,560 Four six, Assayas presents a purpose that is generally clear. 229 00:14:26,710 --> 00:14:29,560 There may be inconsistencies in tone. 230 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:32,610 Move up to a seven. 231 00:14:33,180 --> 00:14:35,100 Presents a clear purpose. 232 00:14:36,450 --> 00:14:40,680 Clear purpose, not generally clear a clear purpose. 233 00:14:41,740 --> 00:14:45,490 With with the tone, consistent and appropriate. 234 00:14:48,260 --> 00:14:48,880 Right. 235 00:14:48,890 --> 00:14:56,840 So you have to be able when you're talking about differences in scores, you're talking about how well 236 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:00,530 you do something according to the rubric. 237 00:15:01,780 --> 00:15:04,660 How will you do something according to the rubric? 238 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,260 And then it's the same thing in terms of looking at coherence. 239 00:15:10,270 --> 00:15:11,680 We're looking at the same thing. 240 00:15:11,890 --> 00:15:15,120 There are differences between six, 7/8 and nines. 241 00:15:16,500 --> 00:15:18,390 The examiners have a chart like this. 242 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,480 And in fact, the examiner chart has more detail. 243 00:15:22,650 --> 00:15:24,930 This is the public chart that they give you. 244 00:15:25,290 --> 00:15:30,210 The examiner's chart has even more detail to help them put you into different categories. 245 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,320 We could see the same thing when it comes to lexical resource and grammar. 246 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:45,100 If you are using simple sentences and complex sentences and making some mistakes, that's what gets 247 00:15:45,100 --> 00:15:46,870 you down into a sixth for your grammar. 248 00:15:48,180 --> 00:15:55,350 If you're using a variety of sentences and frequent error free sentences, that moves you up to a seven. 249 00:15:56,990 --> 00:15:58,850 Now we're talking talking about eight. 250 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:01,640 It means the majority of your sentences are error free. 251 00:16:02,410 --> 00:16:05,770 Examiners love error free sentences. 252 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:09,580 Examiners love seeing a range of vocabulary. 253 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:16,420 So it's important to understand how do you move up in the in the rubric.