Study skills B1 Units

Improving your writing

1 Do you think that making mistakes and recording them helps you to learn?
Tick (✓) the sentences that are true for you.
1 If I make a mistake, I don’t like to ask for help.
2 I write my mistakes and corrections down in a notebook.
3 I check a piece of writing for mistakes before I give it to my teacher.
4 I record the types of English mistakes I often make so I don’t make them again.
5 I sometimes ask a classmate to help me to correct my mistakes.
6 I feel that new mistakes show that I am learning.

2 Look at the categories teachers use to mark written work. Then read the introduction to a student’s essay
and the teacher’s corrections.
Which type of mistakes does the student often make?

Vocabulary Range of words ■ Does the student use the wrong word?
Accuracy of words ■ Is the meaning correct but the class of word wrong?
■ Is there a lot of repetition of the same word?
■ Are there spelling mistakes?

Grammar Range of tenses and sentence structures
Accuracy of grammatical structures
■ Has the student used the wrong tense?
■ Is the tense choice correct but the form wrong?
■ Is the word order incorrect?
■ Do verb forms agree with the subject of the sentence?
■ Has the student used the correct punctuation?

Organisation Linking words ■ Has the student used the wrong linker?
Structure of paragraphs ■ Is the choice of pronoun correct?
■ Are paragraphs easy to follow?
■ Do paragraphs contain details and examples to support
the main point?
Style Formal and informal styles ■ Should the writing be more or less formal?
■ Will the reader feel the writing is appropriate?

MY HOBBIES
My name is Jennifer and I’m 14 years old. 1My hobby is dancing and baking.
My dad told me that when I was 11 months old I loved dancing and singing
on the bed. My first dance lesson was 2on kindergarten, and then I just
3
falling in love with it. But I didn’t know why I liked it. Now I know why I
love dance, I enjoy 4dance to the rhythm. 5And I just love it, I really love it!
Dancing makes me happy. I’m 6gonna do it until I’m old. 7My second hobby
is baking. I love smelling the 8melt chocolate!

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Study skills B1 Units

3 Match the teacher’s comments (a–h ) with the

STUDY TIP
underlined parts of the essay (1–8).
a Linking word. We don’t usually start a sentence with It’s a good idea to record mistakes that you
and. Can you think of a different linking word? make more than once in your written and
b Past simple tense needed. spoken English work. Try to group the same
types of mistakes together in your notebook
c Subject–verb agreement. Two hobbies, so plural
so that you can see which parts of your
of hobby and verb be needed.
English need the most work. You can use the
d We sometimes say this, but we write going to.
categories from exercise 2 to help you.
e After verbs of emotion (e.g. love, hate, enjoy,
like) we use the verb in the -ing form.
f What’s the adjective form? 4 Use the teacher’s comments in exercise 3 to
rewrite Jennifer’s introduction with no mistakes.
g Wrong preposition.
h New paragraph needed here because the
subject is changing.
5 Find a piece of work that your teacher has
corrected. Complete the table with mistakes and
corrections from your work.

Type of mistake Mistake Correction Things to remember

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