A journey from hell... - a passive voice story

Recently, we have been practising the passive. 

It is a difficult construction and it takes a lot of practice before you are able to use it comfortably. 

So in order to help you out, I've prepared a story (in the active voice), that could be changed to the passive. You have the example of how this could be done in red. 

Please note, that sentences in green CANNOT be changed to the passive.

Early morning, I set off to work as usual. The journey from Hartlepool to Middlesbrough usually takes me about 35 minutes. This morning, it took me 2 hours. From the very beginning everything was wrong.

 I didn't lock the car and somebody broke into it. The car wasn't locked and it was broken into.

 Somebody stole my CD player.

 Somebody broke my rear window.

 Somebody left their coat in my car.

 I called the police.

 The police investigated the scene.

 The police took the finger prints.

 *They advised me to call my insurance company. I was advised... 

The insurance company delivered a replacement car in 30 minutes.

They gave me the keys to the replacement car and I went to work.

When I arrived at work, Alison told me that being late is unacceptable.

Alison gave me a warning.

I was so angry that I said I wanted a day off!

Below, you have some flashcards that will help you check if your answers are correct. 

Flash Card Deck created by mariolahejduk with GoConqr

Basic tenses in English

The question that I am very often asked by my students is, 'How many tenses are there in English?' They usually ask this question because they've heard that there are so many of them and it simply scares them that there is so much grammar to learn before they can be confident speakers.

In this post, I'm going to tackle the issue and hopefully make learning tenses less scary. But let's start with the basics. Have a look at the picture below: 

This is a visual representation of what we can do in every language in the world: express present, past and future. This is called a language property and it gives us a unique opportunity not only to talk about what's happening now, but also recall past events and even talk about things that haven't happened yet (animals can communicate too, but they are not able to 'talk' about anything other than now). 

In order to be able to express past, present and future, we need tenses. Tense is a grammatical time. By now, at Entry 3, you would have heard names like Present Simple, Past Continuous, Future Simple, etc. They all are tenses and they all describe different 'times' in grammar. 

So, how many tenses are there? Grammarians still argue about this because they can't reach a consensus of what a tense exactly is, but if you really need to know the number, it's (lucky :))13. 

It seems a lot, but don't worry, there is a logic in them and they tend to repeat themselves in different 'times', e.g. there is Present Continuous and Past Continuous; Present Simple and Past Simple; Present Perfect and Past Perfect. And if you know one in the pair of tenses, you'll learn the other one quickly because they are very similar. For example, 'I am writing' is Present Continuous; 'I was writing' is Past Continuous. The only difference is 'am' and 'was'- so the verb 'to be'. The -ing form stays the same in both tenses. So if you know that for Present Continuous you need 'to be' + verb + -ing', the formula is the same for Past Continuous too, but the verb 'to be' has to be in the past. 

What's more, some of the tenses are rather rare so you might not even come across them very often in every day speech. An example of such tense is Past Perfect, a tense that expresses very distant or more distant past. For example, you can say: 'I had spoken to my friend before I spoke with my mother'. In this sentence, the first part is in more distant past hence Past Perfect (had spoken). The second part  (spoke) in 'closer' past hence Past Simple. But speakers of English like to simplify things, so instead of using Past Perfect, they just say: 'First, I spoke to my friend, then I spoke with my mother', using Past Simple in both parts of the sentence instead.

OK, so if you don't need all the tenses to be a good user of English, how many do you actually need? Below is a mind map that shows the basic tenses in English. There are only 8 tenses. At your level, you should have seen them all by now: 

Mind Map created by mariolahejduk with GoConqr

So there they are- the most important tenses in English and the 'time' they express. Don't worry if you don't know them yet or if you don't quite know when to use them. But that's a topic for another post...

Present Perfect Continuous- We have been talking about it...

Hello students!

Recently, we have been talking about present perfect continuous tense. This tense is very similar to present perfect, the only difference being the continuous aspect, i.e. -ing. I've used this tense in the first sentence of this post- 'We have been talking about present perfect.'

Here are some more examples of sentences. Some of them are positive (+), some are negative (-) and some are questions (?).

(+) I have been living in the UK for 10 years.

(+) We have been redecorating our room for the past hour.

(+) They have been waiting for Michelle since 5 o’clock.

(+) Jim has been watching TV all morning.

(?) How long have you been living in your current house? 

(-) Jack and Jill have not been making progress in their English class recently. 

So in order to create this tense we need:

Have/has + been + verb + ing 

So when should we use this tense? Look at the infographic below:

Now, let's practise  the form. Blow you have a set of 11 flashcards. Each flashcard contains words that you need to use to create a sentence in present perfect continuous. Read the words, and say, or write the sentence. Later, click on the card to reveal the answer.

Present Perfect Continuous | Create infographics

Flash Card Deck created by mariolahejduk with GoConqr

Finally, there is another exercise to practise the form. Read the description and select the correct sentence:

  Quiz created by mariolahejduk with GoConqr

For more information and exercises about this tense please, go to:

present perfect and present perfect continuous
BBC Grammar challenge
More explanation and more practice

What are past participles?

In every language people are able to express present (now), past and future. They do this using verbs. Verbs are words like 'go', 'do', 'feel', etc. that describe an action or a state. Look at the following sentences:

* I study English.

* I studied English.

Those two sentences are very similar but one of them is in present (the first one), and the other one is in the past. How do you know that? By the form of the verb.

study- is the present form of a verb
studied- is the past form of a verb

So verbs describe grammatical 'time'. We call this grammatical 'time' a tense. By now, you should know the present simple tense, or the past continuous tense or maybe the future tense. In every one of those tenses the verb looks a little bit different (e.g. present simple- study/studies, present continuous- is/are studying, future tense- will study).

So what is the past participle?

It is a form of a verb that you need to create the present perfect tense. Sometimes it is called V3 (verb 3 because it's the third form of a verb in a list of irregular verbs that you have to memorise).

Do you recognise this?

Yes, the list that you have to learn by heart! Past participle is the last form of the verb on that list.

Be careful though because the list is only for irregular verbs. If the verb is regular, e.g. love, talk, study, listen, etc., we create past participles by adding -ed, just like in the case of the past simple tense. So the verbs above will have the following past pariciples: loved, talked, studied, listened.

So to help you practise your past participles, I've prepared some flashcards. Look at the word and say its past participle to yourself, then click on it and the card will turn showing the correct form. If you get it right, click 'thumbs up' and the word will not repeat. If you get it wrong, click 'thumbs down' and the word will apprear again for you to try. There are 62 words in total!


Flash Card Deck created by mariolahejduk with GoConqr

Just in case you wanted to see more irregular verbs in groups (and there are about 200 of them in normal use!) please  go here.

Definite & indefinite articles in English- not as easy as they seem!

'a'/'an'/'the'- simple and innocent looking words that every student of English recognises. They are so easy to spell and you can see them in every English text. Don't be fooled, my dear students, they are one of the most ruthless creatures of English grammar because they don't want to be learned!

Why are they difficult?

1. There are a lot of rules about articles, and knowing rules is not enough, you also need to be able to apply them correctly (the most difficult part).

2. The rules are confusing and difficult to remember. For example, we use 'the' with the names of hotels and museums, e.g. the Regent Hotel, the Science Museum, but we don't use 'the' with the names of airports, stations and other important buildings, e.g. Cambridge University, London Zoo. (eh?!)

3. Sometimes the rules are broken altogether because people omit articles in set phrases where they would normally occur, e.g. We say: 'go to school', 'be at school', 'start school', etc. and not 'go to the school', and so on.

4. For some nationalities, the concept of articles as something that defines a noun is completely alien (any Polish people out there?). This means that some languages do not have a similar grammatical concept and therefore learners often don't understand its function in a language. For example, for a Polish speaking person there is no difference in meaning between 'I saw a man' and 'I saw the man' (The difference is: I saw a man- any man; I saw the man- a particular person that you and I know). What's more, many Polish speakers will frequently make a mistake like 'I saw man'. Man is man, right? I don't need 'a' or 'the' to understand it. ;)

How can I learn articles?

First, it's important not to stress out about the correct use of articles. Of course, they are important and if you want to be a proficient speaker of English, you need to know how to use them correctly, but the bottom line is that nouns carry the main meaning, not the articles. For example, when you speak to an English person and you say 'I saw man', they will understand what you're saying, but if you say 'I saw a...', they won't know what you're talking about. Remember, nouns carry the meaning.

So, how can you learn articles? Practise, practise, practise.

Generally, as far as articles go, it's better just to pick them up from English speakers rather than trying to memorise all the rules. However, knowing rules is sometimes beneficial because it is something you can fall back on when you are in doubt whether to use or not to use articles.

Below, I prepared a very long (but not complete!) presentation that explains rules of using definite and indefinite articles. I advise that you watch it when you are in good mood ;)

My video is too long and is on YouTube!

Finally, have a go at some exercises to practise the use of articles.

A, an, the with answers

Quiz- select the correct answer

Plenty of exercises- follow the links

Select the correct answer

The troublesome comma!

At Entry 3/Level 1 you should have a pretty clear idea about punctuation.

We need punctuation in writing to signal where the sentence ends and the other one starts (by using a full stop). We need it to mark a question (by using a question mark) and break down very long sentences (by using comma). We can also express our strong emotions (by using an exclamation mark), like in: I love this blog!

But then there is the troublesome comma! Comma is by far the most confusing of all punctuation marks. Mainly because it is not used consistently, i.e. people forget to put comma in their sentences or put it in the wrong place. Sometimes it is due to the fact that the use of comma depends on whether you are using American or British English. At other times, different punctuation books will have slightly different rules about the use of comma. And if you decide to use the Internet to find out about its correct use, different websites will give you conflicting information.  It's a mess!

So I decided to tackle the issue once and for all. I was getting confused too!

I checked my Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary as well as the Oxford dictionary website. I found a lot of useful information and I created this mind map that summarises what I've learned:

  Mind Map created by mariolahejduk with ExamTime

As you can see there are two examples in red.

The first one concerns the use of comma in direct speech. As you know, direct speech is when you quote the exact words that people said (as opposed to reporting what they said). For example, 'I spend  my holidays abroad', said Gemma. The words between quotation marks (' ') are direct speech. We need to separate them from the rest of the sentence by a comma. Another example could be: John said, 'I don't like driving'. Again, the words between quotation marks are separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. However, when we quote a question or an exclamation, we do not separate the direct speech from the rest of the sentence by a comma. For example: 'What time is it?' asked Mary; 'What a splendid surprise!' exclaimed Sue.

The second example in red concerns the use of comma in compound sentences joined by words like 'and', 'but', 'so', 'or', 'yet', 'as'. WARNING: the fact that you can put a comma before 'and' and 'but', etc. does not mean that you always need to do it. Look at the following examples:

• I walked along and turned into the first street. (No comma)
• I saw my friend Andy but I didn't stop to speak to him. (No comma)
• I can't stay here long as I have an appointment in half an hour. (No comma)

Generally, we don't need a comma before those conjunctions when the sentences are short(er). 

We do need a comma before 'and', 'but', 'so', 'or', 'yet', 'as' when the sentences are long. Look at the following example:

• I spoke to my landlady who said that she cannot do anything about the broken boiler, and that she wasn't going to pay for the repair, but she offered that I can pay my rent one week later, which was nice of her, I guess. 

Here the sentence is much longer and we need commas to break it down into manageable pieces. 

Finally, it is also a general rule that you need to break down long sentences (so called complex sentences or compound-complex sentences), even if they don't always contain the conjunctions above. Look at the example:

• If you decide to buy the house, call me and I'll give you some advice. 
• When you get there, please go to the main reception desk and ask for John Smith. 
• If you keep calm, take your time, concentrate and think ahead, then you're likely to pass your test. 

Speaking of tests, how about taking all information that you've learned from this post and put it to test? Below, you have 10 sentences without any punctuation marks. Read the sentences and choose the correct answer (A, B or C)- use my mind map to help you!

Quiz created by mariolahejduk with ExamTime

Future tenses part 2

Hello Students!

In January last year, I posted an entry about future tenses in English. It contained a useful mind map and some links to exercises. The post is here if you want to refresh your knowledge of the forms and the uses of different future tenses in English. (I strongly recommend that! :))



Today, I am posting some more practice exercises for future tenses in English. Have a go at the following quiz. It contains 13 sentences using 4 different future tenses: 'will' (future simple tense), 'to be going to', present simple and present continuous. Decide whether the sentences use the correct future tense (you need to click true if the tense is used correctly; and false if the tense is used incorrectly). When you have finished with the quiz, click on submit answers. Later, click on review answers to see the explanation of use.
  Quiz created by mariolahejduk with ExamTime

Past Continuous- one of the simpler tenses in English- hurray!

Dear students!

I have some good news for you! Past Continuous, which you've been learning recently, is one of the easier tenses in English! It is very similar to Present Continuous in form and usage so you shouldn't have any problems with understanding it. Have a look at the following presentation that explains the basic rules:

Here are some links where you can find more explanation & some exercises:

Past Simple & Continuous explained + an interactive exercise

Make sentences out of words (Past Continuous)

Make negative sentences out of the words given

Make questions in Past Continuous

Put into correct tense: Past Simple or Past Continuous

Explanation + a lot of exercises (Click on the right)

I didn't use to wear glasses!

Hello students!

In this post we're going to deal with 'used to'. As we mentioned in class, 'used to' expresses a habit or a state in the past that is no longer true now. How to better show this but to look at some pictures from the past and present!

In the picture on the left, you can see that I used to have long hair and I used to have a fringe. And I didn't use to wear glasses. But that was long time ago! Now, I have short hair and I wear glasses. 

You very often need to use this construction to refer to old habits from your childhood, e.g.:

• I used to play football with my friends every Sunday morning. 
• I used to be in bed by 9 o'clock.
• I used to ride my bicycle all day.
• I used to play hide and seek.  

All those sentences mean that you did those things in the past but you don't do them any more. 

Of course, 'used to' can refer to any past time in your life, not just your childhood, e.g.:

• I used to live in London when I was younger.
• I used to work in a supermarket. 
• I used to drive to work.
• I used to go out a lot. 
• I used to hate cheese.
• I didn't use to go to bed before 11 pm. 

All those sentences mean that you no longer do all those things, To get clearer understanding, we can add some sentences about your current circumstances:

• I used to live in London when I was younger. Now, I live in Newcastle. 
• I used to work in a supermarket. Now, I work in a bank. 
• I used to drive to work. Now, I walk because my work is a short distance from my house.
• I used to go out a lot.  Now, I don't go out any more. 
• I used to hate cheese. Now, I love cheese. 
• I didn't use to go to bed before 11 pm. Now, I am fast asleep at 10 pm every night. 

'Used to' can show how the habits of humanity have changed. Look at the following slides. 

                          People used to live in caves.                   Now they live in houses. 

Take a look at some more slides and try to create sentences like the ones above. The picture on the left of each slide will show a situation from the past, and the picture on the right will show a situation now. You have some words on top of each slide to help you create sentences/.

For more practice on 'used to' go to the following websites:

Choose the correct option

Video + exercises

Create sentences

ESOL Nexus presentation & exercises

Reported Speech- My teacher said that reported speech was easy!

Dear students!

For the past 2 weeks we've been talking about reported speech. I have prepared a presentation for you that explains reported speech. Below the presentation, you'll find some links to extra activities.

Change sentences to reported speech (easy)
Change tenses and time words
Listen Dong Jun from Korea talking about reported speech
Select the correct option

The link below will take you to a video. Before you watch, scroll down half page and click on 'Preparation' tab. Later, watch the video and do the two tasks.

Your boyfriend is a slob

Question tags- you understand them, don't you?

Watch the presentation below about question tags to recap what you've learned this week:







Follow these links for more practice on question tags:

http://www.ihbristol.com/free-english-exercises/test/esol-smc-question-tags
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/question_tags3.htm
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/question_tags2.htm
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/questionstags/menu.php
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/233.html
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2100

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are everywhere. You wake up in the morning. Then, you get up and put the make-up on (if you are a girl!). You get out of the house and hop on a bus because you want to get to work on time. You write up emails and go to meetings. Finally, after a hard day's work you come back home, put the TV on or listen to the radio. You just need to relax! Phrasal verbs overload!

There are a couple of things that you need to know about phrasal verbs:

1. They always consist of a verb (e.g. put) and a preposition (e.g. on) or a particle (e.g. away)

2. They can also have an object (e.g. 'it', 'her', 'the word') either in the middle or at the end (e.g. put it out, phone her back, look the word up // look for it, look after her, look for the word). 

3. The position of the object can sometimes change (e.g. Can you fill in this form. = Can you fill this form in. // I'm going to throw away these old shoes. = I'm going to throw these old shoes away.)

4. They can have literal and non-literal meaning. Take the following sentence. 

Yesterday, I picked up a girl. 

Literal meaning is this:

You actually lifted a girl off the ground.

Non- literal meaning is this:

You chatted to a girl and she liked you. 

5. They are best learn when you see/listen to them in context. It's pointless trying to memorise them because they are just too confusing!

In order to get to grips with all this phrasal verbs business, try the following exercises: 

Online game (easier)

Select correct particle/preposition (difficult)

Select correct particle (quite difficult)

Different games according to the verb

Punctuation- what's difficult about it?

It seems that everyone knows the rules of punctuation. You know that a full stop is at the end of the sentence and a comma separates two independent clauses or words in a list. So what's a big deal? Why so many students get it wrong?

The importance of punctuation cannot be overestimated. Why? Because it changes the meaning of the sentence, e.g.

And it makes the reading of texts easier.

can you imagine that there is no full stops commas apostrophes question marks exclamation marks and any other marks in the text you are reading you will find that it is very difficult to follow the text because you dont know when one sentence finishes and the other one starts and of course there are no capital letters to guide you though what a mess

To practise the use of punctuation and capital letters, please follow the links and do the exercises:

Thanksgiving
Valentine's Day
St David's Day
BBC games

Connectors vs Conjunctions

When you google the word 'connector', this is what comes up:

which, of course, has nothing to do with learning English, or has it? On the surface, it may not be so obvious, but connectors in language have the same function as connectors shown above- they are necessary to link pieces of a greater whole. In language, they help to create a cohesive whole of your longer piece of writing or a longer piece of speech. In practical terms, they are very important for your speaking and writing exam. 

As seen above, there are different connectors- they have various shapes and they link different parts within a unit. Similarly, connectors in language have different functions. The table below sumarises some connectors and their functions: 

*Adapted from Advanced Grammar in Use by M Hewings

The main feature of connectors is that they DO NOT join clauses within a sentence. They join IDEAS, i.e. they join separate sentences rather than clauses within one sentence.

For further practice, please use the following websites:

Stickyball

Flash Quiz

Scribd

So, what are conjunctions? Well, when I google them, the following images appear, meaning that conjunctions are uniquely linked to language and they don't have any other functions, like in the case of connectors.

Conjunctions, in contrast to connectors, link two clauses within a sentence. They DO NOT link separate sentences, that is why, for example, you cannot start your sentences with 'because' as it has to be attached to another part of the same sentence. On the other hand, conjunctions share the same functions as connectors, i.e. they can introduce contrast, comparison, addition, etc. within a sentence. Have a look below at the revised table of conjunctions and connectors:

*Adapted from Advanced Grammar in Use by M Hewings

*** Be careful with 'after', 'before' and 'so' as they can be both connectors and conjunctions. 

To clarify what conjunctions do, have a go at the following activities:

Conjunctions game (Easy)

ESL tower

Conjunctions II

Choose the best conjunction

Quiz

Reading exam- How to pass it?

What comes to your mind when you think of your reading exam? Do you feel confident that you'll pass? Do you have a secret method of passing an exam? Maybe you dread it altogether because you are afraid that there will be words that you don't understand? 

Here are a couple of tips that will help you to feel more confident before your reading exam. 

Know what to expect. Doing practice papers is an invaluable source of information. Not only do you get an idea of the level of difficulty of the exam, but also the type of tasks that you can expect.We did some practice tests in class, but for the future, if you don't/can't practise in class, don't forget that examining bodies (like City and Guilds) put practice tests on their websites which you can download and do in your own time. 

For your City & Guilds Literacy test you already know that there are two types of tasks:  multiple choice questions and open questions. The open questions require a specific number of answers. If you go over the limit, even if the extra answer that you provided is correct, you will still be marked down for not following the instructions. Please remember about it during your real exam. 

Read the questions first. This will help you to understand what the texts will be about. You can also underline key words which you will later look for in the text. Make a mental note of how many questions there are in total so that you manage your time effectively during the real exam. 

Use reading techniques. Reading in detail and translating words that you don't understand is the WORST thing that you can do. Many students, especially at higher levels, are scared of not understanding each and every word in text, just in case they need it to answer questions. While it might be true for a small number of questions, you will be able to answer most of the questions just by skimming and scanning. 

Skimming is when you read the text quite quickly, picking up the key words. The main idea behind this reading technique is to give you general meaning of the text, so called gist. That is why it is important to underline key words in questions to the text as you will most likely find the same words in text when you skim it. 

Scanning is when you only look for a particular piece of information. For example, if a question requires you to provide a year/time/telephone number, don't bother reading the whole text. Just look around for a number and you'll find the information you need much quicker. 

Reading in detail is the last thing you do. If you stumble across a question that you have problems with, you have no other choice but to read in detail. This is fine as long as you don't spend too much time on it. Try to leave difficult questions to the end. 

Look at the whole page.  Sometimes the text in your exam will be a screenshot of a webpage or a leaflet. They contain pictures, different fonts, tabs, etc. which also give information. So, don't concentrate purely on the text itself; sometimes the answer to the question might be in a picture or a caption. 

Stay calm and carry on! Don't get too stressed if the topic of the exam is difficult for you. Just do whatever you can and follow the instructions. There is always a retake ;)

GOOD LUCK!

Skills versus personal qualities

Looking for a job is a big task! That is why it is especially important to understand job adverts. Apart from typical information like the name of the company, duties and responsibilities of the job, qualifications and experience required, job adverts sometimes specify skills and qualities that the candidates are required to have. But what's the difference between skills and personal qualities?

Look at some examples below. The words underlined in red refer to skills whereas the words underlined in green refer to personal qualities. Have a think what the difference is between them.

Generally speaking, the difference between skills and personal qualities is that skills refer to something that we can do while personal qualities refer to the way we are, our character. We can also say that we can get better at our skills, for example, the longer we use computers, the better computer skills we have. On the other hand, our personal qualities remain the same throughout our lives, for example, you can be a friendly person by nature. We can't really become 'friendlier' in time. 

Sometimes, however, the distinction isn't as clear-cut. Let's think about the word 'persuasive'. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, this word means 'able to persuade somebody to do or believe something', which would imply that it is more of a skill. This sort of skill would be sought after in a call centre where, as a representative, you often have to sell things. Let's say you have to sell home insurance. The more insurance policies you sell, the stronger persuasive skills you have. And of course, as you have to practise selling them every day, you become better at persuading people and you sell even more policies. In other words, 'persuasive' is a skill because you get better at it in time. 

On the other hand, some people are naturally persuasive. Maybe it's their tone of voice or maybe certain words that they use. Regardless of the reason, people tend to give in to their persuasiveness. That is why some of the call centre workers achieve remarkable results in selling insurance whereas other people just can't sell any insurance policies at all. So, we can say that 'persuasive' is a bit the way you are. You can't just learn it because otherwise all call centre workers would sell the same amount of policies.

Below, there is a list of skills and personal qualities that the employers look the most in  their future employees. Maybe you can use some words in your CV or an application form?

Formal letters- how to plan & write them?

From time to time we are required to write a formal piece of writing, usually a letter. We can write a covering letter to support our job application form or a letter of complaint when we are dissatisfied with service that we received. Regardless of the type of letter that we need to write, it's always good to have a plan.

Let's look closely at the following situation:

You have a direct debit of £35 set up with your mobile phone provider to pay for your phone bill every month. Last month, £335 was taken from your account and as a result you went £200 overdraft. You need to write a letter of complaint to the bank manager of your bank explaining the situation and suggesting resolution to the problem.

First, we need to have a plan for our letter. There are a few ways in which you can plan your writing. Here, you have got four examples: a list, a writing frame, a flow chart and a mind map. All of the examples show various ways in which you can plan the letter above.

List

Writing frame

Flow chart

Mind map

So once you have a plan you need to write a draft. A draft is the first version of your letter. Many students think that the first version of their piece of writing is good enough to go. That's a mistake.  A draft is just a way of putting your plan into a letter-like shape but it is NOT the letter that you can send. At this stage you just need to write and not worry about the grammar mistakes or spelling problems. You will correct them later. Below, you have an example of a draft. 

Once you have your draft, there are many ways in which you can improve it. Below you have a mind map which shows different aspects that need to be looked at when editing a piece of writing. 

by mariolahejduk

So, below you have an example of how we could correct the draft. Please bear in mind that this might not be the final version yet. You might need more editing before you arrive at a version that you are happy with.

So now it's time to write the final version of our letter. Here's an example:

                                                                                                                                Jane Smith

                                                                                                                                12 White Gardens

                                                                                                                                London

                                                                                                                                WS1 4QR

The Manager                                                                                                            22.01.14

Lloyds Bank

12 Poor Street

TS5 7RJ

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about an unauthorised transaction that took place on my bank account (bank account number 44123124) on Thursday 18.01.14.

I have a direct debit set up with my mobile phone provider, Vodafone, of £35. The amount is taken from my account at the beginning of every month. Last week, £335 was taken from my bank account. I called Vodafone to enquire about it but they said that they only received the usual amount. So the problem seems to be with your system.

As a result of this mistake, I went £200 overdraft and I am being charged an overdraft fee of £5 every day. What is more, last weekend I could not afford my weekly shopping and I am not able to pay other bills which are due this month. I find this whole situation very stressful and I am disappointed with the fact that your bank allowed such situation to happen.

Can you give this matter your immediate attention? I would like you to refund my money immediately and cancel any overdraft charges.

Yours faithfully,

Jane Smith

                                                                                               

Remember that writing is a process. You need to start with a plan, i.e. you generate ideas and try to write them down showing relationship between them. Then, you write your ideas in sentences in paragraphs, i.e. you create your draft. Finally, you edit your work. You check for grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes but also you add and delete sentences and you change words so that they sound more formal. 

What's the key to success in life?

What is your understanding of success in life? Is it a career, a happy family, fulfilled goals? Maybe a nice amount of money in your bank account?
What is it that decides that you are successful in life? Is it your intelligence? Talent? Luck? Good grades at school? Character? Maybe a combination of all of them? The scientists have long thought that it could be the intelligence, but they are not so sure now. They begin to understand that the key to success is something they call a 'grit'. What is it? Watch this short video and find out.

 Key to success

Do you agree with them? Do you know anyone who has it and is really successful despite not scoring high on IQ tests? Share below

The (Present) Perfect Song!

Ah, Present Perfect! The mysterious and incomprehensible tense that gives headache to so many students of English. Rather than remembering the formulas (although they are useful sometimes!) when to use Present Perfect, see it in action!  The Irish rock band, U2, have created a perfect song in Present Perfect. It tells a story of what a person has done so far in their lives in search of their happiness.

So every time you want to talk about of what you have done so far in your life, just think about this song!

*** PS. Can you spot a mistake with past participle in the song?

To practise the use of the tense, please follow the links:

Create positive sentences
Create negative sentences
Sentences with 'never'
Create questions
Present Perfect vs Past Simple Quiz