Introduction and tips (Writing articles)

• ANSWER THE QUESTION

• PLAN your article.

• Give your article a title.

• Make sure you have at least 4 paragraphs.

• Ask rhetorical questions to get your readers' attention. Eg. What would the world be like without oil? What will life be like in 20 years time?

• Speak directly to your readers. Eg. Let's just imagine some of the possibilities.

• Give examples where appropriate.

• Use humour where appropriate

• Give a conclusion and summary in the last paragraph.

• Finally, give your opinion where appropriate.

• REVISE your article to correct mistakes.

• Useful phrases (Writing articles)

• Rhetorical phrases:

• Have you ever ……..?

• What do you think about ……..?

• Are you one of those people who thinks that ……?

• Are you one of those people who …....?

• What would life be like if ……?

• Will the future bring us ….. ?

• Introducing your first point:

• Firstly

• In the first place

• First of all

• The first thing to consider is

• One thing to consider is

• To begin with

• Introducing more points:

• Secondly

• Another consideration

• Yet another consideration

• Another thing to consider is

• Added to that

• Apart from that

• In addition to this

• Introducing your final points:

• In conclusion

• To conclude

• To sum up

• So

• Introducing your opinion:

• I think

• In my opinion

• Personally I believe that

• In my view

• If you ask me

• To my mind

• My personal opinion is

Write an article Question You have been asked by the editor of your school magazine to write an article on the following topic:

Today's television

"A load of old rubbish" or

"More choice than ever before"? Is today's television still good value for money?

Write your article for the magazine (around 120-180 words).

2

Means of communication

1. What means of communication can you think of?How do they affect our lives?

1. Which do you prefer: sending a message or making a call? Why? 2. How often do you send and receive text messages or e-mails? 3. How do you think communication will change in the future? 4. Can you imagine your life without modern means of communication?

Read the article “Email - a good thing or a bad thing?” and speak about the positive and negative sides of emails or debate

In recent years email has become an increasingly important means of communication. However, like most things it has both advantages and disadvantages.

On the plus side: •First of all, email is easy. All you need is the appropriate software on your computer. There are no stamps to stick and no trips in the freezing cold to postboxes. •The second point is that email is fast. No matter where you’re sending your message, whether it’s to the next street or to the other side of the planet it takes only seconds to reach its destination. Nowadays, whenever I send regular mail (or snail mail as email users call it), I can’t believe that it’s actually going to take days to reach its destination. How primitive! •Email is not only fast, it is also cheap. Unlike long distance telephone calls, you pay no more for messages. •Also, email messages are easily stored. Because they’re electronic, saving an email message you’ve received (and calling it back up again later) is a breeze. •In addition to this, email is environmentally friendly because of being electronic. It saves natural resources such as paper. •Last but not least, email is practically universal. More and more people use it every day.

On the minus side: •Firstly, email is impersonal. You can’t see a person, face to face; it’s difficult to get across subtle meanings in email prose with no visual or voice clues. •Secondly, it can be argued that email is in fact too easy. You can write a message in a few seconds and send it off with one click. And once sent, you can’t get back a message that may have been written in a fit of irritation or anger. •Another point is that email security is lax. As your email message makes its way to its destination, it has to pass through other, public, systems. Anyone with the right technical know-how can intercept it without your knowing. •although, as stated above, it’s an advantage that email messages are easily stored, this can also be a disadvantage. If you say nasty things about your boss in a message, a saved copy can come back to haunt you in the future. •A final and very important point is that email can take over your life. Because it is so easy to start getting more and more correspondence, and you end up spending most of your day reading and responding to floods of messages.

Overall, however, the pros of email outweigh the cons. Email has transformed the world of communication in largely beneficial ways, and alongside text messaging, is now a major way of keeping in touch.