Wednesday
Saturday
Writing a Biography
A biography is the story of a person's life. It includes details of the person's life. It generally follows a specific chronological order:
In order to show the chronological sequence, we often give the actual dates of events and use time expressions such as before, after, at the same time, while, for, since, later, during this period....
Linking words are also useful to show the relationship between events or factors that have influenced a person's life.
Connectors such as although, despite, as well as, besides, not only... but also, therefore, because, as a result, etc, can be used to improve the quality of the biography you write.
FREQUENT PHRASES AND STRUCTURES
1. General background
⇰He/she was born in ……………(place), on………….. (date, ordinal)
“Malvin Wetey was born in Wales on the third of April 1989”
“Melissa Badley was born in Merridon, Scotland in 1995”
⇰ He/she belonged to a - rich/wealthy family # poor/humble family.
- a family of humble origins. / of noble lineage
- big/large family / small family.
⇰ He/She was part of a - working class / middle class/ ruling class family
- cultured # ignorant/illiterate family.
⇰He/She was brought up - in an urban/ country/ context
- in very harsh conditions / privileged conditions
- by a ……………. family.
2. Childhood / adolescence
⇰ At a very early age, he/she started working hard in a factory
⇰ At the age of 4, Mozart played the piano perfectly.
⇰ When she turned 18, she left home to start a new life by herself.
⇰ During his childhood, Amstrong was riding his bike for 5 hours every day
⇰ By the time she was 18, Sara had already travelled to 14 different countries
3. Education
⇰ He went on with his/her studies at school/university.
⇰ Sam was a(n) lazy/hard-working/brilliant/average student.
⇰ He was very good at Art and Literature
⇰ Barbara was skilled in Mathematics.
⇰ She always got the highest/lowest marks in the class
⇰ Ralph went successfully through his studies and graduated in Sociology.
⇰ His academic performance was very satisfactory/outstanding # poor
⇰ Sandra got a degree in Law
4. Family life
⇰When he was 34 he got married and had 5 children.
⇰ She decided to stay single and lead her own life.
⇰ Phil married the girl of his dreams, but after a few years of happy marriage, things started to go wrong.
⇰ Before she married Adam she had dated many other men.
⇰ After having her first baby, she became far more understanding.
⇰ He shared his life with his wife and their 3 children.
5. Career ( achievements, failures, events, setbacks )
⇰ He spent a lot of years of his life fighting for the human rights.
6. End of life and death.
⇰He died at the age of ………,
- General Background
- Childhood/adolescence
- Education
- Family life
- Career (achievements, failures, events, setbacks)
- (end of life and death)
- Conclusion and personal opinion.
In order to show the chronological sequence, we often give the actual dates of events and use time expressions such as before, after, at the same time, while, for, since, later, during this period....
Linking words are also useful to show the relationship between events or factors that have influenced a person's life.
Connectors such as although, despite, as well as, besides, not only... but also, therefore, because, as a result, etc, can be used to improve the quality of the biography you write.
FREQUENT PHRASES AND STRUCTURES
1. General background
⇰He/she was born in ……………(place), on………….. (date, ordinal)
“Malvin Wetey was born in Wales on the third of April 1989”
“Melissa Badley was born in Merridon, Scotland in 1995”
⇰ He/she belonged to a - rich/wealthy family # poor/humble family.
- a family of humble origins. / of noble lineage
- big/large family / small family.
⇰ He/She was part of a - working class / middle class/ ruling class family
- cultured # ignorant/illiterate family.
⇰He/She was brought up - in an urban/ country/ context
- in very harsh conditions / privileged conditions
- by a ……………. family.
2. Childhood / adolescence
⇰ At a very early age, he/she started working hard in a factory
⇰ At the age of 4, Mozart played the piano perfectly.
⇰ When she turned 18, she left home to start a new life by herself.
⇰ During his childhood, Amstrong was riding his bike for 5 hours every day
⇰ By the time she was 18, Sara had already travelled to 14 different countries
3. Education
⇰ He went on with his/her studies at school/university.
⇰ Sam was a(n) lazy/hard-working/brilliant/average student.
⇰ He was very good at Art and Literature
⇰ Barbara was skilled in Mathematics.
⇰ She always got the highest/lowest marks in the class
⇰ Ralph went successfully through his studies and graduated in Sociology.
⇰ His academic performance was very satisfactory/outstanding # poor
⇰ Sandra got a degree in Law
4. Family life
⇰When he was 34 he got married and had 5 children.
⇰ She decided to stay single and lead her own life.
⇰ Phil married the girl of his dreams, but after a few years of happy marriage, things started to go wrong.
⇰ Before she married Adam she had dated many other men.
⇰ After having her first baby, she became far more understanding.
⇰ He shared his life with his wife and their 3 children.
5. Career ( achievements, failures, events, setbacks )
⇰ He spent a lot of years of his life fighting for the human rights.
⇰During his lifetime, he did his best to improve the living standard of poor people
⇰He devoted much of his time to travel to different places and to know other cultures.
⇰After a long period of happiness and success, he suddenly......
⇰He devoted much of his time to travel to different places and to know other cultures.
⇰After a long period of happiness and success, he suddenly......
⇰His/her life was full of achievements, although he also experienced some serious setbacks.
6. End of life and death.
⇰He died at the age of ………,
⇰ He died of natural causes/ of a ……… (disease, heart attack, for instance).
Time Expressions for Biography Quiz
Linking Words in Narratives Quiz
Time Expressions for Biography Quiz
Linking Words in Narratives Quiz
Friday
Sequencing a Story
Hello, I'm Bart and I had a great birthday yesterday. 1First / Next, I met my friends at the shopping centre and they bought me a present. 2 Then / Finally, we had pizza at a café. 3 Finally / Next, we went to the cinema and saw a very funny comedy. 4Then / First suddenly, my parents arrived. They took me to an amazing restaurant for dinner.5 Next / Finally, we went home and I went to bed, tired but happy.
SEQUENCING QUIZ
Provide an appropriate sequencing word to fill in the gaps:
My friend and I visited Rome last summer. (1) ________, we flew from New York to Rome in first class. It was fantastic! (2) _________ we arrived in Rome, we (3) ______ went to the hotel and took a long nap. (4) ________, we went out to find a great restaurant for dinner. (5) ________, a scooter appeared out of nowhere and almost hit me! The rest of the trip had no surprises. (6) __________, we began to explore Rome. (7) ________ the afternoons, we visited ruins and museums. At night, we hit the clubs and wandered the streets. One night, (8) ________ I was getting some ice-cream, I saw an old friend from high school. Imagine that! (8) _________, we caught our flight back to New York. We were happy and ready to begin work again.
Multiple answers are possible for some gaps:
- First of all / To start off with / Initially / To begin with
- As soon as / When
- immediately
- Then / After that / Next
- Suddenly / Unexpectedly
- Then / After that / Next
- During
- while / as
- Finally / In the end / Eventually
Sunday
Basic Writing Skills
GRAMMAR
- Each sentence must have its subject: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2
- Word order: statements, questions, adjectives, frequency adverbs, manner, time and place adverbials: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2 EXERCISE 3 EXERCISE 4 EXERCISE 5 EXERCISE 6
- Subject-verb agreement: compounds of SOME, ANY, NO, EVERY with a singular verb: EXERCISE 1.
- Uncountable nouns with a singular verb: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2
- Use of articles. EXERCISE 1 Omission of “the” before a noun used in general sense (REVIEW NO ARTICLE GRAMMAR CHALLENGE): EXERCISE 2 EXERCISE 3 EXERCISE 4
- Like + V-ing: EXERCISE 1 (avoid me like football EXERCISE 2)
- A lot of/much/many: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2
- This/these, that/those: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2
- Short Writing Activities
SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION
- Capital letters: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2
- Nationality adjectives: EXERCISE 1
- Apostrophes: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2 EXERCISE 3
- Question and exclamation marks: EXERCISE 1
- Spelling of –ing forms: EXERCISE 1 EXERCISE 2
- Spelling of 3rd person verb forms (present simple) and plural nouns: EXERCISE 1
Friday
Writing Tools
iwordcount.net Count the words you read or write. Just type or paste.
PicLit Create an inspired picture writing.
MeetingWords is a simple text editor for the web.Your text is saved on the web, and more than one person can edit the same document at the same time. Everybody's changes are instantly reflected on all screens.Work together on meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, homework, team programming and more!
ifaketext.com The first iPhone text message screenshot generator.
Language Tool Style and Grammar Check Check your grammar before handing in your essays and written assignments.
Rewordify Understand what you read. Simplify texts.
Simplish, very much like the previous one. Convert Standard English into Basic English. It also summarizes longish texts.
Festisite Create money, a deck of cards, or well-known logos. Turn plain text into a maze, the shape of a heart, or is a rebus more for you?
Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.
Loose Leaves for thoughts that don't have a home. Write and share.
PicLit Create an inspired picture writing.
MeetingWords is a simple text editor for the web.Your text is saved on the web, and more than one person can edit the same document at the same time. Everybody's changes are instantly reflected on all screens.Work together on meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, homework, team programming and more!
ifaketext.com The first iPhone text message screenshot generator.
Language Tool Style and Grammar Check Check your grammar before handing in your essays and written assignments.
Rewordify Understand what you read. Simplify texts.
Simplish, very much like the previous one. Convert Standard English into Basic English. It also summarizes longish texts.
Festisite Create money, a deck of cards, or well-known logos. Turn plain text into a maze, the shape of a heart, or is a rebus more for you?
Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.
Loose Leaves for thoughts that don't have a home. Write and share.
Email Writing
WRITING EMAILS
An informal email interactive from Learning English Teens British CouncilInteractive Lessons from The British Council
Cloze Exercise Email quiz from ESL PartyLand
How to Write an Email from CILL
A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
Tienes un #email 😀 En #ingles 😱 Repasamos los conceptos básicos para que no tengas ningún problema con el correo. pic.twitter.com/jDE3xQTa9s— Cambridge Spain (@CambridgeSpain) 21 de septiembre de 2017
WRITING EMAILS practice
Writing an Informal Email by British Council
An Email to a New Friend by British Council
Writing a More Formal Email by British Council
An Informa Email Fill-in by Mansión del Inglés
How to Write an Email Revision
Reading & Listening Formal Emails by Mansión del Inglés
Writing Skills Links
Writing Skills Practice interactive activities organized by levels
Best Grammar Checker List
Writing a biography
Writing Skills Practice
Writing about a Pie-Chart
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