LASK writing

• Onderwijswetenschappen
• WO
• Studiejaar 2

Today

Key phrases for formal essay writing ​

Grammar for essay writing​

Formalising your writing​

Kids today have way too much stuff.​

Everyone thinks that fast food is bad.

Introducing the Topic

More and more families are choosing to have only one child.​

The trend nowadays is towards having smaller families.​

Over the past ten years or so the media have frequently carried reports of 

Recent research indicates that the number of teenagers who smoke is increasing.​

Hardly a week goes by without another report of ................. appearing in the media.​

This raises the issue of whether .................​

Although most people would generally agree that ............... few would deny that ...............​

Being Cautious

It  is believed that …​ 

It is thought that …​

It is a widely held view that …​

It has been reported that …​

It has commonly been assumed that …​

According to recent reports, …​

According to many in the field …​

Many scholars hold the view that …​

Recent research has suggested that …​

There is some evidence to suggest that …

Presenting Arguments

One justification often given for ........... is that.................​

Advocates/Proponents would claim that ..................​

Those who object to .............. (of…...) often argue that ...................​

Another objection is that ......​

However, it should not be forgotten that ..............​

........... are opposed to ................ on the grounds that .................​

From the point of view of .................​

According to ...................

Stating Your opinion

As I see it…​

It seems to me that…​

I am (absolutely) convinced that…​

I am inclined to believe that…​

There is no doubt in my mind that…​

​

Concluding

All in all it seems to me that ...........​

The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that .......................​

All things considered, .............​

On balance, I tend to believe that ............​

The world would surely be a better place to live in if ..............​

If people stopped ....ing, we would have/ we could look forward to a ...............​

The prospects for the future will be bleak/grim unless ...................

Grammar

Passive​

Inversion​

Conditionals​

Participle clauses​

Cleft sentences

Passive

a crisis in education which must be addressed​

an issue that must be tackled / be dealt with​

a challenge which must be met​

something must be done to restore law and order in the inner cities

Inversion

Word order is the same as a question​

This occurs rarely nowadays (regular word order)​

Rarely does this occur nowadays​

Seldom does a week go by without a report of…appearing in the media​

Never before has such cruelty been witnessed ​

Under no circumstances should children from poorer backgrounds be made to pay for music lessons​

Not only does this …. , but also ….

Inversion in conditional sentences

Should you require further information, ….​

Were it not for.…,​

Had it not been for the fact that….,​

Had she not started….,​

​

If you wrote that number down, you wouldn’t keep forgetting it.

If he planned his experiments properly, he wouldn’t keep getting into such a mess.​

If it had rained, the ceremony would have been held indoors.​

Partiple Clauses

Present simple/continuous: I watch/I am watching​

Past simple/continuous: I watched/I was watching​

Present participle: watching (use instead of Present or Past simple/continuous)​

Perfect participle: having watched – instead of Past perfect​

Example:​

Jesse watched TV and ate nachos (Past simple)​

Watching TV, Jesse ate nachos ​

After he had watched TV, Jesse ate nachos​

Having watched TV, Jesse ate nachos​

Because he was late, Roy ran all the way to school​

After she had done her homework, Adinde watched TV​

Because she’s a student, Aylin can get a discount on books​

Bram ate a bacon sandwich then cycled to school.​

Eelke couldn’t see the board so she closed the blinds.​

WHAT I WANT IS THIS: CLEFT SENTENCES 

What I enjoyed most in the Ballet Frankfurt performance was the brilliant music.​

It wasn’t until we arrived at the hotel that we met her.​

1 Marius accepted the invitation with great reluctance.​

It was with great reluctance that Marius accepted the invitation​

2 Rodney wanted to buy a car.​

What Rodney wanted was to buy a car.​

There was a REALLY BIG GAP in the sales in the past two years, until last March, when sales WENT UP QUICKLY and then WENT DOWN A LITTLE BIT and stayed the same until now.

​

significant/large/huge + discrepancy/disparity​ 

increased rapidly​ 

decreased slightly​ 

remained stable

Writing a Letter

Page 124 Exercise 2