Writing

• Materials
• Referencing
• Ideas
• E-mail Pen-pals/Pen-friends
• Needs Analysis
• Planning
• Testing
• Further Planning

Materials

• Memos
• How to write memos
• Memo Guidelines - a common style for how to write memos, and an activity.
• Organisation of Memos - how to use headings to make the organisation of a memo clearer. This exercise also looks at ways to persuade your reader to do the action you want.
• Formality in Memos - shows the right language to use for a formal memo of resignation
• Memo Headings - making the organisation of your memos more reader-friendly
• Memo writing scenario and practice task - read the interactive office scenario, then write a memo and submit it. The computer will give you feedback on your memo.

• E-mail
• How to write e-mail
• Language to Show Status - shows the right language to use to show a boss-to-worker or worker-to-boss relationship

• Letters
• Arranging a Meeting: reading comprehension exercise on a letter arranging a meeting. This exercise illustrates the format and layout of a modern business letter. 
• Sales letters: an explanation and an exercise.
• Enquiry letters:
  • Enquiry letters - describes the content, language and organisation of letters of enquiry. Includes an exercise.
  • Enquiry letter replies - describes the content and language of letters of enquiry, with example letters. Includes an exercise.
  • Reply to Enquiry Practice Task - follow the instructions to write a reply to a letter of enquiry, send it in, and the computer will comment on your writing.
• Complaint letters:
• How to write complaint letters - describes the content, language and organisation of letters of complaint, and includes examples and an exercise.
• The grammar of complain / complaint
• Letter of complaint practice task -  type in your letter and the computer will analyse it for you, and give you some feedback.
• Adjustment letters:
• How to write adjustment letters - includes the stages of dealing with complaints, some useful expressions, some example letters, and an exercise.
• Adjustment Letter Constructor - build a letter of adjustment by selecting the right phrases.
• Letter of Adjustment (Reply to a Letter of Complaint) correction exercise.
• Positive Tone in Adjustment Letters
• Adjustment letter practice task - type in your letter and the computer will analyse it for you, and give you some feedback.
• Adjustment letter scenario and practice task - go through the interactive office scenario, then write your letter of adjustment and submit it. The computer will give you feedback.
• Job application letters:
• Job Application Letter Writer - fill in the boxes and this program will write your letter for you.
• Reference Letter Writer - fill in the boxes and the computer will give you a correctly-formatted reference letter.
    

• Requesting an interview about a company- the organisation and content of a message requesting an interview to find out details of a company.
• The 10 Elements of an Effective Press Release
• Style Guide - prescriptive advice about correct writing style (Advanced Level).
• Reference Machine - fill in the boxes and the computer will give you a correctly-formatted reference

Essays

• Steps in Process Writing - an ordering activity
• Explanation of functions in essay titles, and an exercise on which functions to use
• Formal and Informal Sentences - a matching exercise
• Common Errors in Formality in Academic Writing - an exercise in choosing a more formal phrase

• Introductory Paragraph Techniques - identify four basic techniques for composing the opening statement of your introductory paragraph: the general statement, the rhetorical question, the impact statement, and the anecdote.
• Functions - exercise on definition, comparison and contrast.
• Categorisation
• Cause and Effect - this exercise introduces the vocabulary and grammar needed to describe causes and effects. Includes an exercise.
• Using precise words
• Hedging
• Replacing idioms with formal verbs in academic writing
• The Order of an Essay - putting essay paragraphs in the correct order
• Coherence in a Text on Palmistry
• Academic essay writing checklist
• The Common Error Detector  - copy and paste your essay into the box and the Error Detector finds some common problems in academic essay writing and gives you tips how to solve them.
• Referencing

Reports

Others

• Subject-verb agreement - an explanation and an exercise.
• The Common Error Detector  - copy and paste your essay into the box and the Error Detector finds some common problems in academic essay writing and gives you tips how to solve them.
• Organisation Tool - helps you to re-organise lists; e.g. lists of topics to put in essays.
• Pros and Cons Calculator - helps you decide which side of an argument is stronger.
• Scanner - a program that highlights the words in a text that are easy for a reader to find. Use it to improve the organisation and reader-friendliness of your writing.
• Advanced Dictionary Skills - this site will teach you how to find the meaning of words faster, and teach you how to improve your vocabulary and pronunciation.
• The Purdue University On-line Writing Lab handouts list. Writing Lab

• How to Use Words and Phrases Correctly (Use the Concordancer in the middle of the page)

Paragraph Structure

Referencing

Referencing Resources on the Internet

• Referencing Pages - an overview of using sources and referencing
• Reference Machine - a program to help you write references. You fill in the boxes with the author's name etc. and the computer formats the reference for you. You can use one of the following styles:
  
  • APA style: for an in-text citation, a book, an article in a journal, a chapter in an edited volume, a newspaper or magazine article, or an Internet reference.
  • Harvard style: for  an in-text citation, a book, an article in a journal, a chapter in an edited volume, a newspaper or magazine article, or an Internet reference.
  • Vancouver style: for a book, an article in a journal, a chapter in an edited volume, a newspaper or magazine article, or an Internet reference.
  • IEEE style: for a book, a part or chapter in a book, an article in a journal, an article in an e-journal
• Referencing Exercises: Spot the errors and correct them in in-text references and in bibliographical references.
• Choosing whether to use a quotation, summary or paraphrase.
• Secondary citation
• Example academic essay with the quotations, summaries and paraphrases highlighted. It also contains in-text citations and references. The topic is how to design navigation for Internet pages.
• List of referencing-related books in CILL.

Thinking of Ideas for Your Writing

• Good point! is a site for reading and sharing points on topics that you can use for essays, discussions and presentations.
• Generating ideas and organising writing with mind-maps and journalistic questioning.
• Organisation Tool - helps you to re-organise lists; e.g. lists of topics to put in essays.
• Pros and Cons Calculator - helps you decide which side of an argument is stronger.

Writing to E-mail Pen-pals/Pen-friends

• PenPALS - pen-pals / pen-friends listed by sex and age - choose the category you are interested in, check the listings and click on the person you would like to would like to communicate with.

E-mail Discussion Lists

Join these lists and you will get e-mail everyday from learners all over the world discussing General and Business English, current events, cinema, sports and science and technology. You can send in e-mail and join in the discussion. To subscribe, click here and send a e-mail with no message to announce-sl@latorobe.edu.au

Needs Analysis

There are four stages in needs analysis: what you need to know about a language, your present problems, your future needs, your needs for your course.

Click here for a Needs Analysis / Planning / Studying / Assessment Form that you can print out and fill in.

Problems

Make a list of the problems that you have when you are writing, and the situations where you have these problems. For example:

Example Problem 1: My grammar is not good ( this is a grammar problem, not just a writing problem!)

Example Problem 2: Speed - I want to write faster.

Example Problem 3: I don't want to copy large sections from books - I want to paraphrase.

Future Needs

Think about what English you will need in future, for example for your job. Here are some examples:

Example Future Need 1: I will need to write reports and memos.

Example Future Need 2: I will need to write business letters.

Example Future Need 3: I want to work for an international company, so my English, including writing, must be very good.

Needs for Your Course

If you are a student you probably need to study English to help you with your course work; e.g. for writing assignments. Some example needs are:

Example Course Need 1: I need to write assignments and projects.

Example Course Need 2: I need to write up a final year project.

(Click here to see the English courses that most full-time HKPU students do.)

Planning

You need to decide:

• what materials and resources you want to use
• whether you want to work alone or with other people
• when you want or need to finish studying; e.g. in time for an assignment deadline
• how much improvement is necessary

Materials and Resources
Materials can be books and handouts etc. on writing
Resources can be teachers, classmates, computers, learner pathways, etc.

Working Alone or With Other People
Reasons for working with other people on writing are:
- You get more ideas from the other people
- They can suggest improvements
- They can tell you if you make a mistake
- They can encourage you to do better
- Explaining things to other people can help you understand better
- Sharing the work helps you do it quicker
- You can share your thoughts and feelings
- Teamwork skills and experience are important for your career.

Reasons for working alone are:
- So your work is not the same as other people's
- If you share a task then you might learn only your part of the task, not how to do all of it. Your aim is to learn, not to finish quickly.
- Maybe you don't want to be influenced by other people
- You don't want to share your ideas with other people.

Materials

Click here to go back to the list of writing materials on the Internet at the top of this page.

These are lists CILL materials for writing, but the materials are not on the Internet:

• Click here for lists of academic writing materials in CILL.
• Click here for lists of career English writing materials in CILL.
• Click here for a list of CILL materials on writing and presenting Final Year Projects.

Writing Strategies

• Note-taking: it's a good idea to write down the main ideas, important points, an outline or a summary of a topic.
• Organisation: You can use a mind-map, organisation tool or pros and cons calculator to help you organise the information.
• Proof-reading: you can use this program to automatically check for some common mistakes.
• Peer-review: ask a friend to read your text and comment on it. Do they understand it? Can they suggest any improvements?
• To-do list: write a list of 10 specific problems you have with your writing. Put them in order of seriousness or solvability. Work on the highest priority problems until you solve them. When you have solved them, cross them out, and add new problems to the bottom of the list.

Testing and Feedback

You can test your writing skills yourself, with classmates, with a CILL teacher or with a WAP teacher.

Testing Yourself
Do some writing; e.g. for an assignment. Proof-read the writing, looking to see if you have improved the skill you have been learning. You can use this program to automatically check for some common mistakes.

Testing with Classmates
Show your writing to your classmates and ask what they think. Discuss their answers. If you can't agree, check in references such as dictionaries or grammar books or Internet sites.

Testing with a CILL Tutor
Show or e-mail your writing to a CILL teacher at eccill@inet.polyu.edu.hk. It is very important to tell the tutor what you have been learning so that they can assess that. If you would like suggestions for other things to improve, please ask. CILL tutors do not believe that it is good to correct everything because we know you are not studying everything about writing, that would take a long time. We believe it is better for you to work on one small area of writing at a time.

Testing with a WAP Teacher
Click here to see a video about getting feedback from a Writing Assistance Programme (WAP) teacher.

Further Planning

When you have finished your plan you need to test or assess yourself to see if you have fulfilled your need. Can you do what your Needs Analysis and your plan aimed for?

• If you can, then you can plan to learn another point from your Needs Analysis, or you can change it because of some new thing that you want to learn. Don't forget to come back and revise later.
• If you can't, you need to study more, so change your plan. You could, for example, do some of the Alternative Materials or Extra Materials if you are following a learner pathway. If you are bored you can do something else and come back later.

For more details on how you can test yourself, click here. The learner pathways also have details on how you can test yourself. Click here for an example.