Tag Archives: academic writing

Writing Letters in the English Language Classroom

Betsy Gilliland
Betsy Gilliland

The winter holidays often bring with them greeting cards from friends and relatives living near and far. One of the things I like the most about these cards is the letters some people include, telling about their family activities over … Continue reading

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Writing About Food: 5 Activities for the Language Classroom

Betsy Gilliland
Betsy Gilliland

November begins an intensive season of holidays around the world, from Día de los Muertos on November 1-2 to Chinese New Year in February. Many of these festivities include traditional foods that vary by culture and region. Food is a … Continue reading

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Writing Across the Curriculum

Betsy Gilliland
Betsy Gilliland

As TESOL professionals, we often think of ourselves as English teachers whose primary work is supporting our students to learn the English language. Learning English entails learning how to use English for various purposes, including writing in school and college. … Continue reading

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3 Strategies for Formative Assessment and Feedback

Hetal Ascher
Hetal Ascher

Formative assessment refers to assessment used to inform our instruction, and formative feedback refers to the feedback we give to students to help them grow and learn. This blog post contains three strategies for formative assessment and feedback and some … Continue reading

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Assessing Writing

Betsy Gilliland
Betsy Gilliland

I am  collaborating with a Japanese colleague to revise a rating scale for the undergraduate English for Academic Purposes program at her university. She had noticed that even though the program had developed an analytic rubric, some high scoring essays … Continue reading

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Strategies to Reduce Plagiarism and Increase Engagement

Brent Warner
Brent Warner

Plagiarism: scourge of the writing class and bane of teachers’ existence. Whether students are lifting others’ words accidentally or on purpose, there’s always something that comes up that puts us into a position of questioning the authenticity of some portion … Continue reading

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Writing Statements of Purpose for Awards and Grad School

Betsy Gilliland
Betsy Gilliland

This month, I will outline what goes into writing a very important but somewhat unfamiliar genre for most writers: the statement of purpose (SOP). I hope this is helpful both to readers who want to apply for something themselves and … Continue reading

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5 Guidelines for Planning Writing Lessons

Betsy Gilliland
Betsy Gilliland

Though most teachers probably had to write formal lesson plans during their academic studies and practicum experiences, many of us stopped doing so as we became more expert in our work. In one sense, it’s logical that experienced teachers would … Continue reading

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