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Good English is the secret code by which educatedpeople recognise each other.

INever start an essay by "In this essay I am going to..." We know that that'swhat you are going to do, because that's what you've been asked to do. It'swell-known that an eaminer makes up his mind about whether or not he isgoing to en!oy reading the essay rom the irst ew sentences. #hat phrase is akiller$

Please, no dictionary definitions.#hey are !ust so very sterile...and a realturn-o or the eaminer$

Answer the question.I the %uestion is "&an terrorism be justified", and

you've said in your introduction that this is what you are going to answer, thenit's no good having an ecellent argument eploring "&an terrorismsucceed".

Avoid dangerous phrases. "There are other aspects which can bediscussed, such as ..." demands that you discuss them( i you don't thenyou've started a hare. )on't usebeg the question where you meanposes thequestion( the misused phrase means 'to all into the trap o assuming what youwant to prove as part o the proo'. *or eample+ Democracy is a good thingbecause the majority are always rightis begging the %uestion. #he Guardianhas an interesting article about this "rightul clich" hereit was written inresponse to a letter I wrote to the paper$

Try to refer back to the question by using words from it:i the title is 'IsE%uality o /pportunity attainable or is it only an ideal', the phrase 'womenare being given equal rights in employment to those of men ... is only a dream 'is much more powerul i you write it as '..is only an ideal.' 0imilarly, theparagraph ending with 'This creates quite a social problem' is dramaticallystrengthened when ended with 'This inequality of opportunity creates quitea social problem.' I once marked an essay on "standards in television" whichdid not use the word standardsuntil the eleventh paragraph 1 and the essaywas only twelve paragraphs long$

se secondary resources- an essay will be more impressive when you do -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,289966,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,289966,00.html

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but you mustgive a bibliographypage.

!efer to current affairs by all means- topicality shows your active interest inthe sub!ect - but treat media inormation !ust like any other resource+ don't !ust

put Yesterday the Prime inister looked blank, speciy at least thedate+ Yesterday !"#rd $ugust "%%&' the Prime inister ...

Punctuation and spelling

watch out for words that sound the same " were and where, their andthere.

sentences " begin with a capital letter, end with a ull stop, and

are never!oined together by a comma.

2ave a look atthis pagei punctuation is a problem or you.

paragraphing - consecutive sentences without a change o topic should beheld in the same paragraph

$ or $n(

3eore all normal words or diphthongs an is re%uired an actor) an eagle) anillness) an orange) an uncle.

3eore all consonants ecept silent h, ais usual+ a book) a hero) a home) ahousehold name) a memorial service) a puddle( but, with silent h, an hour) anhonour.

#hen there's the "hotel" issue.$n hotel used to be the preerred pronunciationamong educated people because hotel is a *rench word and educatedpretentious people pronounced it in the *rench way " *otel", thereore itsounds like a vowel. 4owadays we are all common, so only elderly peoplewho remember the old days say "an otel" and the rest o us say " a hotel"$

+rammar

#$ifferent to# or #different from#% #he better orm is "dierent rom". WhyWell, we say or eample that "oil diers rom water", so i nothing else it isinelegant to say that "oil is dierent towater". Why does it matter 2ere's anetract rom a letter to the +uardianwhere the writer is utterly conused as towhich orm to use+

In this country we are still stuck rigidly in a class system where those in the elites have anentirely dierent culture tothose who aren5t in power. )esert Island )iscs takes guests rom

6the great and good7, a tiny elite whose tastes are radically dierent romthose they rule. Whyelse does the opera get so much money It5s been the same since the days when the

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/bibliographies.htmlhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/punctuation.htmlhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/punctuation.htmlhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/bibliographies.htmlhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/punctuation.html

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4ormans went hunting and spoke a dierent language tothe peasants. otes and -ueries ".%".%"'

8part rom his ineptitude in not sticking to the same orm throughout, his inalsentence is ambiguous. )oes it mean that the 4ormans spoke one language

amongst themselves but a dierent language when they were speaking tothepeasants, or does it mean that the 4ormans spoke a language which dieredrom the language spoken by the peasants

+eneral points

if the sub&ect is big, focus on one issue. *or eample, i you are writingabout$nimal rightsthen concentrate on one aspect such as the $nimal/iberation 0rontor on the use of animals for food.

write only on one side of the paper' don't recycle "the other side" o paperor submitting an essay - your tutor will be distracted by the lipside,particularly i it's a letter rom your wine merchant$

don(t use inflated language - e.g.present epochan astronomical termwherepresent centurywill do( you don't need highalutin language to write agood essay, and attempts to use it will oten obscureyour message.

avoid &argon words - comprise means to contain or to include. #hus+...theschedule included 1not comprised of2inormative and educational material.

avoid clich)s like the plague- 69&ertain: phrases are used so oten they areused without thinking. When irst used they may have served a purpose as aresh way o describing something, but when they are used over and overagain or the wrong reasons, they lose all meaning.7 ;ohn ead the most irritating paragraph ever here$

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/write_with_flair.html#thats%20a%20clichehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1049154,00.htmlhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/chris.thorns/skills/write_with_flair.html#thats%20a%20clichehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1049154,00.html