Graduate Diploma Reading & Writing : Spring Term 2011

It's been too long since I've posted anything meaningful to this blog, so here's a quick summary of what we've covered this week in my Graduate Diploma Reading & Writing class. I have uploaded powerpoint files from session one, two, and three to my brand new Windows Live Skydrive if you're interested in downloading and viewing them (please let me know if the links don't work).

After some work on describing data and a needs analysis exercise in our first session of the week, we reviewed important aspects of vocabulary like word form, collocation, and pattern grammar (class handout here) in the context of a "model" essay. There was an analysis of complex sentence from the essay, and this reading activity as homework, before analysing fact and opinion in the essay and looking at the difference between strong and weak evidence.