Lesson Plans

Students learn idioms and fixed expressions for plans and problems through a renovation story, then write a blog post about a project that went wrong.

Students learn to edit for concision by cutting redundancy and wordiness from a council report, then rewrite a sentence and argue a case succinctly.

Students explore connotation, euphemism and spin in corporate language, then write a plain-speaking email replying to a company announcement full of euphemisms.

Students learn the features of academic style, especially nominalisation, by studying a volunteering report, then turn informal notes into an academic abstract.

Students learn fronting and emphatic structures, like gone are the days and such was, then write a feature article about a place that has changed.

Students learn ellipsis and substitution, like do so and that of, to avoid repetition, then write a review of a performance.

Students learn to choose precisely between near-synonyms, like imply and infer, through a festival row, then write a letter to the editor.

Students compare broadsheet and tabloid styles in news reports about library closures, then write one story in both styles.

Students practise paraphrasing without changing meaning and summarising the main points of a text, then write a short summary for a newsletter.

Students analyse rhetorical devices, like the rule of three and rhetorical questions, in a graduation speech, then write a short speech of their own.