English as a Second Language (ESL)

Parts of Speech

• Noun: a noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. They tell us what the sentence is talking about. Examples of nouns include: dog, Asia, tree, & Zain.
• Verb: a verb is the name of the action that is being done by the noun in the sentence. Examples of verbs include: run, jump, write, & edit. An example of a verb in a sentence is: “Zain writes his essay.”
• Adjective: an adjective modifies or describes a noun. Examples of adjectives include: concise, beautiful, & lengthy.
• Adverb: an adverb modifies adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs. They tell us how, when, and where things happen. They express quantity (many), intensity fast), & frequency (often).
• Preposition: a preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words within a sentence. Examples of prepositions include: above, after, behind, & over.
• Pronoun: a pronoun is a word to refer to someone or something without using its name. Examples of pronouns include: she, him, it, & they.
• Article: an article is a word used to specify a noun. There are only three articles: a, an, & the.
• Conjunction: a conjunction is a word used to join two parts of a sentence together. Examples of conjunctions are: because, but, and, & unless.

Other Grammar Tools

• Run-on Sentence: A run-on sentence is an improper connection of two or more independent clauses (or complete sentences) Example: I love visiting the writing center I book an appointment every time I write a paper.
• Quotations: a quotation is a grammatical tool used to indicate direct quotes, titles of certain works, and to imply a meaning other than the apparent.
  • He said, “come change the baby.”
  • “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
  • That cake tastes “interesting”

Using English in Essays

First Person “I”: usually using the pronoun “I” is not recommended in academic writing because it is informal but there are two circumstances in which it can be used. The first is for strategic impact and the second is in the case of a personal anecdote.

Note: you should check that your professor allows the use of first person.

Using “We” & “You”: These words are commonly used in conversation but are not advised in academic writing because you risk making assumptions about the reader. Example: “after arriving at the airport, you will feel tired.” Try to avoid using these words.

Common (Avoidable) Grammatical Mistakes

Anyone who has learnt a second or a third language understands the difficulty of mastering a tongue that is not native to you. We, at the Writing Center, witness hundreds of ESL student appointments each semester. This gives us a unique perspective on common mistakes that ESL students can avoid to bump up their grade. Hence, keeping our own tutoring experiences in mind, we have curated a list of pointers from different online sources to help you excel in English writing.

1. As pointed out by the editors of Scribendi, it is important to understand the difference between definite and indefinite articles. The definite article (the) is used before distinct nouns that both the writer and the reader know about in particular while the indefinite articles (a and an) are used before generally indistinct nouns that the writer and the reader do not know about in particular.
2. Another common mistake made by English language learners and pointed out by Multimedia-English relates to the use of contractions. Contractions such as it’s and let’s are shortened forms of ‘it is’ and ‘let us’ while its signifies possession and lets signifies action.
3. FluentU reminds us of another common English mistake which relates to the order of adjectives used. Always remember, when using adjectives, keep them stacked as quantity first, then a quality, then a description of size, then a description of shape, then the specification of age, then a description of color, then the specification of nationality and then finally, the specification of the material. A correct (but unnecessarily long) example would be: They wore two beautiful, long, round, six-year-old, orange, Pakistani, silk dresses.
4. Scribendi also points towards the importance of using plural possessives correctly. We can easily say ‘the bowl’s color’ when the bowl is singular. However, many of us get confused when the noun is plural, i.e. bowls. In such cases, you can put the apostrophe immediately after the ‘s’ (e.g. the bowls’ color).
5. Another common mistake as described by ESLBuzz involved the interchangeable use of the terms ‘effect’ and ‘affect’. To avoid this mistake, remember that affect is a verb (to affect someone) and effect is a noun (to have an effect).

References

Education First: https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/
Wilfrid Laurier University: https://students.wlu.ca/academics/support-and-advising/writing-support/assets/documents/ell-writing-academically.pdf

Essay Structure - Tips and Guidelines

Coherently structuring written pieces is arguably the most important skill needed to excel at college-level writing. Despite this being such a fundamental part of each assignment that we undertake as students, many of us often fail to understand how our papers can be structured in a manner that is intuitive and appealing to the reader. Here is a method that I developed over the course of my college career that might be helpful to you. 

• Begin each paper by writing out your thesis statement. Be as clear and as specific as possible. Your aim, while writing your paper, should be to deviate from the focus of this statement as little as possible. For example:

 This paper argues that the skill of filmmaking is more important in the modern world than writing.

• Compile a list of the resources you intend to use as evidence for your thesis statement. Describe each of these resources in ten words or less. For example:

Resource 1: Kennedy’s (2018) research about the benefits of filmmaking

Resource 2: The Guardian’s article about the drawbacks of written content online.

• Use these small descriptions to form a roadmap for your essay. For example:

This paper offers evidence from Kennedy’s (2018) research about the benefits of filmmaking and the Guardian’s article about the drawbacks of written content online to prove this point.

• Divide your essay into distinct paragraphs/sections, one for each of the evidence resources. Begin each paragraph by offering a more elaborate description of each resource and how it serves to support your thesis. These descriptions will be your topic sentences.
• Now that you have your thesis statement, roadmap and topic sentences laid out, you can easily fill in relevant details in the body to complete your essay.
• An effective conclusion reiterates your thesis statement and offers insight about why what you have argued is important to the reader (and the world that they live in). Simply speaking, paraphrase your thesis statement and write a sentence (or two) describing why what you have argued matters in order to complete your essay with a compelling conclusion.

The Rule of Three

Having tutored at the Writing Center for three-and-a-half years, there are very few rules that I found myself reiterating as much as what the University of Birmingham’s Library Services booklet calls ‘The Rule of Three’. Oftentimes, we take the introduction-body-conclusion structure of essays for granted without truly understanding the reasoning behind the popularity of this essay structuring format. Without such as understanding, we can never fully leverage to our advantage the benefits that have made this format so popular. This short and sweet resource will help you do just that.

Firstly, it is important to understand that human beings (especially in today’s day and age) have a limited attention span. This means that we can only truly focus on something for so long before our attention or focus shifts elsewhere. Not just that, we are also fairly forgetful; this means that it is very possible that we might forget the thesis statement of an essay by the time we are dealing with a complex and crucial argument in the middle of the essay.

Hence, it is extremely important for each essay to have a structure that allows for the reiteration of the single most important point of that essay: its thesis statement.

So, as the saying goes, you tell the reader what you are going to be explaining to them through this essay (in the introduction), you explain to the reader what you want to explain to them (in the body) and then you tell them what you just explained to them (in the conclusion). 

This, in essence, makes a three-part essay structure that serves to remind the reader of your main argument and keeps them focused on the most crucial point(s) you want to communicate through your writing.