ZNO Writing preparation resources

The most effective way for students to internalise all the features of writing, formal or informal, is to gain experience by writing a wide variety of letters for a range of purposes during exam preparation. It will reduce the exam fever. The following activities offer some suggestions for students to get practicing today.

FICTION AS A SPRINGBOARD Have students write as if they were a character from a piece of fiction you have been reading in class. Choosing a dramatic point in the plot, ask students to imagine they are one of the characters writing a letter to another character in the story or simply writing a letter to one of the characters. This writer may be either formal or informal depending on your students’ needs. This will give them realistic letter-writing practice as well as getting them to engage closely with the text and responding imaginatively to its themes. Letters With Character was created as a companion to What He's Poised To Do (Harper Perennial), the recently released collection of short fiction by Ben Greenman, an editor at the New Yorker. This site has a related mission, which is to allow readers to interact directly with literary characters. Among the authors featured at LWC, there are Ernest Hemingway, J.K. Rowling, William Shakespeare, Chuck Palahniuk and many others. Letters should be addressed to their favourite characters. Letters can be funny, sad, digressive, trenchant, or trivial. Letters must be written by a real person and must also address an unreal one. There are no other requirements! THE AGONY AUNT Initially, 'agony aunt column' contained advertisements about relatives who were missing, but since the 1930s, its content has changed, and since then, this term has come into use. According to Cambridge Dictionary, ‘an agony aunt’ is a person, usually a woman, who gives advice to people with personal problems, especially in a regular magazine or newspaper article. You can try this activity with your students. Let them imagine themselves being an agony aunt/uncle. Students must write back offering advice in response to the questions or predicaments. The response should be written in the full letter format. You can adapt questions from the local newspapers, check Ask Dr. M website where there are real people with real problems who are looking for real advice or you can download worksheets for this activity here: Worksheet 1 Worksheet 2 You can also check this Agony Aunt Letter Example and try Agony Aunt Activity for Pre-Intermediate Level! OTHER RESOURCES 12 Lesson Plans for Teaching Writing to Secondary Students will be helpful if you are looking for ways to keep things interesting when teaching writing to high school students. Here is a list of 12 great lesson plans for teaching different writing techniques and styles to high school students. Letter Writing Exercises and Worksheets for Business English will help your students expand their vocabulary and communicate more easily with clients and customers. Company employees need to be able to write: complaint letters, enquiry letters, thank you letters, application letters, letters to schedule meetings and appointments. Here you will find all the necessary exercises and guides for teaching how to write those types of letters. Eltbase.com offers worksheets, quizzes, matching exercises, ordering and gap-fill exercises that will allow you to practice writing letters of complaint and not only. Flo-joe.co.uk has a section called FCE Writing Class where you can find advice from an exam writing expert, corrected answers submitted by students in 'Makeover' page, plus vocabulary and grammar exercises to help your students develop their writing skills. Learn English Teens from British Council offers activities for different levels, including texts and exercises to improve your students’ writing skills. If you have not seen our webinar on ‘Boosting our learners’ ZNO Writing’, watch Kateryna Protsenko and Chris Reese, the authors of Exam Booster who reveal the secrets of successful completion of the exam task. Don’t forget to have a look at our Teachers’ blog where you will find more tips on how to get ready for ZNO. (From www.grade.ua)