English for Academic Purposes Lesson Plans Essay writing LEVEL Preparation In academic writing, you will often have to write a discursive essay This type of essay presents a balance of views, both for and against an argument It is therefore important that your writing is well structured and uses appropriate language This sample essay about the value of lectures in higher education shows you how to plan and write a discursive essay Task ‘The traditional lecture is neither appropriate nor effective as a medium of instruction in today’s tertiary educational environment.’ Discuss Write a discursive essay of about 750 words Do not change the essay title in any way Aim to make your essay interesting and original Sample Answer With the growing importance of tertiary education worldwide, it is legitimate to focus on the quality and effectiveness of the industry I take ‘tertiary’ to mean all forms of adult education; that is colleges, polytechnics and universities but not high schools A major method of teaching in such establishments remains the lecture For centuries lectures have been offered as the main way of getting knowledge across to a large number of people What I understand by the traditional lecture is a teaching and learning experience led by an experienced lecturer during which the lecturer does the talking while the students listen and take notes It is different from a discussion, seminar or tutorial: these tend to take place with fewer students and are more interactive This leads us to ask about the effectiveness of lectures today, even to ask whether they are appropriate This essay aims to discuss these issues, offering first reasons against, followed by support for the lecture; a particular area of focus is the role of the participants Finally, I offer an evaluation of the main arguments and give my own opinion Obesity in western children Vocabulary Activity (British English ID: MVA006288, American English ID: MVA014068) Today’s students are familiar with multimedia and interactive resources From computer games to internet forums, students today expect communication to be both fast and interactive Lectures, they may feel, are neither fast nor interactive, but slow and passive Typically the lecturer speaks fairly slowly and clearly, the visuals (if there are any) are not very exciting, and the students are not expected to speak or interrupt Lectures are long, ranging from one to three hours without a break Seats are frequently uncomfortable For these reasons many would argue that the lecture is past its sell-by date and needs to move into the 21st century Podcasts, for example, can be developed to meet a wide range of up-to-date needs With today’s technologies, such as virtual discussion rooms between students on a given course, podcasts can be used together with interactive responses from students via their chat room • The first resource Do lectures work?: planning a discursive essay can be found in Unit 3, Syllabus Item ‘Get © Macmillan Publishers 2008 organised!’ of the Advanced English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course • The second resource Obesity in western children can be found in Unit 9, Syllabus Item ‘Do it right!’ of the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course • You can search for the resource by typing the ID into the Word & Phrase Search • You can check the resource ID by hovering over the resource title with your mouse Downloaded from www.macmillanenglishcampus.com © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 Macmillan English Campus awareness • You: Remind yourself of the logging on procedures Remember your password If your learners want you to, keep a note of their passwords • Your learners: Check your learners know how to complete drop-down gap-fill activities on the English Campus During these activities, you will probably want to encourage learners to add items to their Word Lists, so you may also want to some revision on this • You and your learners should remember that English Campus Sample Essays will open in a new window and can be printed out if necessary Lead in (In pairs or groups and using the IWB/Data projector in class) • Introduce the topic of lectures at university by asking the whole class if anyone can tell you what a lecture is Put the definitions on the board Ask the class what they think about lectures, for example: enjoyable, boring, interesting, etc If you have a talkative class you can put learners in groups so they can share their experiences of lectures • Explain to the class that they are going to read an essay about lectures, but first they are going to think about some positive things and some negative things about lectures • Group learners in fours and ask them to choose a secretary who copies down the following table from the board: Good things about lectures Bad things about lectures O T Sample Essay O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D • Do lectures work?: planning a discursive essay Sample Essay (British English ID: MSE006275, American English ID: MSE014055) H RESOURCE TITLE N To give learners practice in planning and structuring an academic essay and in using an academic style register in academic writing • To run this lesson you will ideally be in a computer lab with use of a data projector or interactive whiteboard (IWB) However, the activities can easily be adapted for use in the classroom with a projector or IWB, or for use in a computer lab with no IWB • This lesson will use two English Campus EAP exercises to give your learners practice in essay writing In the first exercise learners will discuss and plan an academic essay and look at an example essay, in the second exercise learners will work with a text to make decisions about academic style and register • Print out enough copies of the sample essay from Do lectures work?: planning a discursive essay for learners to have one copy between two learners Cut each essay into five parts, one paragraph in each part Put the paragraphs together in envelopes or with paper clips, making sure they are mixed up • If you decide to use the Sample essay analysis worksheet at the end of this worksheet, print one for each learner and prepare the answer worksheet to show on the data projector or interactive whiteboard •P AIM CA Level (Advanced) English for Academic Purposes Lesson Plans Essay writing • Learners discuss these ideas and the secretary notes down ideas in the appropriate column • When the learners have finished the secretaries write up their notes on the board so everyone can see each other’s ideas Clarify unclear points and help with new vocabulary and phrases Sample essay analysis worksheet - answers Learners move to individual workstations to have their own sample essay on screen in front of them Their task is to analyse the essay using the sample essay analysis worksheet (on the next page of this lesson plan), which you can either give them, or put up on the IWB or data projector Learners stay at their tables and analyse the printed sample essay they already have • Help them to understand what is required by starting to fill in the first box as a class Sample essay analysis worksheet Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Useful phrases: Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Useful phrases: Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Useful phrases: Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Useful phrases: Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Useful phrases: I take … to mean… What I understand by … is… This leads us to ask about… This essay aims to discuss … offering first reasons against, followed by… Finally, I offer… Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Argument in favour of the proposition -discusses the disadvantages of lectures Useful phrases: For these reasons many would argue that… Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Arguments against the proposition – giving the other view point in favour of lectures Useful phrases: While…(negative point)…, it is worth noting several points in its favour First,… Second,… Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: The writer puts forward his own argument, takes a stance Useful phrases: As I have shown … Provided … there need be no room for criticism A more logical solution would be to … Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: The conclusion, writer sums up arguments, offers some thoughts for the future Useful phrases: To sum up, … I would argue that… I have seen many examples of… • When learners have completed the analysis put up the answer sheet on the IWB or data projector and go through each paragraph in turn discussing it H •P CA Downloaded from www.macmillanenglishcampus.com © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 O T Useful phrases: O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D • (In pairs or groups and optionally using individual workstations) • Put the learners into pairs and hand out the mixed up paragraphs of the sample essay Learners read them carefully and put the essay into the correct order • When they have finished ask one learner from each pair to stand up and move next to someone else to check their essay In this way learners will check the order of their essays with other pairs At this stage you have two possibilities: N Macmillan English Campus activity Paragraph Function and content of paragraph: Introduction to essay Introduces the topic, defines terms ‘tertiary’ and ‘lecture’, includes thesis statement ‘this leads us to ask about the effectiveness of lectures today’ English for Academic Purposes Lesson Plans Essay writing Lead in (In pairs or groups) • Explain to the learners that academic writing uses the correct academic style and register Look back at the sample essay and give them examples of academic register such as ‘This essay aims to discuss ’ • Point out that if learners were using informal language they might say something like ‘I’m going to talk about…’ instead • Look back at other useful phrases they noted down and discuss what informal equivalents there might be Explain that the next exercise is going to give them practice in using this academic style Macmillan English Campus activity (Using individual workstations) • Ask learners to open the exercise Obesity in western children You can have them work in pairs or individually at their workstations • They choose the most appropriate phrase to complete the sentences Further practice or homework O T H N •P CA Downloaded from www.macmillanenglishcampus.com © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D • • For homework learners must write a discursive academic essay on a question which you set them They should use a similar structure and register to what they have practised in class • The essay could be based on a title in another English Campus EAP Sample Essay To find these, type EAP into the Word & Phrase search and filter the results by Content Type: Sample Essay