Carl Gene: Examiners are sick of formulaic, memorized sentences.

Carl Gene: Examiners are sick of formulaic, memorized sentences, it’s time to get an opinion.

Weak grammar will cost you points in 75% of the writing sections.

Carl is a genius! He speaks fluent Chinese, he’s a fully booked IELTS Tutor, AND he still has time to study for the advanced interpreting exams. Thankfully he had time for a great interview where covered loads of material.

Writing
Are you translating directly from your native language into English?

Absorb as much as possible of authentic native material.

Carl explains that for Chinese students he tends to focus on the grammar side because this effects the C&C, and task response.

Weak grammar will cost you points in 75% of the writing sections.

Also a sound grammar base in your own language is essential to start studying English grammar.

Do you read the question fully? Scrutinize it!

Make sure you read EVERY part of the question, does it ask you your opinion? To what extent do agree or disagree?…..Under what conditions do you agree / disagree?

He shared how examiners are sick of formulaic, memorized sentences, inauthentic essays with very abstract ideas and little opinion.

Giving a direct opinion versus academic writing?

In contrast he states be direct have a strong opinion, give a fresh two sentence introduction;
THIS IS MY OPINION AND STATE WHY….

Then give examples the examiner could relate to, write in a persuasive way, be direct and strong.

Natural Improvement?

To improve a students Band score to a 7, he focusses on the grammar and task response, empowering students with accurate grammar will improve the other areas…naturally.

READABILITY, does the examiner stress themselves reading the essay?

To improve readability use collocations and structures picked up through reading and listening authentic material.

Academic Writing vs. Your Opinion???

Don’t worry about being academic, they want a position, they want you to maintain that position, be direct and express yourself.

Long vs. Short sentences? Use a range, a topic sentence then an imperative sentence. An imperative sentence will show your grammatical knowledge, it may look like this:

Consider poverty, crime and food shortages, which are amongst the chief factors negatively affecting the quality of life in Brazil….

This is a powerful structure with persuasive speech and a good style.

Improve your pronunciation -stop making the same mistakes.

Carl explains a fantastic method which prevents future pronunciation mistakes.

With his students he goes through all the unique sounds in English, identifies the problems and works on those specific sounds with the students.
Pronounce all these sounds not just the way you think they are pronounced, the way they actually are.
Then he concentrates on speech focussing on intonation, rhythm, and emphasis to push the student to a higher level.

Training will get you there quicker, but determination and active listening are essential.

Carl recommends reading THE WEEK, which have lots of small paragraphs with authentic material not text books.

Also you need to be curious about the material not just simply engage it.

Your style of writing?

We then have a chat about Carl’s new book which covers the features of good style when writing;
-Keeping word repetition to a minimum.
-Avoiding redundant sentences.

The book also covers the kind of structures used and then has a grammatical section covering common mistakes Chinese students make (Articles etc.).

This is a fantastic podcast, and definitely worth a listen if you are Chinese or not!

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