General feedback on position papers
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 General comments
 Common mistakes
Common mistakes
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 Key areas in which you can improve your writing:
 Word choice
 Avoiding spoken style
 Other stylistic issues (e.g., capitalization and punctuation)
But first…
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 Spell check!!!
Always be sure to set your proofing language.
However, it is not perfect. You still need to edit your texts
carefully. Otherwise, your supposed discussion of the use
of commas in English will become a discussion of the
state of unconsciousness that is a coma.
Word choice
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 …if you do not want to put it like that, we will
come to you and put it ourselves.
 …if you do not democratize, we will democratize
you by force.
 The writer of the article gave it quite
significance…
 The writers of the article gave it considerable
significance…
Word choice
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 Very small practice -> minimal practice
 Small knowledge -> lack of knowledge
 Small mistakes -> minor errors
 A bit -> rather, quite, slightly
 To get better -> to improve
 Move forward -> make progress, improve
 Bad thing -> difficulty, problem, challenge
 Big -> large, great, significant
Avoiding spoken style
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 I would like to make a review on it.
 The following is a review of his speech.
 I think he wanted to be emphatic… Although it
could also be seen as a threat…
 While he probably wanted to be emphatic…, such
language could also be seen as…
 Well, that could be true.
 Perhaps there is some truth to this statement.
Avoiding spoken style
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 Speaking of… -> Considering…, as regards…, with regard
to…
 Obviously -> of course, clearly
 Get -> obtain, gain; become; have
 Actually -> in fact
 …who knows…
 Well, in my opinion…
 To be honest...
 But that’s a topic for a different paper.
 As I said before...
 I would like to say…
Other things to avoid
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 Contractions:
 Don’t, it’s, I’m, etc.
 Starting sentences with And/But…
 But if I’m to talk about...
 When discussing…, on the other hand/however,…
 But in English is my writing different.
 In English, however, my writing is different.
Other things to be aware of
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Countable vs. uncountable nouns
 Some words in English are always singular, even though
they may be plural in Czech:
 Knowledge, advice, information
 Some words may be either countable or uncountable
depending on context and with slight changes in meaning:
 e.g. I had an interesting experience at school today.
I have several years of teaching experience.
Capitalization & punctuation
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 I still have no idea where and when to use commas or capitals
because no one has ever shown me.
 Czech uses a lot of commas, as we have various types of sentences,
and this affects my writing in English. I automatically write a comma
before the word “that,” for example, because in my mother tongue it is
almost always there. Capital letters are slightly confusing to me too,
again because in Czech the rules are different. I would also like to add
more creativity to my writing. For example, overuse of the verb “to be”
sometimes makes my English rather bland.
Capitalization
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 the European union -> the European Union
 United Nations General assembly -> United
Nations General Assembly
 the field of European studies -> …European
Studies
 the course English for academic purposes -> the
course English for Academic Purposes.
CJVA302: Week 6
Brexit and the UK’s current political
climate
Leads
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 Jana – The House of Lords
 Ekaterina – Brexit & the Irish Border
 Petr – Leave vs. Remain
 Sarka – ?
Brexit: hard, soft and everything
in between
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Media & discussion
http://bruegel.org/2016/11/brexit-the-way-forward/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLJ68StusmA
Figure source:
http://bruegel.org/2016/10/beyond-hard-soft-and-no-brexit/
16Define footer - Name of the presentation / Your name / Unit, Office