Tasks: Essays For Examinations

STYLE

13/12/18

1. Study this paragraph and underline any examples of poor style.

Informal: How to make people work harder is a topic that lots of people have written about in the last few years. There are lots of different theories etc and I think some of them are ok. When we think about this we should remember the old Chinese proverb, that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. So how do we increase production? It’s quite a complex subject but I’ll just talk about a couple of ideas.

Formal: How to make people harder is a topic which many people have written about in the last 2 years. There are many different theories that some people believe that are fine. So, we should think about how to increase production; it is a difficult subject to talk about but we could analyze some ideas. 

We cannot introduce the Chinese quote due to is too informal. 

2. (3 practice) In following sentences, underline examples of bad style and rewrite them in a more suitable way. 

a- Another thing to think about is the chance of crime getting worse.

Another fact to talk about is the chance of crime getting worse. 

b- Regrettably these days lots of people don't have jobs.

Unfortunately, these days many people do not have jobs. 

c- Sometime soon they will find a vaccine for malaria.

A vaccine for malaria may be found.

d- A few years ago the price of property in Japan went down a lot.

The price of property in Japan decrease 3 years ago. 

e- You can't always trust the numbers in that report. 

The numbers in that report are unreliable.

f- Sadly, the high inflation led to poverty, social unrest and so on. 

Unfortunately, the inflation led to poverty, social unrest and many more consequences. 

g- He was over the moon when he won the prize.

He was amazed at the moment he won the prize.

h- I think we should pay students to study.

Students should be paid for studying. 

i- A few years ago they allowed women to vote.

In 1933 women were allowed to vote.

j- What were the main causes of the Russian Revolution?.

The main causes of the Russian Revolution were...