Your English Coach

LETTER WRITING In Task 1 of the IELTS General Writing section, you must write a letter about a given situation. This letter will be one of the following types:  Style Characteristics Opening Ending Formal To someone you have not met, whose name you don't know Dear Sir / Madam Yours faithfully Semi-formal To someone you may or may not have met, whose last name you know & use Dear Mr Brown, Dear Ms Stone Yours sincerely Informal To someone you know well, whose first name you know and use Dear John Dear Anita Best regards Warm wishes Other Openings Dear John, A se mi-formal letter will also open with Dear and then be followed by a name, (if you decide that in the situation you would know the name) or by Sir (if it's a man), Madam (if it's a woman) or Sir/Madam if you don't know, eg: Dear Mr. Phillips, or Dear Mrs. Phill...

In the Ten Principles that we want to reflect on, and in our lives for a positive outcome, the  tenth principles tells us to seek out those who are similarly motivated.  Sometimes  its a bit  difficult  to get motivated, especially if you  have  been feeling down or back sliding in some way lately. Getting motivated is easy. All you need do is get from Point A , "Why must I take action?" to Point B,  "What action  must I take next?"  You can cross over from Point A by using these nine stepping stones.  Ask yourself nine simple questions. As you ask, don't try to think up complex answers. Your mind and heart already know what they want; you're just reaching in and drawing from that knowledge. Here are the questions: 1.        Who do I care about most? 2.       How can I help them be happier? 3.       What are my most powerful go...

Here are 10 principles to put into action right now that can help you with positive emotions, better performance, and all round better results: 1   Always act with a purpose. 2  Take responsibility for your results. 3  Stretch beyond limits daily...in any way big or small. Go out of the way to help someone, compliment someone without flattering, take on some extra work, read something, improve yourself. 4  Don't wait for perfection; love yourself, accept yourself the way you are now; act now. 5  Resolve to learn from failures and successes. 6  Take your job seriously, but do not take yourself too seriously. 7  Use rejection to renew your humility -but remain objective. 8  Use both negative and positive feedback to keep on target.  9  Be careful about what you put into my mind and body. 10  Seek out people who are similarly motivated to improve themselves. <a href="http://w...

Basics for Study Abroad I sometimes do IELTS coaching in my friends’ office (Manoj Patki of Edurussia; his wife Smita is my dear old school pal) for students who are going to Canada, New Zealand etc. Here I have seen are all kinds of people, old and young, who don't have much spare time, with all kinds of queries. Some are very naïve and just put themselves in the counselor’s hands, which is fine if 1) you have someone as experienced as Manoj Patki  looking out for your interests first rather than their own, 2) you have built up trust and 3) know what you want. Here's a couple of suggestions as you start out on your Study Abroad/Higher Studies search. Please don’t be lazy- no-one else can think for you or choose for you! You definitely need to talk with some reputable study counselors for study abroad, however there are things you can do to prepare yourself which will ensure that your search goes off successfully.  1) Do some rese...

Develop Persistence and Focus to score high on the IELTS Persistence is not allowing anything to stop you from achieving a goal or pursuing an activity once you start it unless it's something really severe. For that you need to maintain discipline and develop vision. In this post, I give you three tools to develop vision, and focus. Using them you should be able to persist until you reach the desired outcome. 1) Make a checklist of your job hours, (timings), commuting or driving time, gym or dance class and whatever else it is that you do. Post it where you can easily find it, and fit the IELTS practice work into your day, for 45 minutes to an hour at least 5 days a week. You know we all spend our time on activities in one of four ways, by working on: o urgent and important things o urgent but not important things o important but not urgent things o not important and not urgent things When something is urgent, you rush to do it. When something is importan...

Nurture your fledglings and watch them flourish Success Strategies must  include Vision and Focus. People without vision risk being baffled by the turn of events in their life, in the world. The poorest person in the world is not the one without a cent to his name; it is the one without vision. Have a look at these comments made by some "responsible" people when confronted with new ideas and inventions. "Computers in the future will weigh no more than 1.5 tons." (Popular Mechanics, forecasting advance of science, 1949.) "I think there's a world market for maybe five computers." (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.) "I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." (Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.) "But what is it good for?" (Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems D...

This post is about Voice clarity.Let's see how we can achieve that in our vocalization, if not in our lives! In any communication, written or oral, your goal is to be understood by your listener, or reader- your audience. Clarity in speech is of two kinds- verbal and vocal. Verbal clarity would mean that your content shows continuity of thought. Vocal clarity means you do not speak too fast or too slowly. You do not have a heavy accent, you do not slur or mumble your words, and you use standard pronunciation for your word. There is no heavy deviance in basic speech sounds (vowels and consonants). You have some tone changes echoing the meaning of a given thought- for example, sad, powerful, questioning,humorous, wise, authoritative, or agreeable.  Finally there is some up and down rhythm or  intonation  giving expressiveness and mood to your voice . Intonation simply means the music of your speech- the music reflects tone changes, just as music is about dif...

Listening & Reading Test Evaluation  Candidates do not fail or pass in this examination. The evaluation is done on a 9-band scoring system where the candidates receive their scores in individual bands for the separate sections. Many universities and other institutions require an IELTS score of at least 6.5 for academic entrance requirements. Be sure to check with your college, university (or employer) to learn what IELTS band scores they require for your program. They may also require a minimum score in each of the 4 sections. You know by now that IELTS comprises 4 sections. You can earn a score between 1 and 9 for each section. All educational institutions set their own levels according to which they select the candidates. Let’s suppose that out of forty questions in the IELTS reading test you got 20, or half of them correct. The number 20 would be considered your raw score and the corresponding IELTS band scores would be a 5.5. The following chart shows IELTS band...