Introduction to the topic
Goals:
 Improving the students’ essay style in general
 Finding special words and expressions that can be
used in essay writing
 Using correct structure (introduction, main body,
conclusion)
Many problems and difficulties that have to be solved
to write a good essay
Problems in writing essays
 Structure
 Students simply start writing in exams  essay looks
more like a row of thoughts
 Problems in finding good expressions and words,
words are repeated over and over again  results in
bad style
 Good content but bad style might result in worse
marks
Media to improve your essays
 Thematic lexicons, that give words and expressions to
a particular context  can be helpful if you want to
learn words in a special field of interest
Media to improve your essays
 Dictionaries  for looking up words you don‘t know or
to find other expressions
Media to improve your essays
 Books that focus especially on essay writing  might
help to improve your essay structure
Media Problems:
dictionaries and thematic lexicons
 Simply cramming a list of words over and over again
might not be very successful
 Dictionaries help you to find the right words and
expressions, but they do not really support you in
writing your essay
Media Problems:
Books, focusing on essay writing
 They might help you to learn to structure your paper
efficiently, but they do not support you in writing a
particular paragraph
 They won‘t probably give you any special expressions
or words to use in an essay
Problems: Essay writing at school
 Pupils often only write essays as a whole in school
 Teachers do not focus on one special part, e.g. the
introduction
´Try to focus only on one special part, students can
concentrate on the special requirements of this one
particular part of the essay!
Expressions, words, stylistic devices
 Create a list of words and expressions on your own, for
example by collecting expressions out of texts, short
stories, books, etc.
 Reading English books and other texts or newspapers
might also improve your essay style
Do not only concentrate on special books and
dictionaries, use all available material for improving
your essay style!
Literature to improve your writing:
„Thematischer Grund- und Aufbauwortschatz Englisch: 11.000 Einträge“
(Gernot Häublein, Recs Jenkins, Klett 2000)
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/312519511X/ref=sib_rdr_dp
„Thematischer Grund- und Aufbauwortschatz Englisch. Trainingsbuch: Mit Lösungen“
(Gernot Häublein, Recs Jenkins, Klett 2005)
http://www.amazon.de/Thematischer-Grund-Aufbauwortschatz-EnglischTrainingsbuch/dp/3125195322/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234180995&sr=8-4
„Words in Context – New. Thematischer Oberstufenwortschatz Englisch“
(Louise Carlton-Gertsch, Klett 2004)
http://www.amazon.de/Words-Context-Thematischer-OberstufenwortschatzEnglisch/dp/3125199409/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234180995&sr=8-3
„Pons Richtig Gut! Texte schreiben Englisch: Aufsatz, Textanalyse, Zusammenfassung“
(Anette Dralle, Torsten Drever, Kirsten Fenner, Jill Williams, Klett 2008)
http://www.amazon.de/PONS-Richtig-Texte-schreibenEnglisch/dp/3125177723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234181859&sr=8-1
„Langenscheidt Collins Großes Studienwörterbuch Englisch“
(Langenscheidt/Collins 2008)
http://www.amazon.de/Langenscheidt-Collins-Studienw%C3%B6rterbuch-EnglischNeubearbeitung/dp/3468072619/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234182171&sr=1-8
„Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (DCE)” (Langenscheidt 2003)
http://www.amazon.de/Longman-Dictionary-Contemporary-Englishkartoniert/dp/352651674X/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1234182352&sr=1-8