Articles: A Slideshow

I just added this slide show on articles to Slideshare.

Articles in English from eslwebteacher

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View more OpenOffice presentations from eslwebteacher.

Feedback on it is welcome.

Passive Voice on Slideshare

I have added a PowerPoint presentation on the passive voice on Slideshare. It gives a few examples of the passive voice and some guidelines for use.

Passive Voice from eslwebteacher

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We don't teach much about the passive voice, but people use it all time, even those who advise against it according to the discussions on Language Log.

Suggestions for ESL Writers

Grammar Gang in a post, "write like a native," gives three suggestions for ESL writers. The first one is to use Google as a resource for phrases that the writer is not sure about. The suggestion is to put the phrase in quotation marks and search for usage. They give the following two phrases as examples: "at the house of my mother" and "at my mother's house." The second suggestion is to use a thesaurus, which is a type of dictionary that contains synonyms for words. Teachers sometimes suggest careful use of a thesaurus, and I suggest using a thesaurus with a dictionary as a double check because English has so many words with multiple meanings.
The final suggestion is for writers to read their papers aloud to help the writer slow down and catch errors. The post is definitely worth reading and thinking about.