ADVANCE YOUR WRITING — ADVANCE YOUR LIFE
Following your conversational abilities, you will find that Good Writing Skills are extremely important. Your speaking and listening skills are a key to happy and successful living in English. ESL in Edmonton offers Intensive Conversational English courses for those who want to give special attention to their listening, speaking and understanding abilities. BUT, whatever the level of your Conversational English, your reading, and especially your WRITING level should always be higher.
Good Writing Skills are essential for advancing from just “getting by” day to day, to excelling and making a better, more comfortable, enjoyable life for yourself and your loved ones. From personal and formal letters, to academic preparation and success, to business and professional writing, to writing fiction and non-fiction for your own purposes, ESL in Edmonton can help you elevate your performance.
Every Writing Workshop at ESL in Edmonton is taught by a Qualified and Experienced instructor, who is a seasoned professional Writer and Editor.
WORKSHOP METHODOLOGY
“You Learn by Doing.” This is one of our mottos at ESL in Edmonton.
This is a principle that we really believe in and governs our instructional methods. No matter what the type or class you take, at
ESL in Edmonton, you can expect to be doing homework. We know that you are busy and have lots of responsibilities — we all do. But if you are not prepared to “put in the time” and “do the work”, ESL in Edmonton is not for you. Learning is an act, it is not something that just happens, it is something that you do. Nowhere is that more true in learning English, than in learning to write and in learning to write better.
No matter what the course, or what the level, every Writing Workshop with ESL in Edmonton requires you do writing assignments and to be prepared to share parts, or all of them, in class. As a workshop, we examine your own writing to identify and correct your specific problems. We go over writing samples from students’ own work and work collectively to examine problems as they arise. We read passages aloud to hear how they sound and to catch mistakes. We learn the rules that dictate how and why you write a certain way and don’t write another way. Then we show you how to apply the rules to your own writing. These same techniques are applied, but with different focus and intensity at every level. A good foundation allows you to be continually improving and strengthening your writing — even long after your course is over.
WRITING BASICS
Writing Basics can range from learning to print and write by hand (cursive handwriting). This inclusion is offered as an “ADD ON” and depends on the course, the level, and on whether students request it. All good writing starts with a good foundation to build on. Writing Basics will definitely include necessary grammar elements, punctuation and structure. In addition, Writing Basics with ESL in Edmonton will certainly include the fundamentals of how to construct sentences, paragraphs and simple essays or stories. Where we go from there, depends on time and the particular interests of students. Whatever your level of English, you will benefit from this course.
WRITING STYLES 
What do You Want to Write?
There are so many choices! And every different type of writing, every different purpose, or application,
has its own style. Every different style or type of writing has its own set of standards, rules and regulations.
Below, are just a few different types of writing that you might need or want.
COMING SOON: WRITING WORKSHOPS — BEGINNER to ADVANCED
Each style could be offered as a course by itself, but at ESL in Edmonton we recommend that you start with the Survey Course.
Following the Survey Course, check out other Writing Workshops to concentrate on different Writing Styles Collections such as Academic, Common Personal Writing, Business, Persuasive Editorial and Opinion, Fiction and Non-Fiction, etc., including sample types below.
- Survey Course
- Creative Writing
- School (Grades 1-9)
- Presentations
- Resumes & Cover Letters
- Newspaper, Magazine Articles
- Opinion & Editorials
- Business Letters, etc.
- Essays
- Resumes & Cover Letters
- Academic Writing (10-Post)
- Announcements & Obituaries
- Opinion & Editorials
- Advertising / Commercial
- Diaries & Journals
- Personal Letters
- Resumes & Applications
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Speeches & Lectures
- Conversation, Plays, Scripts
- Introductions & Toasts
- Instructional / Technical
- Reports, Information & Forms
- Web Content
WRITING STYLES — SURVEY COURSE
Each different style could be offered as a course by itself, but at ESL in Edmonton we recommend that you start with the Survey Course. This course gives you a stronger grounding in the basics of grammar, punctuation, and sentence and paragraph structure. It also introduces you to the main differences between different writing styles, applications and approaches. The Survey Course concentrates on key Elements of Style such as clarity, length, topic sentences, thesis statements, “the Hook”, organization, tense, subject v. object, point of view (PoV), and very importantly: the Passive and Active Voice. One of the main goals of the Survey Course through ESL in Edmonton, is not just the introduction of different types of writing, but the correct use of the elements to strengthen and empower your writing.
WRITING BETTER
Whether you want to concentrate on your Conversational Skills, or benefit from a Writing Workshop, whether you want it all in one wholistic program of Comprehensive English, or whether you want to concentrate on individual aspects of your language learning, you will benefit from learning to write better. Remember: a great deal of your oral work and presentations, begin with the written word. If you care about becoming as good as you can get, ESL in Edmonton is for you.
There is a secret to good writing: Write without fear — EDIT without Mercy
What does that mean? It means that to become a good writer, you have to write, write, write, and keep writing. The more you READ & WRITE, the better you get. But, to make your writing really “stellar”, You really have to re-read and EDIT and re-write your work. Nothing comes without some hard work, but almost nothing rewards your work more than Writing and Editing.
At ESL in Edmonton, all of our Writing Workshops are taught by a professional writer and editor who can walk you through your writing, step-by-step. As you use class writing assignments to study real-life examples, you learn the rules and how to use them. You will learn how to spot mistakes in your own writing and in others’. Your instructor will explain why something is ok in one place, and just plain wrong in another. Then, your instructor will show you how to steadily improve your writing and raise the level of your writing overall.
∗ PLEASE NOTE: Writing, and especially Editing, is hard and specialized work. It is recommended that you do not try to “jump ahead“. Your writing progress will be much more sure and steady if you make sure that you are building on a strong foundation. Please ensure that you have a firm understanding of the basics of writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence construction before enrolling in a Writing Workshop. If you are not confident about your knowledge and understanding of the basics (and that covers a lot) our best suggestion is to start with COMPREHENSIVE ENGLISH. Don’t waste your time and money. Don’t waste the time and effort of your teacher and fellow students. If you are at Beginner to Intermediate level, we highly recommend that you start with the SURVEY COURSE to make sure that you “fill-in“ any gaps.
PLEASE CONTACT US about any questions or concerns you may have.
