Some notes about learning to write in English

For the Concorso you need to learn to write in English. How do you learn to write? Well, as regards handwriting, speed and perhaps essay organization, you can do this partly by the act of repeated writing. As regards the main task, absorbing words, expressions and structures and then producing them, you do this by reading and taking notes on the elements you want to remember. It’s what you did in your L1, but unconsciously. You should focus on CUDU (could use, don’t use), language that you have often seen in English, that you know is common but that you wouldn’t normally manage to produce. This kind of imitation is how you gradually improved in your L1 (and also how you would improve your English while working at the Ministry). This is your basic task for the next 8-12 months. If you write, use a bilingual dictionary to find words you don’t know and a monolingual dictionary to check how to use the expression. However, if you simply write a lot and frequently without reading and taking notes and without using a dictionary your English will NOT improve. You will simply reinforce your grammatical and lexical errors.

I will mark whatever you give me as long as it is your own work(!), researched, checked with a dictionary for basic errors, typed or written clearly and on alternate lines so that I have space to correct it. No margin is necessary. Please give it to me with your name, surname and class. Don’t send it on my email. Please don’t use translation programs. They don’t yet produce standard English, and you can’t use one in the Concorso!

At the Concorso I think they are looking for good standard, clear English, good content and quality, not quantity. 10 pages of incomprehensible English will not gain you anything. Your first page and a half should be error free (!), in terms of both language and content.

Use a dictionary that has example sentences to show you both the right word to choose and how to use the word.

The address of this blog is:

www.youngdip.blogspot.it

Read the following entries for September this weekend:

Some useful sources and resources / Some language for essay writing /How to write an essay on international relations / Some questions to think about

The best model for the kind of English you need to produce you can find on the UN site, particularly at http://www.un.org/apps/news/archive.asp , on the EU site, and texts in English on the site of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.esteri.it/mae/en , and Italy’s Permanent Mission to the United Nation in New York, http://www.italyun.esteri.it/rappresentanza_onu .You will find that the English used on these sites is slightly Latinized and without many of the journalistic expressions that make US and UK newspapers and magazines quite difficult to read. It is also based on a more limited vocabulary of common expressions. This is a good thing, not a bad thing and will make your task easier!! Remember, the object of language generally, but particularly with a mixed audience of L1 and L2 listeners and readers, is clarity and successful communication. Well, that is what the UN believes and so should you!

When you choose a topic to write about, you need to do extensive research and arrive at a balanced view of the subject, taking into account any position taken by the Italian government and/or the EU.