Bria TS #8

            During this session, my tutee wanted to work on writing essays. He also wanted to know how to make his essays longer in order to reach the word count and how to write faster. This is because my tutee has already taken the IELTS but had some trouble with the written portion of the test. During the IELTS, a person has to write two essays in one hour. The first essay is about a diagram and has to be at least 150 words. The second essay is based on some short answer questions and has to be at least 250 words. It seemed to me like my tutee was having some trouble with writing the second essay. Due to this, I told him some tricks that I use when I write, such as using in addition and along with. Not only do both of these phrases help the essay follow better, they also allow the writer to restate the main point of a previous paragraph in another paragraph, which adds to the word count. As for improving his writing speed, I suggested that my tutee do some speedwriting with the example questions in his prep book. Although my tutee looked unhappy about this suggestion, I explained to him that he is going to have to practice writing faster. This is a skill that cannot be taught but has to be practiced over and over again. At the end of the session, I told my tutee that he should bring one of his essays to the next session in order for me to further help him.