Formatting your Essays
Watch this video to format your essay correctly!
Cultural Dimensions
For your compare/contrast essay, you will need to read about how your culture is similar to and different from American culture. You can get this information from Geert Hofstede's website. You will see a tool that lets you compare two cultures. Select your culture and the U.S., and the website will automatically produce a comparison chart. Under the chart, you will see an article that discusses the similarities and differences. This is the article where you can get your references for your essay. For references in your body paragraph, please use direct quotations from the report on your country. Remember that to get information about American culture, you need to select the United States first in the comparison tool
For your introduction, you need to provide background information about Hoftstede and his research. You can find that information the section called 'About' on his website. Remember that you need to paraphrase background information (not a quotation).
You can see how to do all of this in the video below.
For your introduction, you need to provide background information about Hoftstede and his research. You can find that information the section called 'About' on his website. Remember that you need to paraphrase background information (not a quotation).
You can see how to do all of this in the video below.
Links
- Longman dictionary. Here you can look up words in English for free!
- Cambridge dictionary. This is another free dictionary and it has pronunciation!
- Study vocabulary on Quizlet. Sets are there from all classes/levels
- Study grammar on Quizlet. There are lots of sets for basic, intermediate, and advanced grammar.
- Pew Research Center. This site has statistics about many different topics. You can also search for statistics with key words
- Typing Lessons. This website has free typing lessons. Remember to put both hands on the keyboard. Do the exercises and learn to type! You will need it in college!!
- Grammar Quizzes. This is an amazing website with grammar explanations and exercises for free!
To practice present perfect/past simple, click here.
To practice 'there is/are,' click here. Or for 'it/there,' click here. - ESL Bee. You will find lots of sample essays and great explanations and guides for how to write good clear essays. There are also some useful exercises for grammar and topic sentences.
- Academic Word List. This is a great place to study the 570 most common words in academic English.
- Quote Garden. Are you writing an introduction? This is a great place to find quotes. You can search by topic!
- 501 Writing Prompts. Do you want to practice writing essays? This website has many different types of writing prompts. Choose one and practice writing!
- News English Lessons. This website has short interesting news articles that are especially written for ESL students. They are easy to read and have exercises that you can do. The author adds new lessons every few days.
- Famous People Lessons. Here is more reading practice for you! You can read (and listen to) short biographies of famous people like Johnny Depp or 50 Cent.
