Better at English writing contest –.pdf

Writing contest: win an Amazon gift

certificate

A listener recently emailed offering some constructive

criticism about my voice in our podcasts. I’m always grateful

for tips on how we can improve our podcasts, and I am quite

sure that she meant to be helpful. However, because of the

language she chose, her critique sounded rather harsh. If I

didn’t know how difficult it is to express yourself in a foreign

language, I probably would have been offended. Luckily, I

DO understand and am thankful for the advice

Being too direct and harsh when giving (constructive)

criticism or making requests is a very common problem for

my students, so I’ve decided to use this authentic email as a

writing contest for you.

TASK

Your task is to rewrite the in the yellow box below to get the point across more tactfully. Of

course, your spelling and grammar should be good too. ;-)

DEADLINE

The deadline for your entries is 00:01 UTC Tuesday 7 August.

HOW TO ENTER

Post your rewritten text as a response to this topic on our forum . You'll have to join the forum,

but it's easy. And FREE. Here is the URL if you can't click the link in the document:

http://www.betteratenglish.com/forum/index.php?topic=42.0

How do you win? I'll choose the rewritten email that I think is best.

PRIZE

The prize is a 25-Euro gift certificate from the Amazon online bookstore . We had some

generous donations this month, so it's nice to be able to give something back to our dedicated

listeners!

REWRITE THIS

Hi LoriIt would really help me and I'm sure a lot of others like me, if you'd

speakwith your natural voice, not so high pitched. I was listening to the

phrasalverbs on your website ( the episode about spending money) and I

was reallyturned off by your animated speaking.

Good luck!

P.S: I agree with her critique. My delivery in the early “2-minute English” podcasts SUCKED! :-p