4. BAD NOTE TAKING (TO AVOID)

-         Verbatim copying of every word of the lecturers.

-         Avoid being distracted from the lesson by being conscious of getting everything said. Listen, understand the point before jotting.

-         Avoid using short hand code you cannot interpret in few minutes after the lecture.

-         Do not be busy writing rubbish because others are writing. Your jotting should tally with the purpose of the lecture and your understanding of it.

-         Avoid repletion – lecturers may repeat a particular point for emphasis, you need not put it down whenever it is repeated.

ESSAYS

Essay or continuous writing is all about creative and imaginative writing. It is designed to test the candidates/students ability to use English as an effective means of communication in a given situation. For instance, the student’s ability to express himself clearly and coherently in a manner appropriate to the audience, purpose, topic and situation. Students are free to write real-life stories or imagined ones. No penalty is attached to transcending ones ethnic bounds, i. e. someone from Hausa may write about Igbo or Yoruba culture as one’s own tribe, without being penalized.

The merit of a piece of writing should be judged in terms of the writer’s success in achieving the purpose, be it to entertain, instruct, inform, admonish or to persuade. Such judgment will be based on:

1.       Adequacy of treatment of subject matter

2.       Originality of approach

3.       Appropriateness of language

4.       Clarity of exposition, narration or argument, etc.

5.       Balance of paragraphs (coherent)

6.       Mechanical accuracy

TYPES OF ESSAYS AND THEIR FEATURES

There are various essays students would be taught and as well be assessed in exam. They range from: Letter writing – formal, informal and semi-formal, argument, narrative (story telling), article – exposition, description or imagination, report writing, speech writing, etc.

Each of these types of essays has its peculiar feature and format, which could be summed into Formal and Informal.  All type of essays except the informal letter is formal. That is, it is only the informal writing that has different language format. In it, one can shorten words, use colloquial and also use familiar expressions with the recipient of the letter.