Friday 13th May GPIV Legal English Private Law Groups 2 and 4

Friday 13th May 2011
GPIV Legal English Private Law Stream

Group 2 1.30pm Lesson 10
Group 4 4.30pm Lesson 10

Class

Presentations
Introductions and Conclusions
http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/32233573/Presentations
Signposting Language
http://www.uefap.com/speaking/spkfram.htm
Using notes
http://www.uefap.com/speaking/spkfram.htm

Home
Prepare a presentation on the same topic as your essay for next week. You should be prepared to speak for 6 to 7 minutes and allow an extra two minutes for questions.

FEEDBACK ON ESSAYS

Group 2 - come prepared and learn your forms for referencing and citing - this aspect was poorly handled.

Both groups
RESEARCH
• Use Wikipedia as a starting point but be careful when using it as source. Is there a named author? Is it reliable? For referencing a Wikipedia source see below:
Please note that the APA Style Guide to Electronic References warns writers that wikis (like Wikipedia, for example) are collaborative projects which cannot guarantee the verifiability or expertise of their entries.
OLPC Peru/Arahuay. (n.d.). Retrieved from the OLPC Wiki: http://wiki.laptop. org/go/OLPC_Peru/Arahuay
• BBC Radio 4 has an excellent series of podcasts which includes episodes on many of the topics that featured in your essays e.g.

Contempt of Court and Prisoner Voting rights (the “proportionality debate”)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zdl28
Family Courts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vcpbp
International Criminal Court
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rbky7
Jury Trials
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yyhqn
Bribery Law Reform
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r6611


CONTENT
• Essays that were general overviews or definitions did not score as well as essays which took a critical approach or discussed the legal/social/historical/political perspective.
• If you are discussing a case, you need to say why it’s important or discuss the impact of the decision rather than just giving a summary of the facts and the judgment. An essay must be more than a case brief.

ORGANISATION
• Many essays lacked clear introductions and conclusions
• You don’t need to use headings or number your paragraphs in an essay – clear topic sentences will introduce the theme of each paragraph.

STYLE
• Avoid repetition use a range of synonyms
• Simplify your punctuation – avoid colons and semi colons followed by long lists and numerous clauses.
• Avoid unnecessary phrases e.g. “I’m going to talk about…” “The Health Care Act is an act of parliament.”

ACCURACY
• Articles – overuse of “the”
• Tenses – present perfect, overuse of the present simple, mistakes with irregular verbs
• Structure – Don’t separate your subject, verb and object. Always make sure your sentence has a subject.
• Noun-Verb agreement – check singular and plural forms
• Collocations – especially verb + preposition consists of
• This, these etc.