phrases

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Language & Learning June 14, 2019

Using phrasal verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb that is made up of a main verb combined with an adverb or a preposition, or both. Sometimes the meaning is really obvious but more often than not the meaning cannot be guessed by looking at the individual words. For example, look up can mean ‘look in an upward direction’ whereas give up means to ‘stop trying to do something’.

Check out English Grammar Online to learn about phrasal verbs containing up, on, turn, out, down, off, look, come, get and go. The site includes short quizzes to test understanding.

Language & Learning June 10, 2019

Putting wordy writing on a diet

One common piece of feedback from lecturers and tutors is that student writing can often be very wordy!
That is, the writer uses more words than necessary to present describe, explain, illustrate and argue the main points in a paper. This wordiness is obviously a problem when you need to keep to the word limit for an assessment but it also affects the overall quality of your writing. Wordy sentences can be difficult to navigate which means that the reader has to work harder to understand your point.

Have a look at these resources from The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help make your writing more concise.