eBook
TASKS Patents & inventions
The patent procedure organises and controls the process of human invention. This enshrines the idea of 'intellectual property' - that if you have thought up a new idea, or written a book or a song, you...
eBook
TASKS SuperChatbot 2
The latest, state of the art, chatbot is called ChatGPT. The Wikipedia article on this device is well worth reading, and here is what it has to say as a general description: ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained...
Building a programme
Text types, sorted for use
The list of text types in the Subject Guide is very long - although we must never forget that the Guide introduces the list by stating "The examples shown are neither prescriptive nor exhaustive": in...
Building a programme
Exam list of text types
The IB has published the promised list of text types which will be used in the new Paper 1 Writing. You can find it by going to the Programme Resource Centre (PRC), and then... > Diploma Programme > Language...
Assessment
Orals: advising students
The heading above says it all, really! Some students (and teachers) like to take a melodramatic view of the Individual Interview - as a cross between The Last Judgement and Shoot-out at the OK Corral...
Activities
TASKS 3rd Conditional
Thinking about the way things might have been if... can be an entertaining game of speculation, but it is also an important aspect of judging the past. It is intriguing to think about what would have...
Blog
Colson Whitehead Free
I have been ill recently, which gave me plenty of time to read a couple of novels by Colson Whitehead, who is a much-admired black American novelist with a couple of Pulitzer Prizes to his name. The novels...
Activities
About articles 2
In About Articles 1, we looked at the main rules about how to use those annoying articles in English. In this page, I want to look at the ways that articles are used which don't fit conveniently into...
eBook
TASKS Negative globalization #2
Sharing the downsides? ... that everything is becoming 'global' is now a trite cliché, a statement of the obvious - but all the more reason to examine exactly what is involved. We don't have to accept...
Assessment
Essay
context, audience, purpose - * in relation to an essay, the term 'context' will most likely involve an issue which is in need of serious discussion. This may involve two elements: the general area to...