Let´s do an essay!

As university students, it is common for us to do essays to show our opinion about a specific topic. Compare and contrast essay is very useful when we want to compare conditions about two elementos from the same topic. For my Friday exam, I did an essay about working conditions in Mexico an the U.S.A. I used the basic structure: 

• Introduction: in which we write about what is going to treat the essay and our thesis.
• Body: in this part we should write the arguments that support our thesis and reflections about these. It is important to show the comparison between both elements. 
• Conclusion: Finally, we have to do a recap about we talked and write our final opinion. 

It is not complicated to do a compare and contrast essay if we do a good investigation and order our ideas correctly. In this link you will find extra information about how to do a compare and contrast essay.

Are you ready to do an essay?

By: Nancy Sánchez

Reported speech

Reported speech is a common way of speaking. We use it all the time when we tell what someone else tells us. We only have to pass the verb in present to past and the verb in past to past perfect. If we use will we have to change it for would: Dayra said she would buy a car next month. 

It is important to know how to use reported speech because we use this type of language in our everyday interactions. 

Do you have something to report today?

By: Nancy Sánchez

If I were...

"If I were a dancer, I would receive money for doing what I love." 

All the time we are thinking about hypothetical situations. It is normal for the human being. This kind of sentences is called second conditional. An imaginary situation form the if clause and the result or consequence is the outcome. We always have to use a verb in simple past for the first clause and the modal would or could for the second. 

This kind of sentences is very useful and funny because is a way to show the power of our imagination. We can imagine incredible situations in our life or what we would do if we were someone else. The possibilities are endless. 

If you could do wherever you want, what would you do?

By: Nancy Sánchez

How to speak louder?

Most of the time, when we are learning a new language, we tend to speak at a low volume. In English, and in any language, this is not good because it shows that we are not confident in talking. For that reason it is important to have a lou volume. How can we speak louder? There are a lot of tips for this. In Dick  Massimilian´s page, this guy gives some recomendations, but I am going to give you some else:

1. Breathe deeply and use your abs. This will give you more energy and strength to your words.
2. Project your voice on the other side of the room. In this way you make sure that all members of the audience can hear you.
3. Open your mouth more than normal. This will help you to pronunce clearly each word and letter.
4. Sing in all the places you can. This will gives you confidence and you will practice your pronunciation.
5. Read in loud voice. This will help you improve your pronunciation an also you will learn more vocabulary. Read poetry could be very funny. 

All this tips could help you to speak louder, but yo should remember that the most important is have confidence and practice all the time, beacuse this is going to be reflected in your tone of voice. 

Is your voice volume loud enough?

By: Nancy Sánchez