Text: Level 8

LONGMAN Advanced Learners’ Grammar by Mark Foley &  Diane Hall.

You should be able to find it at the European Bookshop. 

Texts: Level 6

We will be using the following texts for the course:

- International Express. Student's Book. Upper-Intermediate by Keith Harding and Adrian Wallwork
- International Express. Workbook. Upper-Intermediate by Adrian Wallwork

You should be able to find it at the European Bookshop.

Some ESL tips for the Italians

Here is a link for a video stream consisting of some tips for the Italians learning Englsih as a second language (ESL). I think it is mostly on pronunciation.

I also found the website of the guy in the video.

DGT edit helpline

Here you can reach DGT editorial helpline, which is supposed to provide you with "rapid linguistic advice on request". 

The Shallows

Here you can have access to the reference for the book entitled The Shallows. What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicolas Carr.  We mentioned this book in the context of our discussion on the role of punctuation in the emergence of individualistic literary consciousness.

Text: Presenting in English

We will be using the following text for the course:

Presenting in English by Mark Powell.

You should be able to find it at the European Bookshop.

Here you can find you the first section of the book. 

Barefoot running

Here is the link for Chris McDougall's TED talk.  He is the author of the highly acclaimed book entitled Born to Run.  I have to admit that his delivery is much better than my performance today.  See if you can identify the place where he uses a list of three even though he does not use the the rule of three to structure his talk.

Here is the link for the video presentation of the "Barefoot Professor" at Harvard I told you about.

Here is another nice video on the mechanics of running.

Finally, here a link for a longer four-part presentation by a podiatrist for those of you who might try out barefoot running, maybe next time you are at the beach.  He warns us about the merit of the slogan "We are all burn to run!"

Presenting in English Section 1

Here you can find you the first section of the book.  We will be looking at it in our next session.

Agenda Magazine

You can hereby have access to Agenda, the weekly magazine for the cultural events in Brussels. The website seems to be only in Dutch and French, but the paper version is in three languages, i.e., English, Dutch and French.  If you live in Brussels, you can get a free subscription for home delivery.

E-learning

Here is the link for a flyer advertising the e-learning tools and courses offered by the Commission.

The Council Style Guide

Here is the link for the Council Style Guide.

EACEA Style Guide

Here you can find the EACEA Style Guide.

Level 5 pocket book

Here you can find the Pocket Book for our text.

Collocate dictionary

Here you can find an online collocate dictionary.  There you have the option of comparing collocations in Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), Time Magazine Corpus (TIME), British National Corpus (BNC) and Google.

Searchable terminology database

Here you can find the link for the EI searchable terminology database.

Here you can find the link for the EI searchable terminology database.

How to Write Clearly

Here you can find the Commission guide entitled "How to Write Clearly".

Quotations and sources

Commission English Style Guide
In Section 9 (entitled "Footnotes, citations and references") of the English Style Guide published by the Directorate-General for Translation you can find the information and relevant links on providing sources in your documents.  Sections 14, 15 and 17 of the Guide can also be useful if you need to refer to an official EU document as your source.  Subsection 2.3 provides you with information on the use of quotation marks when you provide quotations.

Interinstitutional Style Guide
You can also refer to the relevant sections and subsections of the Interinstitutional Style Guide,  especially 5.5.4 entitled "Bibliographies" and 8 entitled "Footnotes and their references". Subsection 5.10 entitled "Quotations" provides you with the official house rules for quotations, especially in reference to the use of quotation marks and ellipses.

MLA style list of works cited
Here you can find a short overview for how to provide different types of sources in your list of works cited in the MLA style from the Seventh Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. At the bottom of the page there is a link for some of the other styles.
Here you can find a more in-dept coverage of the same issue from the Sixth Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  You will have to download the document to see its content, since it is a sizable file.
Please pay attention to the fact that the references to digital sources are different in the Sixth and Seventh Editions of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. I recommend using the Seventh Edition in this regard.

Alternative citation styles

1) In-text citation
Here you can find information on citing sources in the text as it is presented in the Sixth Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

2) Footnote and endnote citation
Here you can find information on citing sources in footnotes or endnotes as it is presented in the Sixth Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

3) Author-date citation and references
Here you can find information on the author-date system, which is mostly used in the APA style, as it is presented in the Sixth Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

4) Numbered citations and works cited
Here you can find information on the number system, which is used in positive sciences,  as it is presented in the Sixth Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

5) Other styles
Here is a list of other styles that can be used as it provided in the Sixth Edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

REMEMBER TO BE CONSISTENT BY USING ONLY THE STYLE YOU CHOOSE!

Acronyms and abbreviations used at the EI

Here you can find a list of the main acronyms and abbreviations used at the European Institutions.

Jargon used at the EI

Here you can find a list of the jargon commonly used at the European Institutions.

Here you can find the list of the same jargon along with their alternatives if you want to avoid the jargon while corresponding with an external party.

Searchable document archives

The links for searchable document archives for the Commission, the Parliament and the Council are hereby made available.

Phrase, idiom and expression reference

Here you can find an online multilingual dictionary for phrases, expressions and idioms.

Style guides

Here you can find the Interinstitutional style guide. 

"English Style Guide" released by the Commission can be accessed  here.