Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

SUMMIT 1 WRITING ASSESSMENT 3

Get money smart
Students…
 Present factual information in an objective way in extended written
discourse.
 Represent contrasting points of view in a coherent, well-structured text.
 Structure longer complex texts using a range of cohesive devices.

1. Think about:

1. How much would you say are your monthly

expenses? What is your main source of money?

2. Do you put aside money in a regular basis?

3. What do you think is the key for a healthy

finance life?

4. In which situations do you dip into your

savings?

Put aside: Save money for specific purposes.

Dip into: Spend part of your saved money.

2. Words matter!

To do well in this lesson, it is necessary to learn a number of words. Please complete

the following exercise. At the end, you will have increased your vocabulary.

2.1. Underline the expression that best matches the idea of the boldfaced word or
phrase. Have a dictionary at hand!

a. I would like to start saving up some money this year. I want to go to Europe for two
months.

- Keeping some money for additional activities. – Spending extra money.

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Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

b. A new cell phone? You just bought one two months ago… Don’t you think it is a waste of
money?

- An intelligent transaction. -Spend money on unnecessary things.

c. This purse was so over my budget, but it is so beautiful I had to buy it.

- On sale. - More expensive than she thought.

d. My insurance company went into bankrupt and all our savings disappeared! We will have
to hire a lawyer.

- Lost all the clients’ money. - Gave all the money to just one person.

2.2. Match the word on the left with the corresponding category on the right. In this
way you will know what kind of word it is.

Word Category
1. I’m broke (___) a. I bought these _____ for just 15 dollars!
2. Ask for a loan (___) b. Sorry dear I can’t pay for that, _______.
3. Owe (___) c. I ________ me 100 dollars
4. Purchase (___) d. Sandra needs to _______ if she wants to buy a
new car.
5. On sale (___) e. Your credit card report registers a lot of ___ this
month.

3. Read a bit!
Read the following text about spending habit and tips on how to make your money
smart.

GET MONEY SMART

Shopping is one of people’s favorite activities. In the USA, for example, there are many sales
on stores people visit to save money. People save up for a few months, ask the bank for a
little loan answering to their shopping impulses acquiring numerous products. There are
thousands of shops for everybody and people sometimes go crazy! They buy purses, jackets,
shoes, toys, even electronic devices as computers, laptops or smart-watches. Despite the
many benefits it has for the economy, it also has some disadvantages, especially for the
consumer who, most of the times, is over their budget affecting his/her personal finances
after purchasing many things they cannot afford. Many users at the end are completely
broke. They have no cash and no credit.

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Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

People start wondering: was it

really necessary to buy all this?
Fortunately, in some countries
like the USA you can return
products you buy, and they
give your money back. They
get their money back and
sometimes the money is used
to pay what they owe to the
bank. One of the final
reflections that are considered
after this experience is that
buying without thinking in
what you really need is a total
waste of money.

Planning your finances carefully is probably the best financial advice consumers can apply
to their lives. Having said so, our experts suggest some tips to take the first steps and save
money and take responsibility of your expenses.

First of all, you need to learn how to budget effectively. Plan the way your expenses are
going to be distributed and how much money you can spend monthly. Try not to dip into
your savings unless it is something extremely necessary. There are many apps that can help
you organizing your incomes and outcomes in an organized way and it could be adapted to
your specific needs. Another action that could be taken is deciding whether to use cash or
credit cards. As advise, use the credit cards in an emergency-use-only case and move to a
cash-only system so the debts regarding the credit-card system will be reduced significantly.
Put aside part of the money you earn so you can invest it in the future.

Start with small changes: These could make the difference; say “No” to and expensive
purchase for example. At the end you will see the results and you will notice how your
finances improve as you “get your money smart”.

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Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

4. Grammar and composition

In this session you find grammar elements and composition strategies that help you
with your writing production. Read the explanation; this is important for the next
step!

Expressing ideas on subject and verb agreement and quantifiers

followed by of
When expressing ideas referring to uncertain quantity, you have to make sure of, first,
using of after the quantity expression and, second, verify that the verb agrees with the
noun after of. Check this out:

1. Most of the stuff people bought was unnecessary.

Now check this:

2. Most of the stuff I bought X were X unnecessary.

As you can see, the verb “Were” does not correspond with the noun “stuff”, being the
sentence incorrect. Always pay attention to that.

The expression none of is also very common in written texts, and it is always followed by a
singular verb:

3. None of the products I purchased was expensive.

If you keep this in mind, you written texts will be awesome!

4.1 Think of the characteristics of your finance life. Is it good or bad? Write five
actions (verbs) that represent your finance behavior and money usage. After doing
so, think of five ideas that illustrate your relationship with money. Then write them
in the blanks below. Follow the example:

I just live in the present, so I never save up money.

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Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

a. ________________________
b._________________________
c. _________________________
d. _________________________
e. _________________________

a. _____________________________________________________________________________________________.

b. _____________________________________________________________________________________________.

c. _____________________________________________________________________________________________.

d. _____________________________________________________________________________________________.

e. _____________________________________________________________________________________________.

4.2 Think of five actions that you have learned to do considering ONE personality
feature you have, that you consider negative. Then write them in the blanks below.
Follow the example:

“Being a stubborn person, I have learned to listen to other people´s advice.”

Being a/an _____________________ person, I have learned to:

a. ________________________

b._________________________

c. _________________________

d. _________________________

e. _________________________

COHESIVE DEVICES

Cohesive devices are words like ‘For example ‘, ‘In conclusion’ or, ‘however ‘. Those and
discourse markers or transitional words give coherence, cohesion to your text. They signal
to the reader what the relationships are between the different clauses, sentences and
paragraphs.

First of all, you need to learn how to budget effectively.

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Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

Taken from: https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/IELTS%20Writing-%20Coherence%20&%20Cohesion.pdf

There are many types of cohesive devices. Let’s take a look:

COMPARISON: ADDITION:
Similarly, Likewise, In like Furthermore, what is more,
manner, By the same token… Moreover, As well…

EXEMPLIFICATION: SEQUENCING:
For example, to illustrate, For In The first place, to begin,
instance… Firstly, Finally…

RESULT: CONTRAST:
As a result of this, Conversely, in spite of,
consequently, accordingly… despite the fact that…

REFORMULATION: HIGHLIGHTING:

In other words, in simply Above all, mainly,

terms, rather… particularly, especially…

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Writing Assessment Student’s Guide

But cohesion could be done through other type of methods. Let’s see:

ANAPHORIC REFERENCE: A word in a text refers back to other ideas in the text for its
meaning.

Many users at the end are completely broke. They have no cash and no credit.

CATAPHORIC REFERENCE: A word in a text refers to another later in the text and you
need to look forward to understand.

When it was said, we had already discussed the idea.

EXOPHORIC REFERENCE: A word in a text refers to another later in the text and you need
to look forward to understand.

The implementation of the “Primer empleo” policy is increasing the job demand in big
companies.

4.3 Bearing in mind the ideas you develop in exercises 4.1 and 4.2, write a paragraph
connecting the ideas in an organized way. Use the cohesive devices explained before.

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Now you are ready for your writing test. Let’s write something!

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