Real writing TNotes

Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit1

At a hotel

Ask students about their experiences of staying in hotels. Write
on the board: What is important about a hotel for you? Ask
students to rank these statements (i.e. 1 = most important,
5 = not important):

R: Thank you. That’s all fine. We’ll send you confirmation by post.
G: Thank you. Goodbye.
R: Bye.

Focus on … capital letters

It is comfortable. It is clean. It is cheap.
It is in a good location / place. The staff are friendly.
Put students into pairs and ask them to compare their answers.
Feedback as a whole class.

Get ready to write
• Ask the class to look at the picture. Ask students, where
is Xiaoping? What is he doing? Elicit hotel vocabulary, for
example, to arrive, a guest etc. and write it on the board.
• Tell students that Xiaoping wants to stay in a small hotel.
Ask students what questions the receptionist might ask him,
for example, would you like a single or double room? Write
suggestions on the board. Ask students which room they
think he wants and why.

Completing hotel forms
1 Ask students to look at the form and do the exercise in pairs.
2–4 Ask students to do the exercises. Check answers.

Focus on … the alphabet
You may want to remind students of the pronunciation of the
letters of the alphabet by brainstorming this chart on the board.
/ei/

/i /

/e/

/ai/

/au/

/u /

/a /

ahjk

bcdegp
t z (USA)

flmnr
x z (UK)

iy

o

qw

r

Play the recording and ask students to complete the exercises.
5–7 Get students to do the exercises.

Get students to do the exercises. Check answers. Then dictate
the text below to students. Check they have used capital letters
correctly.
I would like to say what a wonderful time I had at your Rome
hotel. I stayed from Monday 21 March to 28 March. I especially
want to thank the manager Marco Andretti. He helped me to
arrange a very special celebration for my wife’s birthday.
8 Ask students to complete the registration form.
9 Tell students to use the information from the card to
complete the payment information part of the form.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their books and use the Check
questions to check each other’s work and, if necessary, suggest
improvements.

Extra practice
Get students to visit a hotel website and download an enquiry
form. Alternatively photocopy the form below. Get students to

complete the form.

Castle View Guest House
16 High Street, Conwy, North Wales, LL32 86NN, UK
Phone: +44(0)1492 591001 Fax: +44(0)1492 591002
Email:

Booking Form
Please use BLOCK CAPITALS.
Full name:
Address:

Class bonus
For weaker students you may want to supply possible questions
for the receptionist and responses for the guest. Alternatively, use
the model dialogue below (R = Receptionist G = Guest):
R: Hello. The George Guest House. How can I help you?
G: Oh, hello. I’d like to make a reservation.
R: Fine. Can I take your name please?
G: …………
R: And your address?
G: …………
R: And the telephone number?
G: …………
R: What type of room would you like and when do you want it?
Guest: …………
R: Okay. That will be a total of $150.00. How will you be
paying?
G: …………

Post code:
Tel no:
Number of guests:
Type of room single / double / twin / family
Age of children:
Date of arrival:
Date of departure:
Method of payment Mastercard
Visa
Credit Card No.
Expiry Date:

Delete as appropriate

Cheque

Tick

Signature

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© Cambridge University Press 2008


Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit2

Post

Get ready to write
Put students in pairs for the listening activity, play the recording
and ask students to briefly discuss the questions. Check the
answers as a whole class.
Write Post (USA: Mail) in the middle of the board as the central
word for a spidergram. Ask students for key vocabulary about
post, e.g. sign for something, etc. and write this on the board.
Brainstorm other types of postal services that your students may
use, e.g. parcel post, airmail, etc. For example:
airmail

parcel post

Post
(USA: Mail)

Item
next day delivery

Refer students to the Did you know…? box on page 15 for more
ideas and ask them to write the names of these services in their
own language.

Completing post office forms
1–3 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers.
4 Ask students to do the exercise. While students are completing
the exercise write the following information on the board:
DC 20500 NW1 6XE London

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 221b Baker Street
i) President of USA, ……………,
ii) Sherlock Holmes, ……………,

Role cards
Student A
Part 1: You are the customer.
a) You want to send a watch to a friend. Talk to the post
office worker and complete the table below with the weight
and cost.
b) You want to send a vase to your aunt. Talk to the post
office worker and complete the table below with the weight
and cost.

……………,
……………,

Washington
……………
……………

Ask students to complete these famous addresses with
information from the box. (You can also add to the box the
address of someone famous in your country, and add their
name as question iii. This will highlight any differences in the
ordering of addresses that you may have in your country.)

Focus on … weight / Focus … on money
Ask students to complete the exercises, playing the recordings
where indicated. Check answers. For extra practise with writing down

weights and values, put students in pairs. Then tell each pair that one
student is Student A and the other is B. Give them a copy of the role
cards and sample dialogue. Check that students understand their
role cards and explain that this role play is in two parts. Ask them to
role play Part 1 and check their answers before role playing Part 2.
Dialogue
Customer: Hello. I’d like to send a parcel. It’s a name of
object.
(Customer gives the item to the post office worker.)
Post office worker: Thank you. I’ll need to weigh it for you.
That’s (weight) kilos, so that’ll cost (money).
Customer: Here you are.
(Customer pays the post office worker.)
Postal office worker: Thank you.
Customer: Thank you. Bye.

Weight

Cost

A watch
A vase
Part 2: You are the post office worker.
a) The cooking pot weighs 5 kg. It costs £18.00 to post it.
b) The computer game weighs 0.3 kg. It costs £4.35 to post it.
Student B
Part 1: You are the post office worker.
a) The watch weighs 0.1 kg. It costs £2.15 to post it.
b) The vase weighs 1.2 kg. It costs £10.50 to post it.
Part 2: You are the customer.

a) You want to send a cooking pot to your brother. Talk to
the post office worker and complete the table below with
the weight and cost.
b) You want to send a computer game to a friend. Talk to
the post office worker and complete the table below with
the weight and cost.
Item

Weight

Cost

A cooking pot
A computer game

5–9 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers. Note that a commercial sample, is an
example of a company’s work, i.e. a printed t-shirt, that the
company gives you for free to encourage you to buy more.
10 Ask students to complete the form.

Learning tip
Put students into small groups and give them three minutes
to find as many double letter words as they can in a dictionary.
They must be words that they understand. At the end feedback
all the words they found onto the board.
Tell students that they are going to group the words with a
similar meaning. Ask one student at a time to come up to
the board, rub out a word and then rewrite it next to a similar
word, e.g. address + street. After most of the words have been

grouped, rub out those that do not fit into any group. Give the
class a group of no more than ten words to learn in this way for
homework. Test them in the next lesson!
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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit3

At the bank

Get ready to write
Before students do this exercise, you can introduce the topic
by emptying out your wallet and eliciting the vocabulary for the
different types of money that you carry, e.g. coins, notes / bills,
credit cards, cash / debit cards, etc. Ask if people have bank
accounts and what they were asked by the bank when they
opened them.
Write these jumbled questions on the board:
1) email address / your / what’s / ?
(What’s your email address?)
2) born / when / you / were / ?
(When were you born?)
3) phone number / what’s / your / ?
(What’s your phone number?)
4) you / are / married / ?
(Are you married?)

5) come / where / you / do / from / ?
(Where do you come from?)
Ask students to unjumble the questions. Then in pairs, get them
to ask and answer the questions they have written.
In pairs, ask students to discuss and complete the exercises.
When students have put the questions into the different
categories in the table, e.g. Employment information, Contact
information, etc. brainstorm other questions that might be
asked in each section of the form, for example, your nationality,
employer’s name, etc.

Completing bank forms
1–4 These exercises can be done in pairs. Encourage students
not to worry about unfamiliar vocabulary and to guess the
meaning of words they are unsure of from the context. After
a few minutes ask students to compare their answers in small
groups and then ask them to feedback their answers onto
the board. Deal with any vocabulary that students are still
uncertain of, e.g. widowed, tenant, mortgage, etc.
5 This exercise can be done in pairs.

Did you know … ?
Before students look at this, refer students to question 1 of the
form and elicit why John Davidson has ticked the box marked
Other. Ask students to look at the information in Did you know …?
For extra practise with forms that ask you to make a choice, copy
these questions onto the board and ask students to complete
them.
First language (tick one):
Japanese

French
Portuguese
Mandarin
Other (please specify)…….
Favourite sport (tick one):
None
Football
Basketball
Tennis
Other
(please specify)……
Favourite pet (tick one):
No pet
Dog
Cat
Rabbit
Other (please
specify)…….

Ask the class to feedback their answers, write them on the board
and work out the class’s top three sports and pets.
6 Ask students to complete the exercise in pairs or individually.
You may want to highlight any changes in stress and drill the
stress patterns:
Britain / British
China / Chinese
Russia / Russian
Turkey / Turkish Japan / Japanese
Mexico / Mexican
You may also want to add the nationality / nationalities of

your own students to the exercise.
7 This exercise can be done in pairs. Check answers.

Focus on … email addresses
Ask students to complete the exercises, playing the recordings
where indicated, then put them in small groups. Ask them
to each dictate their email address and then check that the
others in the group have written it down correctly. Monitor the
exercise, and if people have written anything incorrectly suggest
remedial strategies to the speaker, e.g. speaking slower and
using pauses.
Alternatively, ask each student to write down five email
addresses (they can make them up if they can not remember
real addresses). Put the students in pairs and ask them to dictate
the addresses to their partner and then check that their partner
has written them down correctly.
8 Ask students to complete the application form in sections
a–d and then use the Check questions to check their work.
Next put them into groups of three and get them to swap
their books with another group. Explain that the bank has a
platinum account which only the best customers can open.
Tell them they must read the forms from the other group and
choose one person who they will offer the platinum account
to. When they have decided, they should explain to the other
group why they have chosen that person, e.g. they have lots
of savings, they deposit lots of money in their bank account
each month.

More activities
Vocabulary Practice: For extra practise of vocabulary from

this unit, copy these anagrams and explanations onto the
board and ask students to unscramble them. Do not write
the answers (in brackets)!
VASSING = Money you have in a bank (SAVINGS)
TRERNUC SREADDS = Where you live now (CURRENT
ADDRESS)
MENARUS = Your last name (SURNAME)
YEELMORP = The company you work for (EMPLOYER)
MEEFLA = Not a man or boy (FEMALE)
NOWER = Someone who owns something (OWNER)
COUNTAC = You have one of these at a bank (ACCOUNT)
TREN = Money that you pay to a person who owns your
home (RENT)

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit4

My name’s …

Get ready to write

Focus on … sentences

Ask students what is happening in the pictures and if they have

ever been involved in an exchange programme. Ask students
how they felt before they went and what they knew about the
host family before they arrived.
Ask students to do the exercises. As a class brainstorm what
information the guest and host should share with each other
about themselves before they meet.

You may want to explain that when we read aloud a full stop is
a longer pause (a place to breathe). We normally take breaths
between logical chunks. Reading their own writing aloud can
sometimes help students find where sentence breaks should go.
Ask students to do the exercises. Check answers.
You could extend this activity by dividing the class in half.
Give the two groups different paragraphs to copy out from a
coursebook. Tell them not to include full stops and to change
all the capital letters at the beginning of sentences into small
letters. When they have done this, put students into pairs: one
student from each group. Ask them to swap their hand written
paragraphs and correct the paragraph they are given. After a few
minutes, ask them to check their corrected paragraph against the
original in the coursebook.

An email introducing yourself
1 Students can do this exercise in pairs or individually.
2 Students can do this exercise in pairs or individually. When
students have completed the exercise, ask them to look at the
email and find the expression to look forward to something,
e.g. to anticipate something. Highlight how the phrase is fixed
and always has an object (something). Ask students to think
about what they are going to do over the next 12 months.

Brainstorm what things they are looking forward to, e.g.
holidays, and what they are not looking forward to, e.g. exams.

Did you know…?
After students have done Exercise 1, brainstorm a list of six
famous people and write the names on the board. Alternatively,
use these:
Gloria Estefan (female Cuban / American singer)
Umberto Eco (male Italian writer)
Nelson Mandella (male South African politician)
Ichiyo Higuchi (female Japanese writer)
Andy Warhol (male American artist)
Tell students they have one minute to write these people’s
names in two different ways, e.g. Ms Gloria Estefan / Ms G
Estefan, then check their answers. Ask students to do Exercise 2.
Check answers.
3 Students can do this exercise in pairs or individually.
4–6 Ask students to complete the exercises. For Exercise 6,
you may want to highlight these fixed prepositions: in English
you always go to a place or event and listen to music. When
students have completed Exercise 6, you could ask them to
find other students in the class who like doing similar things.
Alternatively, ask students to call out their favourite hobby,
take a class vote and see which hobby is the most popular.

7–9 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers.

Check
Highlight how the check questions follow the same logic as the

Learning tip. Students should check for meaning, i.e. that Lukas
has all the information he needs, before checking the grammar.

Extra practice
Before students complete the form, brainstorm what should be
written in each space. Ask students to complete the form.

Class bonus
You can extend this activity by giving each of the emails a
number before they are displayed. Tell students they have five
minutes to read as many emails as possible and write down
who they think they are from. After five minutes of looking at the
displayed emails, put students into groups of three or more and
tell them to compare their answers and add any that the other
members of the group may have. Then ask students to feedback
their answers to the whole class. The group with the highest
number of correct answers is the winner.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit5

Back at 6.00

Get ready to write

B Adding notes to a calendar

Tell students to look at the picture of the family but cover up
the text. In pairs, tell them they have one minute to guess how
the people are related (i.e. brother, mother, etc.) and what their
hobbies are. Then ask them to read the text to see if they were
correct and do the exercise. Ask students to feedback their
answers to the class.

As an introduction to this part of the unit, ask students whether
they use a calendar or diary at home. Feedback onto the board
what type of things students write on their calendars and in
their diaries, e.g. birthdays, important events, things that have
changed, etc.

A Leaving messages

2 Students can do this exercise individually or in pairs.

Introduce Section A by asking students these questions: When
was the last time you left a message? Who was it to? What was
it about? Why didn't you speak to the person? Was it long or
short? Why?
You could also write on the board a typical message that
might be left in your house. This will give you the opportunity
to highlight any differences there may be between the way
messages are written in English and your students’ own
language. It would also be useful to refer students to the
Learning tip.

3 Ask students to do Exercise 3a, then play the recording
as many times as they need (as you would if it was an
answering maching message!) and get students to complete
Exercise 3b. Check answers.

1–2 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers.
3 Highlight the types of words that are generally omitted from
notes, i.e. do, subject pronouns, auxiliary verbs and nonessential prepositions. Ask students to complete the exercise.
4 Before students do this exercise, you may want to do some
work on prepositions of time, e.g. before, after, at. Ask
students to read the messages on page 26 and circle before,
after and at. Elicit how at can refer to location (At the pool)
or time (Back at 6.00). Ask students to look at Message a and
answer these questions: Will Malcolm be at home before
6.00? (No); Will Malcolm be at home at 6.00? (Yes); Will
Malcolm be at home after 6.00? (Yes, unless he goes out
again!). Put students into small groups. Ask each student to
think of one activity they do every Saturday or Sunday, e.g. go
shopping. Ask them to tell the group the activity but not the
time they do it. The other students in the group must find
out the time by asking questions using before, after or at, e.g.
Do you go shopping before 1.00? The student should only
answer Yes or No. Ask students to complete the exercise.
Check answers.
After Exercise 4 write these sentences on the board for
students to shorten.
a) I’ll see you on Monday.
(Answer: See you Monday.)

b) There’s choir practice tomorrow. (Answer: Choir practice
tomorrow.)
c) Are you coming?
(Answer: Coming?)
d) I’m at Chris’s house.
(Answer: At Chris’s house.)
5 Students can do this exercise in pairs or individually. Check
answers.

1 Ask students to complete this exercise. Feedback as a class.

4 Students can do this exercise individually or in pairs. After
students have completed Exercise 4, highlight how the
important information answers three different questions:
Who? Where? and When? Explain that later they will add
notes to the calendar about the party. Ask them: What other
information will you need to add? i.e. the answer to What? A
party.
5 Students can do this exercise individually or in pairs. Check
answers.
6 Ask students to complete the exercise. Extend Exercise 6 by
putting students into pairs and giving Student A in each pair a
role card.
Student A
You are the choir director. Phone Helen and leave a message
on the answer machine. Explain that the choir practice on
March 12 has been changed to March 9.
Explain that student A must use information from the role card
and pretend that they are leaving a message on the answer
machine. Student B cannot ask any questions but can ask

Student A to repeat / replay the message. Student B should then
change the calendar by adding or deleting information given by
student A.
Give student B this role card:
Student B
You are the Judo teacher. Phone Robbie and leave a message
on the answer machine. Explain that there will be no Judo on
March 6.
Tell students to repeat the exercise, this time with student B
leaving the message.
When both students have changed the calendar they should
check the corrections with the Check questions.

6–7 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
They can use the expressions from Exercise 4 to help them.
Check answers.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit6

Congratulations!

Get ready to write

B Thank you letters

You could introduce this topic by bringing in a card that you
received and elicit what it is, why it was sent and whether the
occasion was happy or sad. Draw a happy ☺ or sad face
on the board to reinforce this. Elicit the different occasions that
students send cards in their countries, e.g. New Year, Ramadan,
baptisms, bar mitzvah’s, etc. and what they normally write inside,
for example, who the card is to, a small message and their name.
Ask the students to complete the exercise. If you are teaching
a multilingual class, put them into groups. Ask them to discuss
when they send cards.
When the students are looking at the illustrations encourage
them to guess the meaning of new vocabulary, e.g.
congratulations.

Before students do Exercises 1–3 you may want to remind them
of the context. Ask them to look at the picture of the birthday
party and elicit or give the vocabulary, to pull a funny face and
a video camera. Give students one minute to read the thank
you letter and decide which person in the picture is Stefano.
Feedback as a whole class.

A Messages in cards
1 Before students do Exercise 1, draw their attention to the
faces you drew earlier on the board. Explain that they must
do the same on the messages. Ask students to complete the
exercise.
2 Before students complete the exercise, write these phrases
on the board:

Best wishes …
Good luck …
Ask students to find the prepositions that follow each
expression in their book, i.e. Best wishes on / for, Good luck
with / in. As you feedback as a whole class, highlight how
these expressions are fixed and do not change. Ask students
to complete the exercise. Check answers.
3–4 Students can do these exercises individually or in pairs.
Check answers.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their cards and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s card and, if necessary, suggest
improvements.

1–3 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually. After
students have completed Exercise 3, you may want to
hightlight the position of the date on the page, the opening
/ closing remarks, i.e. Dear Grandma / Lots of love, the
main text and Stefano’s signature.
4–5 Students can do these exercises individually or in pairs.
Check answers.
6 Ask students to complete the exercise. After students
have completed the exercise you may want to reinforce
the grammar by highlighting how the simple past, present
continuous and going to future are constructed.
7–10 Ask students to complete the exercises. To extend these
exercises ask students to write 2–3 more sentences using
some of the adjectives from Exercise 4 to describe the
presents in Exercise 7, e.g. The chocolates were really tasty.

11 Ask students to write a letter for the present they chose in
Exercise 7. If necessary, remind students of the layout of
letters, e.g. position of the date, how to open / close the
letter.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their letters and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s letter and, if necessary, suggest
improvements.

Extra practice
In groups of three or four, ask students to read the letters that
the other members of the group have written, and decide as a
group which present (out of the three or four) they would most
like to have received.

More activities
If you have access to the Internet, you could direct your
students to an ecards website and ask them to research
how many times the different fixed expressions are used in
a particular type of card, e.g. a birthday or get well card.

More activities
If you have access to the Internet, you could direct your
students in pairs to an online gift store and ask them to
choose a present for their partner. Afterwards, their partner
should write them a thank you letter.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit7

Let’s party!

Get ready to write

Extra Practice

As a whole class, brainstorm some interesting places where
students would like to have a party, e.g. a zoo, a football stadium,
a stately home / mansion, a museum, a park and a church.
Ask students to discuss the questions in pairs. After two minutes,
ask them to join together with another pair to compare their
thoughts.

Ask students to write the invitation. Alternatively, photocopy a
map of your local area. Give one copy to each student and ask
them each to choose a location for the restaurant. Then get them
to write an email inviting their friends to the restaurant, giving
them directions. Ask students to swap their email with another
student. Tell students to read the email and mark the location of
the restaurant with an X on the map. Next, tell them to swap the
emails back and check that the other student has marked the
restaurant in the correct place. If the X is in the wrong place, ask
students to rewrite the directions to make them clearer.

A An invitation
Before students look at the example you could brainstorm what
information must be included in an invitation, for example, what
the event is, who it is for, when it is and where it is.
1–3 These exercises can be done in pairs. Ask students to feedback
to the class. Tell students that the, who, what, where, when and
why questions in the exercises are important as invitations are
incomplete without the answers to these questions.

Did you know…?
You may wish to highlight that these abbreviations can be used
with or without full stops (i.e. ASAP or A.S.A.P.). Also highlight that
RSVP is used on its own but ASAP is used as part of a sentence.
4–6 Ask students to do the exercises. Check answers.
7 Ask students to complete the exercise. Then reinforce the
grammar by highlighting how the present continuous is
constructed and how it is used to describe arrangements for
the future.

Focus on … directions
These exercises can be done in pairs. Ask students to complete
Exercise 1.
For Exercise 2, brainstorm what additional information Isobel
needs to give to make her directions clear. Remind students how
Stef, in his email, refers to nearby important buildings, e.g. the
Post Office and distances, e.g. go straight on for about 500m,
to help Isobel find the restaurant. Ask students to complete
Exercises 2 and 3. Check answers.
8 Tell students that for this exercise they are going to write the

invitation to Isobel’s party for her. Explain that they should use
the plan in their book to help them. If your class does not have
access to computers to write the invitation, you may wish to
give a template, similar to the one below, to your students.
From:
Date:
To:
Subject:

B A letter or email accepting or declining
an invitation
1–3 These exercises can be done in pairs. Ask students to
feedback as a whole class.

Focus on … explaining why you cannot do
something
Highlight that because comes before a reason. Ask students to
look at the examples in the box. Elicit how because is followed
by the present continuous (to be + verb-ing) to show that this
is a fixed arrangement. (You may want to refer students back to
Section A, Exercise 7.) Ask students to complete the exercise.

Learning tip
Ask students to think of a spelling they find difficult. Then
get them to think of a word with a similar spelling pattern, or
a picture to help them remember. Monitor this activity and
feedback the best ideas onto the board to share with the rest
of the class. Week on week, you may also want to build up a
noticeboard displaying the students’ best pictures / ideas for
remembering difficult spellings.

4–6 Ask students to complete the exercises.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their emails and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s email and, if necessary, suggest
improvements.

Class bonus
As this activity will involve the students moving around the
classroom it will work best with classes of up to about 15
students. For larger classes you may find it easier to divide them
into two or more groups; in which case students should only
read and respond to the emails from people in their group.
Alternatively, this activity can be done on a school’s computer
network. Students should be asked to email the other students
in their group and respond by email.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit8

Having a great time…

Get ready to write

Focus on … giving your opinion

You could introduce this topic by bringing in a postcard that you
have received and elicit what it is, why it was sent and where
it came from. Ask students whether they send postcards and if
they do, who they send them to, and what they write about. The
listening exercise can be done as a whole class competition. Put
students into groups and tell them to work together and agree
one answer for each piece of music. After each piece of music,
pause the CD and write the groups’ answers on the board but
do not confirm if they are correct or not. At the end, give each
group a mark out of five.
Tell the groups to decide which place they would like to visit. Give
them two minutes to talk about it before feeding back.

Ask students to do the exercises. Check answers. You could
expand on these exercises by focusing on famous places
or people in your country and asking students to give their
opinions, e.g.
Teacher writes / says: Stonehenge is a circle of stones in England.
Student adds: It is extremely old.
Teacher writes / says: David Bowie is a musician.
Student adds: His music is very interesting.

A postcard
1–3 These exercises can be done in pairs or small groups.
After Exercise 1, to help students understand the postcard, you
may want to do some additional work identifying what or who
the pronouns refer to. Write on the board:
1 It

2 They
3 It
4 We
Ask students to find phrases in the card that these pronouns
refer to. Answers: 1 the Puck Fair; 2 friendly people (in
Killorglin); 3 the goat; 4 Sue & Pete (the writers).
NB We is often omitted. It is only used in this sentence to avoid
potential confusion with they (i.e. the friendly people already
mentioned). Ask students to complete Exercises 2 and 3. Check
answers.

Learning tip
Write these sentences on the board and ask students to shorten
them.
a) I am really looking forward to visiting the Pyramids.
b) We shopped all yesterday.
c) Last night, we saw a belly dancer at the hotel. She was great!

Learning tip
In groups, give students two minutes to come up with a
memorable sentence for one of the words necessary, friend,
science. Ask students to feedback to the class and write their
memorable sentences on the board. Take a vote on which of the
sentences for each word the class thinks is the most memorable.
5–7 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their postcards and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s postcard and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

Extra practice
After students have completed their postcards, ask them to swap
them. Tell them to read the new postcard and tell the person
who wrote it how much they think the writer enjoyed the holiday
(i.e. 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%).
For further class practise, encourage students to send postcards
(in English!) to the class when they go on holiday.

Answers:
a) I am Really looking forward to visiting the Pyramids.
b) We Shopped all yesterday.
c) Last night, we saw a belly dancer at the hotel. She was Great!
4 Before students look at the letter, brainstorm how the
postcard they have already looked at is different to a letter,
e.g. the postcard has no greeting, address or date, uses
shortened sentences, gives news and does not ask any
questions. Ask students to do this exercise in pairs. Get
students to feedback to the whole class and elicit why Sue
and Pete have not included the details of their journey in their
postcard (Answer: Because space is limited and it is not of
interest to the reader).

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit9

How are you?

Get ready to write
Ask students to look at the picture and feedback the answers to
the questions as a whole class activity. Ask students if they ever
travel internationally on their own and if they do, where they
stay, e.g. hotels, friends’ houses, etc. and how they keep in touch
with their friends and family.

A personal letter
You may want to refer the students to the Did you know…? box.
Brainstorm why Luis has chosen to write a letter rather than send
an email or telephone his aunt, for example, his aunt may not
have access to email or be confident about using it, or he might
not know his aunt’s email address.
1–3 These activities can be done in pairs or individually. Check
answers. See Appendix 7 on page 92 for more information
about style.

Did you know…?
Before students look at this box write these headings on the
board:
Greeting
Beginning
Ending
Saying goodbye
Ask students to find a phrase to go under each heading from the
letter on page 42. Elicit any further examples they can think of

to go under the headings before referring them to the Did you
know…? box.

Focus on… paragraphs
Ask students to complete the exercises. Check answers. For extra
practise, photocopy the text below and give each student a copy.
C/O Mr & Mrs Spencer 215 East 86th Street New York NY
10028–1208 1 August Dear Aunt Isidro Guess what? I’m
in the US! I can’t believe it…New York is wonderful and I’m
staying for a whole two weeks studying English. My host
family is great so I should improve. Sometimes they speak
very fast but most of the time I understand them. They’ve got
a son called Marcus who’s crazy! He’s 17 and is a brilliant
baseball player. He’s taught me a lot already. How are you?
How’s your job going? Do you get much free time? After the
course I plan to travel a little around the East Coast (especially
Boston). I’d love to drop in on you if you’d like me to. What
do you think? Write to me care of Mr and Mrs Spencer. Hope
to see you soon. All the best Luis

Ask students to close their books and in small groups or pairs,
ask them to copy out the letter (above) adding line breaks and
paragraphs. Remind them that the address should not all be on
one line, and that they should decide where the subject changes
in the letter to find the paragraph breaks. When students have
finished ask them to open their books and compare the layout of
their letter to the one in the book. (NB There is more than one
way to split this letter into paragraphs: different answers will lead
to a useful discussion of what makes a paragraph).

Focus on … writing addresses on envelopes
Before students do these exercises refer them back to the
envelope that Luis addressed to his aunt. Ask them to find these
things: a) the street number; b) an abbreviation for the state of
Massachusetts; c) a zip code (post code).
Ask students to do these exercises in pairs or individually.
After students have completed Exercise 3 you could give them
these famous addresses and ask them to write them like they
would on an envelope.
a) Prime Minister of the UK 10 Downing Street London
SW1A 2AA
b) Sherlock Holmes 221b Baker Street London NW1 6XE
4–5 Ask students to complete these exercises. After Exercise
5, you may want to brainstorm alternative ways of saying
goodbye in informal letters, e.g. Best wishes, Bye for now, etc.

Did you know…?
Before students look at this box, elicit how addresses are written
in your students’ country / countries. Highlight any differences
between the way students write addresses in their country /
countries and the address formats for the US and the UK.
6–8 Ask students to complete the exercises.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their letters and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s letter and, if necessary, suggest
improvements.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit10

Timetables

Before you start this unit it may be useful to discuss your
students’ timetable with them and what (if any) choices they
made when selecting it. Alternatively, ask if anyone has studied
in an English-speaking country and what choices they had to
make about their course, e.g. special subjects, lectures, etc.
Alternatively, you could photocopy this crossword and use it as
a warmer.
1

3

2

4

Crossword Answers:
1 Lecture
2 Teacher
3 Class
4 Subject
5 Homework

6 Test
Clues
1 A talk to a large group of students.
2 Someone who teaches.
3 A group of students.
4 A thing that you study, e.g. Maths.
5 School or college work that you do at home.
6 A class examination.

5

6

Get ready to write
When students have had a chance to look at the picture in the
book elicit what the four different people do: a) Lesley Smith
is responsible for the academic programme and what happens
in class; b) Barnie Peters is responsible for entertainment
and social activities; c) Ulrike Orback is responsible for finding
students places to live; and d) Mel Merino is responsible for
teaching her own class. Ask students to feedback who they think
Monique should talk to as a whole class activity.

A Notes about classes
The focus in this unit is on selecting and editing down
information.
1–3 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers.
4–7 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers. Once students have completed Exercise 7,

elicit how crossing out unimportant words (editing down
information) makes the information easier to remember.
Highlight how the most important words tend to be nouns.
8 Ask students to look at the list of lectures, elicit which ones
Monique can attend.
9 Ask students to complete Monique’s timetable. In pairs,
ask students to swap their timetables and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s timetable.

Extra practice
Emphasize that this is an imaginary school and anything is
possible! You may wish to give a template, similar to the one in
Exercise 9, to each student.

When students have completed their timetables ask them to
swap them with a partner. Ask them to decide if they would like
to attend the course outlined on the new timetable. If anything
is confusing, tell them to ask the writer for clarification. The writer
should then modify the timetable to make it easier to understand.
If your students have access to the Internet you could also ask
them to visit www.educationuk.org for links to the websites of
different language courses in the UK, and try to find a language
course with a timetable that is similar to the one they wrote.

B Notes about assignments
1 Brainstorm as a class what information Monique might want
to find out from her teacher about the test. Write students’
suggestions on the board.
2–3 Play the recording. Ask students if the teacher gives all the
information Monique needs. Play the recording again and ask

students to correct the error in Monique’s notes. Check answers.
4–6 These exercises can be done in pairs or small groups.
Students should be encouraged to guess from their previous
experience of homework and discuss their guesses. Check
answers.
7 Brainstorm as a class what questions students would want the
teacher to answer.
8 Play the recording and ask students to take notes about the
homework. Ask students to circle what the notes are about,
reminding them to look at Exercise 3 again if necessary. Get
students to underline the title of the essay.
You could extend Exercise 8 by setting your own homework
in the same way and asking students to take notes in English.
In pairs, ask students to swap their notes and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s notes and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit11

Wanted

Get ready to write
Take a class vote to see which bicycle students would buy, elicit
why. Ask students where they could find advertisements for
second-hand things. Brainstorm a list on the board. You may
want to extend this activity by writing this table on the board.
New

Second-hand

10 Ask students to write an advert for either the microwave or
the car share.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their adverts and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s advert and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

B Short advertisements for a notice board
Put students into pairs or small groups. Ask them to decide
which of these items they would buy new or second-hand: a
book, a car, clothes, a computer, a watch. After a few minutes,
feedback as a whole class and add the items to the table on the
board. (NB Answers will vary but students will probably not want
to buy second hand clothes or computers.)

Throughout this part of the unit emphasize that the main
difference between these adverts and those that appear on an
intranet is that these are much shorter.

A Short advertisements for an intranet

5 As a class, think about how to turn Ian’s sentences into notes.
Write students suggestions on the board.

You may want to elicit where students could see these adverts
(refer them to the Did you know…? box to help them). Elicit
how there are two different types of adverts: The first advert
deals with something that is for sale, the other two adverts deal
with things people want.
1–3 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually. Check
answers. When students have completed Exercise 3, highlight
that the reader asks themselves questions when reading
the advert, e.g. Who should I contact? The writer anticipates
these questions and provides the information that the reader
needs. Use this opportunity to practise question formation.
Ask students to look at Exercise 3 again and write the readers’
question for each piece of information.
Answers:
a) Who should I contact?
b) How much does it cost?
c) Is there any extra information?
d) How do I contact the person?
e) What is it?
4–7 These exercises deal with items for sale. Students can do
these exercises in pairs or individually. Check answers.
8–9 These exercises deal with things people want. Students can
do these exercises in pairs or individually.

1–4 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
Check answers as a class for Exercises 1 and 2. Next, get

students to look at the Law book for sale advert on page 54,
to see if they got their abbreviations right in Exercise 3.

6–8 Ask students to complete the exercises. Check answers for
Exercises 6 and 7.
9 Ask students to rewrite their advert from Section A, making it
shorter and turning sentences into notes.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their adverts and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s advert and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

Class bonus
If you have a class of more than 14 students you may want to
divide it into two groups and tell students to only look at the
adverts produced by their group. At the close of this activity
you will need to display the adverts around the room. Make
sure there is enough space for students to move around to
read them. When students have had enough time to read all
the adverts ask them to stand next to the advert for the item
that they most want to buy. You can extend this activity by
getting them to role play the telephone conversations or email
exchanges involved in completing the sale.

Learning tip
Draw the table below on the board (do not write the words
in italics) and ask students to complete it. Students may need
dictionaries to complete this exercise.
Adjective:

electric

Verb:

To electrify something

Thing:

electricity

Person:

an electrician

You may also want to note the change in stressed syllables:
electric, electrify, electricity, electrician.
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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit12

At the library

Get ready to write
You could bring into class a selection of books in English. Put

students into groups, and give each group three or four books to
look at. Ask students to discuss the Get ready to write questions
for each book. As a whole class answer the same questions for
Why does a ball bounce? Finally, ask students how they choose
a book to read.

Book reviews
1–3 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.
Feedback as a whole class. Highlight how the first part of both
fiction and non-fiction reviews focuses on factual information
rather than opinion.
4–5 Exercise 4 can be done in pairs but students should work
on their own for Exercise 5. When you feedback, highlight
how the final part of both fiction and non-fiction reviews
focuses on the reviewer’s opinion of the book rather than
factual information.

9 This exercise can be done in pairs or individually.
10 Emphasize that students can use the sentences from Focus
on… linking to help them write the review. Ask them to
complete the exercise.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their reviews and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s review and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

Class bonus
This does not have to be done all in one go. To allow for
different writing speeds it may be better to allow students more

time. If you collect in the lists of books after Part 2, Part 3 can be
set as homework. Return the lists of books to the same groups
at the beginning of the next lesson and they can then complete
parts 4 and 5.

6–7 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually. After
students have done Exercise 7, you may want to brainstorm
other fiction books that students know, that fit into any of the
categories. Try to elicit the author and title of the book.

Focus on … linking
Ask students to close their books. Copy the illustration onto the
board. Ask students what the word and does? (Answer: It links
sentences.) Copy the three examples of Okay English onto the
board and ask students to improve them in pairs. After two
minutes ask them to open their books and check their ideas
against the book. Ask students to complete the exercises. Check
answers.
8 This exercise can be done in pairs or individually.

Learning tip
Ask students to add commas and full stops to this text for extra
practise:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a romantic novel that
is set in the 19th century it is a story about Elizabeth Bennet’s
search for love and happiness the other main character in
the book is Mr Darcy who is both proud and rich I love Pride
and Prejudice because Elizabeth is an interesting strong and
appealing character if you like classic romance books you will
like this book too

Answer:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a romantic novel that is
set in the 19th century. It is a story about Elizabeth Bennet’s
search for love and happiness. The other main character in
the book is Mr Darcy who is both proud and rich. I love Pride
and Prejudice because Elizabeth is an interesting, strong and
appealing character. If you like classic romance books you will
like this book too.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit13

No time!

Get ready to write
Ask students to do the first exercise in pairs or small groups and
explain their choice. Play the recording and ask students to do
the last two exercises in their pairs or groups. Feedback as a
whole class.
Brainstorm different types of insurance, for example, car, health,
life, holiday, etc. and the benefits of each, for example:
Car insurance

The insurance company pays for your car to

be repaired if you are in an accident.

Holiday
insurance

The insurance company pays for the cost of
your holiday if it is cancelled.

Health
insurance

The insurance company pays the cost of
hospital treatment

Life
insurance

The insurance company pays money to your
relatives if you die.

A Notes for important conversations
1–3 Put students into groups of three or four and ask them to
complete Exercises 1, 2 and 3.
4 Ask students to complete the exercise. As an alternative to
Exercise 4, write the words below on the board in a random
order.
I

work

very

hard

I

sell

more

insurance

than

anybody

in

the

company

I’m

very

polite

and

I’m

never

late

All

my

workmates

like

me

In groups, tell students to arrange the words so that they make
the four sentences about Ravi. Next, tell them that they are
going to make the notes easier to remember. Ask them in their
groups to look at each sentence and agree which words are
unimportant and remove them. Feedback as a whole class.
5–6 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.
7–8 Ask students to complete the exercises.

B Notes on appointments
Explain that this part of the unit deals with appointment diaries
/ personal organizers that record your plans for the future (not
diaries / memoirs that record things you have already done).
Before Exercise 1, ask one of your students what they have to
do tomorrow and write the details on the board. Use these notes

throughout the lesson as an ongoing example.

2–3 Put students in pairs or small groups. Emphasize that
they should discuss their answers and give reasons for their
choices. Feedback as a class.
4–5 Ask students to do the exercises.

Extra practice
After listening, in pairs, ask students to combine the information
they have noted before they look at the audioscript.

More activities
For further practise, ask students to imagine that they
are business people and that they must complete
their appointment diaries for next week. To create their
appointment diary, they should divide a page into five
sections, one for each day (Monday to Friday) and head
each section with a different day. Remind students to
choose an appropriate length of time for each meeting.
They should include in their diary the times and details of
these prearranged appointments:
• 10 meetings with named customers (students must
make up the names).
• Daily team meetings (either at the beginning, middle or
end of the day).
• Time reserved for paperwork.
• Time for lunch.
When they have completed their diaries, explain that
they are going to phone other people and try to arrange
meetings with them at convenient times next week.

Emphasize that they cannot meet more than one person
at the same time. Tell students to stand back to back with
another student and imagine they are phoning them. They
must arrange a meeting but they must not look at the other
person’s diary.
Example exchange:
A: Hello. This is (student’s name).
B: Hello, there.
A: I need to meet with you to discuss new products
sometime next week.
B: What about meeting on Monday at 9.30?
A: I’m sorry. That won’t work. I’m meeting Mr Smith at 10.00
on Monday. Can you make it in the afternoon?
B: Yes, that’ll be fine. How about 1.00?
Tell students to add the new appointment to their diaries
and then find another student to make an appointment
with. Continue until each student has made at least three
new appointments.

1 Ask students to do the exercise. Next refer them to the notes
you have written on the board and brainstorm which activities
the student should include in their diary.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit14

Out of the office

Get ready to write
If necessary, play the message twice. Then feedback the answer
as a whole class. Ask the class to look at the pictures and answer
the questions as a whole class. If your class includes students
who have jobs, ask them Who does your work when you are
away? Are there a lot of messages that you have to answer
when you return?

A Out of the office message
1–4 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.

Focus on … from + until, for
Ask students to complete the exercises. Check answers. For
homework ask students to research a famous person. You may
want to brainstorm a list of famous people onto the board
for students to choose from. Tell them they must try to find a
fact about that person’s life that few people know and write
two sentences using from + until and to. Suggest they use an
encyclopedia, go to the library or surf the Internet. (You could
direct them to www.biography.com.) Get students to read out
their sentences to the rest of the class during the next lesson.
5–6 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their auto-reply messages and use
the Check questions to check their partner’s message and, if

necessary, suggest improvements.

B A telephone message
To introduce this topic you may want to talk about what
information students write down in their own language when
they take phone messages.
Write on the board Shona’s notes from Exercise 1. Explain that
Shona wrote these notes for herself: she did not think anyone
else would read them. As a whole class discuss these questions:
a) Can you understand these notes?
Answer: Not very easily.
b) What does the writer want someone to do?
Answer: Phone Mrs Rosen.
c) What would make these notes easier to understand?
Answer: The writer should write in full sentences.
1 Play the recording and ask students to complete the exercise.
2–3 Students can do these exercises in pairs or individually.

Focus on … words that people often
misspell, mistype or get confused
Ask students to complete the exercises. Check answers. If you do
not use one already, this is a good point at which to introduce
a simple correction code. You can use the code on students’
written work to help them identify their own errors and correct

their work. You can underline the errors and then put the code
either directly above the error or in the margin.
Correction Code
Code Type of Error
Sp

spelling
Vb
verb form or tense
N
plural
WO word order
Gr
grammar
P
punctuation or
capital letter
/
cut
^
word missing

Example of error
1. I have too sisters.
2. He work in Tokyo.
3. I have two child.
4. Is very exciting my job.
5. I enjoy to dance.

Correction
……………
……………
……………
……………
……………

6. He works in a School. ……………
7. I come from in Turkey. ……………
8. I want ^ learn English. ……………

Ideas for introducing the code
Put students into pairs. Give the information in the table above
to students, and in their pairs tell them to write the corrections.
Feedback as a whole class.
Answers:
I have two sisters.
He works in Tokyo.
I have two children.
My job is very exciting.
I enjoy dancing.
He works in a school.
I come from Turkey.
I want to learn English.
In pairs, ask each student to copy out a different short text from
their course book and add five deliberate errors. Tell them to swap
their text with their partner, identify the five errors and use the
correction code to annotate them. When the students have had
enough time, ask them to check their answers with their partner.
4–5 Play the recording. These exercises can be done in pairs or
individually. Feedback as a whole class.
6–9 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their telephone messages and
use the Check questions to check their partner’s message and, if
necessary, suggest improvements.

Class bonus
Put students into pairs and sit them back to back. Tell them they
are going to pretend to have a telephone conversation. Divide
each pair into Student A and Student B. Direct them to the
instructions in the book for Exercise 1. When students have had
enough time, tell Student B to check the message they have
written with their partner. For Exercise 3, explain that Student A
now works for Soloto and must answer the telephone. Follow
the same procedure as for Exercises 1–2.

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and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit15

Can you help me?

Get ready to write
Discuss these questions as a whole class. Ask students what they
think Pete should do about his problem.

An informal request
Students may not understand the differences between emails

and memos, so you may want to refer them to the Did you
know…? box on page 71, before they look at the examples.
1–2 Ask students to complete the exercises. Check answers.
Before students complete Exercises 3–7, tell students that
the difference between when you can ask someone to do
something and when you can tell them to do it is culturally
determined and, if got wrong, can cause non-native speakers
to appear abrupt. Demonstrate the difference between asking
and telling people to do things. Explain that you are going to say
the same thing in different ways. Ask students to guess which is
stronger.
Say to one student: Can you open the window?
Say to another: Open the door.
Explain that a question is always weaker than a command.
Draw 6 lines on the board: - - - - - Ask what six letter word can make questions and commands
more polite. If students do not immediately give the answer,
encourage them to call out letters in a game of hangman
(answer: please).

More activities
For more practise using full stops, question marks and
exclamation marks, write the sentences below on the
board. Put students into pairs and ask them to choose
a punctuation mark (? ! or .) for each sentence. When
they have completed the exercise, give each pair a set of
punctuation cards like the ones below. Ask the class to
hold up the correct punctuation card when you read each
sentence. Alternatively, you can ask them in pairs to write
their own statements, exclamations and questions and test
the rest of the class in the same way.

a) How are you
b) We’re having a great time in Greece
c) Have you ever visited Delphi
d) It’s thousands of years old and quite interesting
e)The weather’s wonderful
f) We’ve had clear blue skies ever since we arrived
g) Tomorrow, we fly home

Punctuation cards

?

.

!

3–7 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually. Check
answers.

Focus on… full stops (.), question marks (?)
and exclamation marks (!)
Students will probably have encountered these punctuation
marks before. However, many students over-use exclamation
marks. To highlight this, you could ask them to do an
exclamation mark hunt in a recent piece of written work. Before
they complete the Focus on … exercises, ask students to search
through one of their own pieces of writing and circle all the
exclamation marks. Next work through the Focus on … exercises
with your class. Then ask them to look at their piece of written
work again. Ask them to check if any of the exclamation marks

that they circled should be changed to full stops.
8 Ask students to complete the exercise. After checking
answers, emphasize that the information asked for in
questions c–e should be included in all requests.
9 Ask students to write the email.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their emails and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s message and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

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Real Writing 1 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit16

I would be grateful if …

Get ready to write

Focus on… I, you, she, he, it, they

Tell students to look at the picture and answer these questions:
What is the problem? What should the company do about it?
Elicit the vocabulary the ceiling and the difference between a
ceiling and a roof, to leak, and to get something repaired / fixed.

Ask students to read the email and answer the questions in
pairs. Feedback as a whole class.
Elicit how this is a friendly and informal email: There is no
opening formula, i.e. Dear Sara, it uses contractions, i.e. Roof's,
You'll, it has a PS.

Ask students to complete the exercises. Check answers. For extra
practise, ask students to copy out a short text from their course
book. Tell them to add five pronoun mistakes as they copy the
text. Ask them to swap texts with another student and correct the
one they receive.

A formal request
1–4 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually. For
Exercises 3–4 ask students to feedback how this email is
different to the one in Get ready to write, for example, it uses
Clive Allen’s title (Mr), an opening formula and more polite
and formal language. Explain that Exercise 3 shows more
formal equivalents of informal words and phrases.

Learning tip
For extra practise on formal and informal style it may be useful
to draw this table on the board (without the answers in italics).
Brainstorm the answers and add them to the table.
Friendly and informal style
Who?
People you know well.
Why?
To show closeness /
friendliness.

Where?
Personal email, letters, etc.

More polite and formal style
Who?
Strangers and people you do
not know well.
Why?
To show distance / respect.
Where?
Business email, letters, etc.

11 Before students do this exercise, pre-teach the word unit.
As a whole class, brainstorm the answer to Exercise 11
(answer: Li wants Jo to email Mr Takemoto and ask for a
price).
12–13 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.
Emphasize that the grammar, spelling and punctuation are
okay in the informal email but the style is not appropriate
and needs to be corrected.

Check
In pairs, ask students to swap their emails and use the Check
questions to check their partner’s message and, if necessary,
suggest improvements.

Class bonus
This exercise encourages self-correction and reinforces the work
students did in Exercise 13. It focuses on correcting for style
rather than grammar, spelling or punctuation. It can be extended

into an email exchange. Students can swap the finished emails
and write a reply to confirm the order.

Refer students to Appendix 7 on page 92. It may be useful to
talk about the circumstances in which students use a more
formal style in their own language, and compare them to when a
more formal style is used in English, i.e. to strangers and people
who you do not know well.
5–10 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.
Check answers.

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit1

Buy it online

Get ready to write
Do these activities as whole class or small group discussions.
Ask students to decide what kind of person would like to receive
each of the presents (e.g. young, old; adventurous, quiet etc).

More activities
Tell students that there are some irregular plurals that do
not follow any spelling rules. Put the following activity on the

board and ask students to complete the plurals in pairs.

Completing an online order form

…ren

1 Tell students that Proceed to checkout is a very common
online expression.

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

2 After this exercise, you may want to elicit the noun form (i.e.
confirmation) and draw attention to the stress shift.
Verb:

To confirm something.

Noun: A confirmation

Can you confirm your
credit card number?
We didn’t receive
confirmation by email.

You may also want to talk about the difference between

creating an account, or registering, for the first time (which Aiko
is doing) and logging on (i.e. just entering your password).
3 Students can do this exercise in pairs.
4 Before students do this exercise, elicit the difference between
surface mail (i.e. mail that is taken overland) and airmail (i.e.
mail that is taken by plane).
5 You could revise numbers quickly at this stage by asking
students to tell their partner their phone numbers or house
numbers (invented if they prefer).

…eet

a man
a woman
a person
a foot
a tooth
a child

…eople

…en

…eeth

…en

some men
some wom……...
some p…….……

two f ………..….
some t ……..……
some child………

Answers: b women, c people, d feet, e teeth, f children

Extra practice
This could be done as a pair work activity. Put students in
pairs and give them the web addresses of an online gift store.
Students must visit the website and tell their partner about a
present they would like to buy. Students discuss whether it’s a
good choice or not and then complete the online forms. NB:
MAKE SURE STUDENTS DO NOT USE REAL CREDIT CARD
DETAILS.
If you do not have access to computers, you could bring in paper
catalogues for the students to choose gifts from. Students could
complete the order forms in the catalogues in pairs.

Did you know …?
Highlight the differences between the three countries (Italy,
Japan and the UK) by drawing attention to the Did you know?
box. Elicit how addresses are written differently in your students’
country/countries.
6–10

These can be done in pairs or individually.

Focus on … spelling plurals
Ask students to complete these exercises. Elicit the rules for
spelling plurals, i.e:

a Most countable nouns are made plural by adding …..
b When a countable noun ends in s, ch, sh, x, z or o add ……
to make it plural.
c When a countable noun ends in a consonant + y, change y
to…………… + es to make it plural.
You may want to extend this to cover other plurals.
d When a countable noun ends in fe, change fe to……………
to make it plural.
Answers: a s, b es, c i, d ve
11–12 Ask the students to swap their books and use the Check
questions to check each other’s work and then feedback to
each other.

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit2

Book it online

Get ready to write
These exercises can be done in pairs or as a whole class activity.
The second exercise reinforces the Learning tip on page 17
about predicting information on forms. During feedback, elicit
the differences between to depart/leave from a place, to go to
a destination and to return to a place. Explain that a round-trip is

to go to a place and then return home.

Completing online booking forms
1–4 These can be done in pairs or individually.
5 Before students do this exercise elicit what the triangular
warning symbol means (i.e. Soren has made a mistake
on the form). After students have completed this exercise,
feedback as a whole class and elicit the meaning of the error
messages, i.e.
1 Soren has typed a date that has already gone.
2 Soren hasn’t typed the first letter of his first name.
3 Soren must tick the box to show that says he agrees with
the rules of the website/online store.
4 Soren’s email address is wrong. (He forgot the 5).

1 Complete these rules.
a) We only say arrive……… a country, city or town.
b) We say arrive………any other place e.g. airport or hotel.
c) We use depart………a place in formal situations.
d) We use ……… a place in other situations.
Louise went to live in Nepal in 2003. She didn’t come
back to this country until 2005. She says she may go
back to Nepal next year for a short holiday to see her
friends.
Answers: a in, b at, c from, d leave.
2 Complete these rules.
a) To………to a place means to move here (where you
are now).
b) To………back to a place means to return here (where
you are now).

c) To………to a place means to move to another place
(not here).
d) To………back to a place means to return to another
place (not here).

6–10 These can be done in pairs or individually.

Answers: a come, b come, c go, d go.

11 This contains quite a lot of difficult vocabulary. Before they
attempt this exercise, ask students to work in small groups
and look up in dictionaries or elicit from context the meaning
of these words: capacity, automatic transmission, satellite
navigation, infant seat. Feedback as a whole class.

3 Are these sentences correct (✓) or incorrect (✗)?

Ask students to swap their books and use the Check
questions to check each other’s work and then feedback to
each other.

Class bonus

a) The train arrives in Madrid at 8.45.
b) All excursions depart outside the hotel.
c) My parents left from London in 1999 and moved to
Oxford.
d) We should arrive the airport early.
e) I love to sit in my garden when I come after a holiday.
Answers: a ✓, b ✗ depart from, c ✗ left London, d ✗ arrive at,

e ✗ come back.

This search activity is just for fun as you will not have time to
check the itineraries. Tell students to write down the details of
each connecting flight to complete the itinerary.

More activities
Put these activities on the board for students to look at the
language of arrivals and departures.
a) Flight X8976 departs from London at 08.20 and arrives in
Toronto at 11.30.
b) Soren arrived at the airport to check in two hours before
his flight left.
c) Soren: I left Sweden on 13 September and travelled to
London.

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit3

Complete this, please!

Get ready to write
If your students have travelled to different countries, elicit a list of
the documents they needed (e.g. passports, visas etc) and how

they got them. You may want to highlight the shift in stress in
these words: to apply for something / an application form.
Ask students to do the second exercise in groups and feedback
as a whole class.

Completing travel forms
1 Elicit what the form is for (i.e. it is a visa waiver form that you
can complete if you don’t need a visa). After students have
completed Exercise 1, highlight the difference between a
permanent and a temporary address.
2 After students have completed Exercise 2, you may want to
elicit/give other similar wording that can appear on forms e.g.
Official/Staff use only.
3–6 These can be done in pairs or individually.
7 In small groups, ask students to use the vocabulary from this
exercise to describe different people in their own families to
the other members of the group.

Ask students to use dictionaries and look back through the
forms in Units 1–3 to group the words that frequently collocate:
degree, mailing, term dates, shipping, departure, expiry, tutor’s
name, expiration, billing.
Answers:
1 University degree/term dates/tutor’s name
2 departure/expiry/expiration date
3 mailing/shipping/billing address

Focus on … spelling /ei/
For further practice, dictate or write this exercise on the board:
Use /ei/ words to complete these sentences.

a) – What’s your n
, please?
– It’s Peter.
b) Texas is my favourite s
in America.
c) The plane’s t
was painted in the colours of the
national flag.
d) The hijacker was sent to j
for 20 years.
e) The steward gave my son a toy to p
with.
f) You must go this w
to get to your departure gate.
Answers: a) name b) state c) tail d) jail e) play f) way

8 Students could make a list in pairs or small groups.

More activities

Did you know …?
Elicit other examples of American and British English from
students, e.g. lift/elevator, biscuit/cookie, pavement/sidewalk.

If possible, bring in some real travel forms for students to
practise completing.

9 Explain that the difference between these two telephone
numbers is similar to the difference between a temporary and
permanent address.

Focus on … If…, tick here []
If you are teaching in an English speaking country you could
bring in other forms. In groups, give each group a selection of
forms and ask the students to find examples of If…, tick here on
the forms. Feedback onto the board and brainstorm what each
one means and whether the students would tick the box or not.
10 You may want students to do this in pairs as the If…,
statements are quite challenging.

Learning tip
Write these boxes on the board:
1

2

3

University

degree

date

address

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit4

I’ll be arriving on Friday

Get ready to write
If your students have access to the internet you could set this as
homework prior to the lesson: Find out why Stratford-upon-Avon
and Pamukkale are famous. Feedback as a class and ask which
place your students would like to visit, and why.
As a whole class, elicit the types of room you get in a hotel i.e.
single, double, twin, family, en suite etc. In groups, ask them
to make a list of questions they would want to ask about the
Falstaff hotel before deciding if they want to stay there.

A Enquiring about accommodation
1–5 These can be done in pairs or individually. You may want
to discuss how web pages and brochures are a form of
advertising and will always present a hotel in a positive way.
Ask students to work in groups and write a list of things the
web page does not say (e.g. it doesn’t say how close the
hotel is to the hot springs).
6 Ask the students to swap their emails and use the Check
questions to check each other’s work and then feedback to
each other.

Extra practice
If your students don’t have access to the internet bring in a

selection of holiday brochures and ask them to select hotels
from those.

Class bonus
You could extend this role play into a mini project over more
than one lesson.
• In groups, ask students to research a particular resort and
create a brochure for their perfect small hotel (with no more
than eight guest rooms).
• Display the completed brochures round the room.
• Ask students to choose one hotel they would like to stay
in (not the one they created!) and write enquiring about
accommodation next week.
• Give the letters of enquiry to the groups that created each
hotel and ask them to reply. (After students have done part B
of this unit, you could ask the guests to write confirming that
they want the room. Hotels can only accept guests until they
are full. The winners are the hotels that fill up first!).

B Confirming accommodation

Before students look at the letter draw this table on the board.
Explain it is the price list for the Falstaff Hotel.

Falstaff Hotel room prices
Type of room

Tariff

Deposit

Single

£40 / night

£20

Double

£50 per person /
night

£40

Ask:
• How much does a single room cost for one night? (Answer:
£40)
• How much do I need to pay to reserve a single room?
(Answer: £20)
• How much does a double room cost for two people for one
night? (Answer: £100)
• How much do I need to pay to reserve a single room?
(Answer: £40)
Elicit the meaning of deposit and tariff.
1–3 Ask students to do these exercises in pairs. Encourage
students to guess from gist the meaning of the new
vocabulary in the email.
4–6 These can be done individually or in pairs.
7 Students can choose whether to write a letter or an email.
Ask students to swap their letters and use the Check

questions to check each other’s work and then feedback to
each other.

Focus on … as/since and so (linking
reasons and results)
To introduce this, write on the board:
Reason: The hotel is busy at Christmas.
Result: You should book soon.
As the hotel is busy at Christmas, you should book early.
Ask: What word shows there is a link between the result
(what you should do) and the reason (why you should do it)?
(Answer: As).
Also highlight the position of the comma.
Elicit how the atmosphere and communications of a small hotel
may be more friendly and informal.
The two exercises can be done individually or in pairs.

Did you know …?
You could extend this by asking students to use a dictionary to
find words from other languages that are used in English (e.g.
kebab, carnival etc).

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit5

Don’t forget to feed the fish!

Get ready to write

Class bonus

As part of these exercises, you could do a class survey of how
often people cook their own meals, buy takeaways, eat readymeals and go to restaurants.

This can be done as a whole class mingle activity. Give each of
the post-it notes a number and display them on the walls of the
classroom. In pairs, ask the students to read all the notes and
make a list of the machines the notes have fallen off. Encourage
the students to talk to their partners about why they think each
post-it note is about a particular machine. At the feedback stage,
if it becomes apparent that any particular notes have confused
the students, it may be worthwhile looking at them more closely.
Write those notes on the board and elicit how they could be
made clearer.

Instructions
1–4 These can be done in pairs or individually.

Focus on … sequences
Ask students to look at the message on page 26 again and circle
the sequencers. Many students will already be aware of these
sequences but less confident of when to use before and after.
Highlight that …before… is in the PS. Elicit how it comes at the
end of the sequence and contains information that the writer forgot

to put in the sequence. Students could do Exercise 4 in pairs.
5–6 Refer students to the Focus on sequences before they do
these exercises.
7 Refer students to the instructions they wrote in Exercise 5.
Ask students to swap their messages and use the Check
questions to check each other’s work and then feedback to
each other.

Learning tip
In pairs, ask the students to think of a more complicated task
that they have done (e.g. changing a wheel on a car). Ask them
to write instructions for someone who hasn’t done that task
before. Remind them to use numbered bullet points if there are
more than four or five steps.
NB Because of the open-ended nature of this activity, the
vocabulary that students will need is not predictable. Encourage
them either to ask you for the words they need or use bilingual
dictionaries.

Focus on … linking similar things (and,
also, too / as well, as well as)
Emphasize that, although many students will have already come
across these linkers, this exercise focuses on their positioning (an
area that students find difficult). As homework, you may want
to ask the students to look through pieces they have written
previously to find and correct any linking errors (using and, also,
too / as well, as well as).

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit6

how r u?

Get ready to write

B IM / instant messaging

As an alternative warmer, draw a smiley emoticon on the
board: :-)
Ask: What is it? Where would you see it? As a whole class elicit
other emoticons that your students use.

To introduce this part of the unit, elicit if any of the students use
IM, who they communicate with using IM, how it is different
from texting (See Exercise 1), and what kind of language they
use in IM (i.e. informal).

A SMS / text messages

1–2 Ask students to do these exercises in pairs. As a follow up,
ask the students in groups to brainstorm the reply/response
they would give if someone said:

1–4 Ask students to look at these questions in pairs or small

groups. Check the answers before students move on to the
Plan section.
5–6 Ask students to check their answers in pairs before doing
class feedback.
7–10 Ask students if they have seen or used these
abbreviations before. Do they know any other ones?
11 Ask students to do this exercise in pairs. Which pair can
make Artash’s message the shortest?
12 Students could then write Artash’s reply to Natasha.

Focus on … editing for essential
information
Before students look at these exercises, write this message on
the board:
It’s a beautiful day, I’m not doing anything and I was wondering
if you want to go out. Text me if you do …, it’ll make me even
happier.
Explain that the writer has included information that is not
essential to the reader.
Ask:
What does the writer want to do?
When?
What should the reader do next?
Ask individual students to come up to the board and cross out
one non-essential word. Continue until you have the phrase
Want to go out?

a) Good morning!

(Possible answer: Good morning.)

b) How are you?

(Possible answer: Fine, thanks)

c) What’s the matter?

(Possible answer: My cat’s died!)

d) I’m really upset!

(Possible answer: I’m sorry to hear
that. What’s happened?)

3 When students have completed this exercise, highlight
the difference in meaning between these two potentially
confusing phrases:
What’s up?

(Meaning: What’s the matter?)

What are you up to?

(Meaning: What are you doing?)

4 Ask students to compare their answers in pairs before getting
class feedback.

Class bonus
If your students do not have access to IM, this can be done

using a single piece of paper per pair of students on a computer
and word processing programme. The important thing is that
students should work in silence in pairs. They can watch what
is being written or typed by the other student in the pair as this
directly simulates what they would see on the screen in an IM
exchange.

Extra practice
Ask if students know any other emoticons. Invite them to draw
these on the board.

More activities
In groups of three:
• Ask students to write a standard English message (an
invitation).
• Tell the students to pass their message to the student on
their left in their group.
• Tell them to shorten the new message into text language
and pass it to the student on their left.
• Tell them to write a reply to the new message in text
language and pass it to the person on the left (i.e. the
person who wrote the original message).
• Ask them to read the reply to their original message and
see if it makes sense!

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit7

Missing you

Get ready to write

Extra practice

Elicit a list of festivals that are celebrated in your students’
country/countries and complete the exercises as a whole class.
If students come from the same country, get them to discuss the
most popular festival.

The context of this activity is quite complicated. Elicit questions
that students could ask Suzie in their letter, and brainstorm
local museums that they could write about. Students could also
research a local museum on the Internet.

A personal letter

Focus on … apostrophes 2

1–2 After students have done these exercises, briefly elicit how
Leszek uses friendly and informal Engllish which is similar to
spoken English (i.e. it uses contractions, ellipsis and everyday
English e.g. catch up with things.)

When students have done both Focus on apostrophes, write the

first two paragraphs of Leszek’s letter on the board with all the
apostrophes removed:

Did you know …?
Emphasise that although people are writing fewer personal
letters these days, the expressions and structures learnt in this
unit are also relevant to email. Ask students whether they prefer
to write letters or emails.
3–9 Ask students to do these exercises in pairs or small groups,
then check answers with the whole class.

Focus on … apostrophes 1
Highlight the addition of an o when contracting will not: won’t
(Not willn’t).
Write this text onto the board. Ask students to come up one at a
time and add an apostrophe in the correct place. As they do this,
elicit the long form of the contracted words.
Sundays my birthday, I dont know what my wifes going to buy
me for a present. She wont tell me! It was the same last year …
she wouldnt tell me then. Shes going shopping tomorrow. I cant
wait to look in her bag when she isnt looking.
Answer: Sunday’s my birthday. I don’t know what my wife’s
going to buy me for a present. She won’t tell me! It was the
same last year … she wouldn’t tell me then. She’s going
shopping tomorrow. I can’t wait to look in her bag when she isn’t
looking.

Im sorry that I havent written recently. Ive been very busy.
Anyway, I thought Id send you a quick note to catch up with
things.

Did I tell you that I started a new job in January? Im now an
assistant in a small boutique in the city centre. Its not very
interesting, but the moneys quite good and the customers are
friendly. My sisters office is nearby and sometimes we meet up
for lunch. Do you remember, she’s an accountant?
Books closed, in pairs, ask the students to identify where the
apostrophes are missing and replace them.

More activities
Encourage students to find, and write to, someone in an
English-speaking country. There are many websites which can
arrange this. Students can correspond by IM, email or letter.

10 If you are teaching a multilingual group, students can
compare answers with their partner.
11 Students can do these exercises in pairs or small groups.
12–13 Make explicit how the structure of the Peter’s letter in
exercise 12 relates to earlier exercises i.e.
12a-b (refer students to exercise 2)
12c (refer students to exercises 10 –11)
12d-e (refer students to exercises 6–8)
12f-g (refer students to exercise 9)
12h (refer students to exercise 3)
12i (refer students to exercise 2)
Ask students to swap their letters and use the Check
questions to check each other’s work and then feedback to
each other.

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit8

Jo’s Blogs

Get ready to write

Class bonus

Before you do this exercise, elicit a list of places you can visit in
a day from your city or area (e.g. historic sites, theme parks etc).
Elicit which places members of your class have visited, which they
liked and which they disliked. If there is one place that divides
opinion, write it on the board and write the positive points (pros)
and negative points (cons) of visiting that place.

If you have access to computers you may want to do this as a
simulation. You can do this simply by setting up a document
template on the computers for students to type into:
My Blog
Thoughts

A A personal blog

Posted by

1 Ask students to work with a partner to find the answers.
Encourage them to read the blog quickly by setting a short
time limit, e.g. five minutes. If, after reading the blog, students
are still unclear about what a blog is, refer them to the Did
You Know? box on page 39.

Comment 1

2–3 These exercises deal with anticipating who the reader will
be. To reinforce this, you may want to ask how many students
keep a personal diary, what type of things they write about in
it and whether they allow other people to read it. Elicit how
what they write about will be different if they know other
people will read their diary.

Posted by
You will need to group the students so that the whole class can
work on computers at the same time (depending on the size
of the class and the number of computers you have, students
can do this exercise on their own, in pairs or in groups). First tell
the students to write their thought on one computer. Next, ask
them to move to the next computer and add a comment on the
previous student(s)’ thoughts and so on.

Focus on … blog headings
If you have access to the Internet, you could supplement this
exercise by copying five headings from blogs and asking students
to assess whether they make the reader want to read on. This
can be done in pairs or small groups.
4–5 Students can discuss their experiences in small groups

before starting to write.
6 When students have finished writing, ask them to swap their
blogs and use the Check questions to check each other’s
work and then feedback to each other.

B Adding comments to a blog
1 Elicit how this type of blog deals with opinion (rather than just
telling people what you have done).
2 When students feedback, ask them to explain why they chose
their answers.
3 You may want to refer students to Appendix 6 (Think about
style) for other ways of expressing agreement, uncertainty
and disagreement.
4-6 Students can check their answers in pairs or work together
on these exercises.
7 In groups, ask students to discuss whether they agree
or disagree with Jo’s thoughts. Encourage them to use
expressions from Exercise 6 and explain why they agree or
disagree. Feedback as a whole class.
8 You could make this a competitive activity by setting a short
time limit for this exercise. The fastest person or pair to finish
it correctly wins.
9–10 Students can discuss their ideas in pairs or small groups.

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Real Writing 2 by Graham Palmer Teacher’s notes

Unit9

What can I do?

Get ready to write

B Completing feedback forms

If you school or college has a study centre or library, you could
introduce this topic by making a list of what you can do there.
Ask the students to imagine they are new students and don’t
know about the study centre or library. Elicit what information
they need to find out. As students feedback, write their questions
in note form on the board e.g. Opening times?

In small groups, ask the students to write a list of things that
make a good school or college (i.e. good teachers, interesting
lessons, good facilities etc). Feedback as a whole class and
elicit how schools and colleges know what their students think
about their courses (e.g. through informal feedback to teachers,
feedback forms etc). If your school or college has a feedback
form it might be worthwhile looking at it together.

A Taking notes about study arrangements

1–2 Students can do these exercises in small groups.

1–6 These exercises can be done in pairs or individually.
7 After students have done this exercise, ask them to swap their

notes and use the Check questions to check each other’s
work and then feedback to each other.

Extra practice
If you have already covered this as a warm-up activity for this
unit, you could do the following exercise instead:
– Elicit what is important for a venue for a business meeting or
conference, i.e. modern facilities, good communications, easy
to get to, refreshments etc.
– Split the class into two groups. Ask students where they could
hold a large business meeting or conference in your town and
what facilities the venue has available to them. Alternatively, if
you have access to the Internet students may be able to find
this information on the web.

Learning tip
To reinforce the idea of ranking and grading you could give your
students some evaluation/customer satisfaction forms written in
their own language. In groups, ask them to find questions that
rank things and questions that grade things.
3–6 If students struggle with this, write the name of a popular
product on the board. Write a positive point and ask a student
to come up and counter it by writing a negative point on the
board. Ask another student to write a positive point, and so on.
7 Students can compare answers in pairs.

– After a few minutes, ask students to write (in note form)
three questions they want to find out about the other groups’
venue.
– Ask the groups to split into pairs (each pair must have one

student from each group). Tell them to explain the facilities
at their venue. Their partner should take notes and at the
end try to write one question that the other student did not
answer.

Focus on … linking positive and negative
comments
Elicit how the first part of the sentence is positive and the
second part is negative in the examples below:
1 The study centre is useful but the computers are a bit slow.
2 The study centre is useful. However, the computers are a bit
slow.
3 The study centre is useful, even if / although the
computers are a bit slow.
Elicit how in this example the first part of the sentence is
negative and the second part is positive:
4 Even if / Although the computers are a bit slow, the study
centre is useful.
Emphasize the position of commas in examples 2 and 4 and
that However always starts a sentence.

PHOTOCOPIABLE

© Cambridge University Press 2008