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Free online ESL / EFL Academic Reading and Writing Exercises

Recognising the Structure of Academic articles
Glenys Hanson and Fiona Robertson

Constructing the Paragraph
Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
A Tutorial and Self-testing Program:

• Topic Sentences
• Topics and Comments
• Support Sentences
• Using Transitions
• Ordering principles

Formal or Informal: Rank the texts
UniLearning

Pulp Friction
UVic English Language Centre, Canada
A complete module including: Pre-reading, skimming, scanning, reordering, scavenger hunt (unfortunately many dead links), essay writing. A particularly useful exercise:
Review of Cause and Effect Linking Words

An Academic Writing Module: Paragraphs
Victoria University, NZ
Including exercises on:

• Topic sentences
• Building Paragraphs
• Incorporating Sources
• Types of Paragraphs
• Sample Essay

UEFAP Using English for Academic Purposes
Andy Gillett, University of Hertfordshire

• Academic Word List 56 short articles followed by gap filling exercises.
• Individual words Click on "word order" to find the exercises
• Describing Trends Matching sentences to graphs
• Listening comprehension & note-taking: Gap-filling exercises
• Efficient reading skills including:
  - Scanning to locate specifically required information
  - Surveying the text
  - Using the title
  - Skimming a text using first lines of paragraphs
  - Skimming a text using first and last paragraphs
  - Skimming a text, using section headings

Reading strategies for academic texts
Advice followed by lots of short articles for practice:
Strategies for reading

Interactive academic reading exercises
Based on the Voice of America's Special English programs

Interactive academic text reconstruction exercises
Based on the Voice of America's Special English programs

Linking Words
A set of interactive exercises

Determiners: Articles
A sequence of exercises aimed at understanding the logic of article use in English.

Quentin's Cool English Writing
Links to information and exercises on Essays, Bibliographies, Citations, Evidence, Paraphrasing, Proof Reading, Quoting, Summarizing, Thesis.

MOTS LIENS (Linking Words)
Institut de langues vivantes at the Université catholique de Louvain.
Many other grammar exercises, too.

Dartmouth Writing Program
No exercises but a lot of practical advice including a sections on:

• The Process Approach to Teaching Writing
• English as a second language
• This includes a section on cultural differences and a list of
  Common ESL errors: the top ten list
  (scroll down to the middle of the page to find it).

Reading for Thinking
Laraine Flemming

• Paraphrasing Topic Sentences
• Recognising Mixed Patterns
• Recognizing the Appropriate Inference
• Recognizing the Appropriate Inference
• Discovering the Point
• Evaluating Support
• 1: Detecting Bias
• 2: Detecting Bias
• 3: Detecting Bias
• Identifying Purpose and Tone
• 1: Drawing Conclusions
• 2: Drawing Conclusions
• Understanding Figurative Language
• Understanding Longer Readings
• Terms Related to the Internet

Academic Vocabulary
University of Nottingham
Gives some suggestions about using the Academic Word List
The AWL Highlighter and the AWL Gapmaker to help you expand your academic vocabulary.

• The AWL Highlighter
  Find a text that interests you.
  Copy and paste, or type it into the AWL Highlighter.
  Process it.
  You will see the academic words highlighted in bold.
• The AWL Gapmaker
  Copy and paste your text into the Gapmaker.
  It will automatically gap the academic words that were highlighted in the previous exercise and produce a gapfilling exercise for you to do.

You can also do fill-in-the-gap exercises with the AWL vocabulary:

Sublist 1	Sublist 6
Sublist 2	Sublist 7
Sublist 3	Sublist 8
Sublist 4	Sublist 9
Sublist 5	Sublist 10

VocabProfile English
Paste a piece of text into the box and it will tell you how many words the text contains from the following four frequency levels:

1. the list of the most frequent 1000 word families,
2. the second 1000,
3. the Academic Word List,
4. words that do not appear on the other lists.

Newcastle ALE (Academic Listening Exercises)
Bob Gilmour
Video and audio extracts from university lectures.

Parapal
Essay Fundamentals
Multiple choice exercise about topic sentences, thesis statements, etc.

Skills for summarising and synthesizing
University of Surrey
This quiz gives practice in analysing written texts,
deciding on main points, and identifying how text is organised.

Advanced Composition for Non-Native Speakers of English
Erlyn Baack.
Advice on how to organise ideas and
write the 5 paragraph essay + interactive quizzes.

Academic writing
Wikipedia

Writing a Research paper
Sarah Hamid
OWL at Purdue University

A Guide to Reading and Analysing Academic Articles
Amanda Graham and Yukon College

Proofreading Practice
Practice correcting passages for spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, and usage.
Writer's Choice

TESL-EJ APA Style Guide
A brief guide to the rules for academic citations

Style tips
APA Online

Programs for creating automatic references and citations:
Reference Machine for Journal Articles APA Style
Reference Machine - Books APA Style
Reference machine: Internet pages APA Style
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The English Language Centre

Harvard Bibliography Reference Generator
Neil's Toolbox

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List compiled by Glenys Hanson and Fiona Robertson