Writing a quality essay is a challenging enough task in your native language, let alone a second language. The build up to this ability brings together multidisciplinary skills students have learnt across their curriculums in both English and Cantonese, and it has been a pleasure to see this student grow in her essay writing confidence through the use of these skills over the last couple of terms.

This Critical Reading & Writing Level 9 (S3) student of mine has flourished in her extended writing recently, showing a level of maturity both in her discussion and written work that demonstrate a more sophisticated analytical thought process. She has developed her Point Evidence Explanation (PEE) approach through a varied set of writing styles on topics ranging from the effects of illegal animal poaching in Africa, survey reports on the dangers of traffic congestion worldwide, and most recently the habitability of Hong Kong for certain groups of people (see example below).

Through the breakdown of contemporary examples, the analysis of their techniques and structures, and progressing to building up her own arguments, she has begun to progress to an academic style of writing which is particularly important in the latter part of school through to further academic studies. Building the foundations to this critical thinking and writing begins from a young age, and here at i-Learner we strive to nurture the confidence to develop student’s opinions, thoughts and answers that will help them not only in their academic lives and careers, but also for their own personal growth and self-expression.