"If I were you...", by Ana Mª Mondéjar

TEXT 1

Keep an open mind

There are lots of good graduate level opportunities out there in organisations of all sizes. More than 99% of businesses in the UK are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), employing between 25 and 250 employees, and many graduates will find themselves working for one. Part of the challenge in your search is to ensure that you are not blinded to these opportunities by the larger organisations. Think about the company, its culture and who you would be most comfortable working for. Also consider location – certain sectors are sometimes clustered in regions, so open your mind to the potential of moving for the job.

Experience counts

Remember that you are not looking for a job for life, but to build your experience. If you have a particular company in mind but are struggling to find the right opportunity, then getting experience in a different organisation or in a different role to the one you had imagined could give you an edge when the right opportunity comes up. It is not necessarily about the role you have done, but the transferable skills you have developed.

You are not defined by your degree

You don’t have to be a history teacher just because you studied history! Many employers are looking for graduates of any discipline. They are interested in the transferable skills and abilities that a graduate can bring to their organisation. Don’t fall into the age-old trap of thinking you have to do a job that is directly related to your degree subject. Your degree has developed more than just your subject knowledge, so there may be opportunities out there which you are ideally suited to, you just haven’t realised it yet.

Know yourself

While you shouldn’t be defined by your subject, it’s important to start considering what you have to offer employers. Think about the skills and abilities you have developed during your studies – and don’t forget to consider your extracurricular activities and prior work experience. A good way to get started is to look through a range of job descriptions and pick out the skills they are looking for, and think about how you can show that you have those skills.

This excerpt belongs to the article 9 tips to help you secure a graduate job from The Guardian. The pieces of advice are highlighted in green when it uses a modal verb; and yellow when it uses an imperative form of the verbs. 

TEXT 2
Dialogue 1.  A Visit to London

A: What do you think I ought to see in London first?

B: Well, historical places, I think. You should go to Westminster Abbey, and if you can, go to the Houses of Parliament and the National Gallery.
  
A: And what about the British Museum? I was told one ought to see it.

B: I suppose you must go there. There you can find masterpieces of the world’s best artists.

A: How can I get to the centre?

B: I think you can go by steamer down the Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge. That’s a very pleasant way to travel, and you can see London bridges and quite a number of buildings on the way.


The modal verbs that appears in the dialogue are:
- Ought to: it is similar to "should" but the first one is more formal. 
- Must: it is a modal of obligation, it is used to say what is you think is neccessary to do. 
- Can: in this case, it is used to make requests and offers. 

In the last four weeks, I've done some activities to improve my English, in addition to follow my English lessons at University. To improve my reading skills I am reading a book called Deadly Harvest, written by Carolyn Walker apart from reading the news. Also, I'm watching the new season of my favourite tv show: American horror story: Cult in the original score; this is the way I improve my listening skills. 





Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

"Dream Jobs" by Alba Muñoz

Imagen
Undobutful, the worst job I can imagine is being a slaughterer and work in a slaugtherhouse. I love animals, so killing them with economic purposes would be crazy to me and really really inmoral. It is not necessary that I describe the job, but to summarize it, this job is one of the worst things that the human race actually does. Appart of being inmoral and harmful to me, it is nauseating and disgusting. I wouldn't like to be forced to work in such thing, and of course, this is a job that I would never choose or do. The picture is the best one I have found about it, so imagine the rest... About the job conditions 45 years ago, I have found no pros on them. They didn't have the social security, no control of the hours they were supposed to work between the ones they used to work (even if it was already stablished the 8 hours workday. According to my grandfather, really important new laws were becoming to be apply, around his thirties, but as they were new there were still loa...
Leer más

"How I improve my writing" by Ana Mª Mondéjar

Dear all,  This week I'll talk about how I improve my English writing. I have to say that I am an University student, that means I'm always learning, so I consider I'll give you some pieces of advice that you will find useful. First of all, we must ask, what makes writing so important? The answer is simple; One the one hand, writing is the way someone knows what you think or who you are as a person. On the other hand, it helps us to keep informed, in this way, you can learn about new fields, and also, you can improve your English level; I mean, you will know more about vocabulary and different grammar structures. In short, it is so important to enrich our knowledge.  Once we have explained the importance of writing, let's move on to my personal experience.  To improve my writing, I usually follow the same pattern including other skills. First, I always read about what I want to write, like news in newspapers, and also, I visit some websites to solve any grammar ...
Leer más

"How I improve my writing" by Noelia Osete

Nowadays, this is a really important question. All of us need to know to write well because this is important to understand us each other. Today I will show you some tricks to improve. First of all, I think about what I want to write and I try to do a brainstorm to clarify my ideas. Next, I always read some infromation in websites to solve any doubts and learn much more vocabulary. After that, I start writing doing changes and trying to put correct sentences to understand the text correctly. Finally, I have a look quickly to my writing and I share it to everyone.  Writing is important because in the text, you express what you feel and what you think and many people can understand you and share te same opinion. Other reason is that you can improve your grammar and your vocabulary because you always learn new things. Also, you English level increase and this is important to your day-to-day. To summarize, writing is important to improve our knowledge about English and ...
Leer más