I. Tick the correct sentence in each pair.
1 a The type of work attracts a greater % of men than woman.
b The type of work attracts a greater percentage of men than women.
2 a Many old people believe that kids have too much freedom nowadays.
b Many old people believe that children have too much freedom nowadays.
‘Register’ means using the right word in the right context. For formal essay writing, you must use a formal register. This means you should not use informal language.
You should not use:
- informal vocabulary: not kids; ok; buck; heaps. You should use a more formal equivalent instead: children; all right or acceptable; money; many or great deal.
- symbols on their own in place of words: not %; $; &; @. You should write the words in full: percent; money; and: at. Note that % and $ should only be used with numerals. For smaller amounts we write $ 50 (not 50 dollars) and 75% (not 75 percent). The noun form of percent is percentage.
- abbreviations: not m; yrs; kgs; no. You should write these words in full: million; years; kilo/kilograms; number.
- all capital letters: not NOWADAYS PEOPLE THINK THAT… You should use capital letters
only when appropriate: Nowadays people think that…
Look at the following examples:
Companies waste heaps of bucks on advertising → waste a great deal of money on… In 1986 the % rose to 67.5. → the percentage rose to
Between the yrs 2001 and 2005, over 2m people died. → The years …..over 2 million…
II. Correct the mistake below.
The new hospital cost over 200 million bucks to build.
The new hospital …………………………….
III. Correct the register errors in the following sentences. There may be more than one.
- Some people believe it is ok to hit small children.
- Kids today are much more comfortable using technology than older people.
- The no. of people without a job in the yr 2001 was 3.5 m.
- The government needs to create heaps of jobs to solve this problem.
- A LARGE AMOUNT OF $ IS SPENT ON DEVELOPING TOURISM.
- The female employees tend to go out more during their lunch break than the guys.
- 35% of students agreed with the decision but the % that disagreed was far greater.
- The baby blue whale gains 90 kgs per day.
I. Match the people or group to the correct sentence.
| the burglar | the government | the hospital staff | the nation | the principal | the waiter |
- The main dish was served on a silver platter. the waiter
- Each year the most improved student is chosen. ……………………………
- A new law has been passed to make the dumping of waste illegal. …………………………..
- I realised my keys had been stolen during the break-in. …………………………………
- Simon is being treated for minor burns. ………………………..
- Our new government will be elected on June 20th. …………………………….
Now rewrite the sentences in the active using the subjects from the box.
- The waiter served the main dish on a silver platter.
- ________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________
- ________________________________________________________________
II. Find 10 verbs that should be in the passive and make the necessary changes.
III. Correct the 10 mistakes in the following text.
The graph shows the no. of people who shop online and the types of stuff that bought. It is clear that most money spend on travel and accommodation, and the smallest amount of money is spending on groceries. The first figures available are for the yr 1995, because shopping online was not common before then. The % of people shopping online was very small initially, and it took ages for people to begin using this service. However, the majority of people still wanna visit shops in person to do their shopping, and only 20% of the population say that have ever bought anything online. Of the 20% who have used online shopping. 75% say they have been received good value for money and they would definitely use it again.
