If you learn how to use a new tool in English, you may feel comfortable answering some questions about it or recognizing its meaning. But would you be able to use it in a real-life situation?
Every Plain English Toolkit Workshop includes a Situation Writing exercise to answer this exact question. After you learn how to use a new Tool in English, you'll be presented with a situation. You'll write a sentence using your new Tool that fits the situation.
✅ This exercise is available at the Plus+ level.
How it works
The Situation Writing exercise is an independent activity that tests your understanding of a concept you learned about in a video lesson. You will be given a situation and your job is to write a sentence that fits the situation and that uses the tool you learned about in the video.
This video shows a demonstration:
Where to find it
Find the Situation Writing exercise next to any Toolkit Workshop. (Click here to select a Workshop from the Toolkit.)
Click on the tab called "Practice":
What to do
First, watch the video lesson about the Tool.
Next, read the description of the first situation:
The situation has been written specifically so that you can use the subject of the video in a sentence. In this example, the Workshop was about the word "especially."
Because the Workshop is about "especially," the situation has been written specifically for the word "especially."
Your job is to write a sentence using "especially" (or the subject of your workshop) that fits the situation.
💡 Tip: This exercise is scored automatically. For that reason, try to use the words in the situation description, with as few modifications as possible.
In this case, we can write:
Notice how the answer uses many of the same words as the situation description. The answer also uses the word "especially" which was the subject of the video.
Click "Check" to see feedback on your sentence and "Show Solution" to see one or two example sentences:
Tips for writing your sentences
If you're having trouble with the Situation Writing exercise, don't worry. Here's some advice:
Make sure you're using as many words as possible from the example situation. This is not a creative writing exercise! In this exercise, you are modifying the situation and forming a sentence with the tool. You can be creative in the free-writing section.
Check the spelling of important words in your sentence.
Remember that the scoring is automatic:
The scoring looks for keywords and combinations of words that indicate you wrote the sentence correctly. But it's possible the system will score a sentence incorrectly even if it is correct.
Look at the solution sentences and compare them to yours. If they are similar in many ways, then congratulations! You probably did it right, just in your own way.
If you'd like, you can use Expert Answers to ask for specific feedback on any sentence you write in this section. You'll get a personal reply.
After you finish the Situation Writing exercise, you can write your own example sentence (and receive personal feedback).