Gerund vs. infinitive

Numerous exercises on gerund vs. infinitive along with their key are hereby made available for you to have access at your convenience.  You can also find the list of verbs used with gerund and/or infinitive here.

Here you can find more information and exercises on the same topic.

Retirement

For our next session we can first have a negotiation on whether or not retirement should be abolished.  After reaching consensus in reference to retaining it, we can further discuss the issue of mandatory retirement.

Here is a link for a Guardian article arguing for abolishing retirement. You may also want to read the comments underneath the article.

Here is a link for an online debate on abolishing social security.

Here is a link for a webpage with the pros and cons of mandatory retirement.

Barefoot running

Here is the link for Chris McDougall's TED talk Francisco mentioned today.  He is the author of the highly acclaimed book entitled Born to Run.  I have to admit that his delivery is much better than my performance today.  See if you can identify the place where he uses a list of three even though he does not use the the rule of three to structure his talk.

Here is the link for the video presentation of the "Barefoot Professor" at Harvard I told you about.

Here is another nice video on the mechanics of running.

Finally, here a link for a longer four-part presentation by a podiatrist for those of you who might try out barefoot running, maybe next time you are at the beach.  He warns us about the merit of the slogan "We are all burn to run!"

Training day: Are we clear?

Here is a training-day invitation email, in case you have not received it.

Dear Colleagues,

Do you sometimes find Commission documents hard to understand? Have you ever felt you weren’t getting your message across clearly? Have you ever fallen asleep at a conference? If so, you are not alone!

Be sure to come to our ground-breaking one-day event on clear communication - 'Are we clear?' - covering clear writing, speaking and thinking.

 






Who should attend?  All staff of the Commission

Why?  We often struggle to explain what we want and what we do (both to external and internal stakeholders)

What is there for you?  You can attend conferences and workshops, watch videos of great speeches, and discover many learning tools (some online) that we can use daily to improve our communication – some examples:

• Writing - Colleagues from DGT  will give individual tuition on editing texts (you can bring your own!)
• Thinking - Workshops on mind-mapping    
• Speaking  - Tips on how to make a good presentation
  

Do I need to attend the entire day? No , you can come and go during the day for the part of the program that interests you (having registered in Syslog beforehand)

So look out for the posters and notices. Don’t forget to apply via Syslog Web Training <http://www.cc.cec/di/syslog_formation/catalogue/catalogue.cfm> for the talks or workshops that tickle your fancy!  Search for 'Are we clear' or go to 7.1 Conferences.  First come, first served! (Closing date 13 November)

If you want to know more about our day, go to the 'Are we clear?' <http://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/HR_ADMIN/EN/TRAINING/CLEAR-COMMUNICATION-DAY/Pages/index.aspx> webpage.

And if you are not able to come to GUIM, you will be able to follow the conferences taking place in room 0/1 via  webstreaming. The link will be published on the 'Are we clear?' webpage on 14 November.

The 'Are we clear?' team:
Diane de Blaye
Loredana Vullo
Ana Yturriaga

Phrasal verbs

Here you can find some exercises on phrasal verbs.  The key to the exercises is hereby made available. (Source: English Grammar in Use: Intermediate by Raymond Murphy)

Here you can find an online source on phrasal verbs.

Section 2

Here you can find the second section of the book.

More tips on PowerPoint presentations

Here you can find list of do's and dont's for PowerPoint presentations.

The dont's for PowerPoint

Here you can find Don McMillan's standup on the dont's of a PowerPoint presentation.

The 10/20/30 Rule for PowerPoint

Here you can find Guy Kawasaki's recommendations on the length (10 slides), duration (20 minutes) and font size (30 points) in a PowerPoint presentation.

Here you can find a stream of his pitch. ('Bozo' means 'fool'.)

Lists of three and the rule of 3s: two speeches

Here you can find the first part of Steve Jobs's iPhone product launch speech.

Here you can find Barack Obama's inauguration speech.

In both of them, please pay attention to the usage of the lists of three and the rule of 3s.

Here is a stream where the rule of 3s is explained among other useful tips on making presentations.

Text

We will be using the following text for the course:

Presenting in English by Mark Powell.

You should be able to find it at the European Bookshop.

Here you can find you the first section of the book.