Hindle's good writing guide from the 1960's

http://www.un.org/depts/OHRM/sds/lcp/English/docs/a_guide_to_writing_for_the_united_nations.pdf

Speed reading

http://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Speed-Reading
http://www.mindtools.com/speedrd.html
http://www.readingsoft.com/

For Tim and me

http://goodteatoo.blogspot.com/2010/10/identity.html

For level 9 check this out

http://ictyenglish.blogspot.com/

TED for teaching high levels

http://www.ted.com/themes/browse

Writing and multiple intelligences

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/956

Writing English as a Second Language

Writing English as a Second Language

Gabina's film and the making of the film on Quechua - a Peruvian minority language (Spanish lovers)

How she made the film - 4 minutes
http://www.sydneylatinofilmfestival.org/2010/films/quechua-the-fading-inca-language-wins-2010-local-filmmmaker-award
The film itself - 18 minutes
http://tv.unsw.edu.au/video/quechua-the-fading-inca-language?videoRes=HiQuality

Great sites for web concordancers - updated search facility

Canadian corpus – University of Quebec

French and English

http://www.lextutor.ca/

Type your word into ‘Quick Look-up’ box.

Click on ‘Eng: conc

Click on the arrows

The examples will appear on the page with the word hotlinked.  Click on the hotlink of an example you wish to study the wider context of.

Web Concordancer in Hong Kong study centre

http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/

Simply type in your word and press ‘go’

Good two sites for relative clauses - commas or no commas, which or that?

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/262

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/Whichvs.That/Whichvs.That01.html

Great site for better writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/betterwriting

A-Z of terms - good vocabulary development for writing students

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/alternative.pdf

Translation resources - particularly how to write clearly in all European languages

http://ec.europa.eu/translation/index_en.htm

Plain English Campaign free guides

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/free-guides.html

Translators at the European Commission's pick of websites

http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/english_en.htm

Vocabulary training exercises in English, French, German and Spanish

http://www.vokabel.com/index.html

Conversation questions

http://iteslj.org/questions/
Alphabetical listing of conversation topics with questions for class discussion

English study resources

http://www.englishstudydirect.com/index.htm

Corpus linguistics and corpus concordancers

http://www.englishstudydirect.com/OSAC/dicconc.htm

French translation section portal at the United Nations

http://csdportal.unog.ch/fretrans/

What makes a good teacher?

http://theweek.com/article/index/207881/targeting-teachers

Careers in the United Nations system

1          Here is a great website with links to many good sites for preparing for a career generally.  It comes from the New York UN Staff Development website.

http://www.unejn.org/documents/CareerDevelopment/CareerDevelopmentWebsites.htm

2          Vacancies in the UN System:

http://www.fao.org/VA/vac.htm

http://www.who.int/per/vacancies/ftindex.htm

http://www.ifad.org/job/

http://www.unesco.org/per/vacancies_eng.htm

http://www.unfpa.org – search for ‘vacancies’

http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/vacan_e/vacan_e.htm

http://www.unsystem.org

http://www.undp.org – search for ‘vacancies’

http://www.unicef.org/employ

3          Internships

http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006AC19C/(httpPages)/A422C95289E684DD80256EF300344EFD?OpenDocument

Note interns should be currently enrolled in a Masters and are not paid.

4                    How to get started – do a competitive exam for a post.  This is the pathway to a career in the United Nations as a young professional.

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/ncrepage.htm

The National Competitive Recruitment Examinations (NCRE) is held on a yearly basis in countries that are selected on the basis of their representation in the Secretariat.

Every year, the Organization targets the nationals of Member States that are not adequately represented in the Secretariat for recruitment through competitive examinations. The purpose of these examinations is to recruit young qualified and motivated professionals for junior positions (at the P-2 level.) 

The deadline for submission of application is now closed (no exceptions), and the written examinations will be held on 1 December 2010. If you have submitted an application within the deadline, you will receive official notification of your convocation status. 

For more information about the examination, please download the full text of announcement of the Examination Notice in English and in French. 

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/2010e.pdf

The specialized areas this year (to give an idea) are Administration, Demography, Economics, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Radio Producer (Arabic, Chinese, French), Security, Statistics, Web Design / Development.

Applicants should hold a first degree and be no more than 31 years old.  Fluency in either English or French is required.  Applicants should be nationals of the list of member states for that year.  This year it included:

2010 Participating Member States 

1  2   3  4

Afghanistan 
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda 
Belgium
Brunei Darussalam
Comoros 
Dominican Republic
Equatorial Guinea 
Finland 

Grenada 
Iran
Japan 
Latvia 
Liberia 
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Liechtenstein 
Monaco 
Montenegro 
Mozambique

Namibia 
Nepal 
Norway 
Republic of Korea 
Saint Lucia 
Samoa 
Saudi Arabia 
Slovenia 
Solomon Islands 
Spain 
Tonga 
Turkey 
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom 
United States of America 
Yemen 
 

Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/ncefaq

5                    Have a career using languages

http://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=LE

These are the six official languages at the UN:  Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Posts for which you can take a competitive exam include

·                                 Interpreters

·                                 Translators

·                                 Editors

·                                 Verbatim Reporters

·                                 Proofreaders

However, bear in mind that you will be competing with experienced people, so you need to study and practice these skills.

Here are the current exams open

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/languageexam.htm

The University of Geneva Translation and Interpreting Department is very famous – it is a good place to study for a career as a translator or interpreter. 

http://www.unige.ch/eti/index.html

These careers are very much in demand in Brussels too.

http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/translation/news/1748

http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm

Following the rules

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/corrections/errors-and-omissions/errors-omissions-we-should-follow-the-rules-of-grammar-even-if-they-sound-a-bit-wrong-2089137.html

Help with career development

http://www.unejn.org/documents/CareerDevelopment/CareerDevelopmentWebsites.htm

France scores an F for education

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2021009,00.html

French style guide at the European Commission

http://publications.europa.eu/code/fr/fr-5000400.htm

Spanish translators' portal

http://paginilla.net/

http://www.lingoo.eu/
What is the best way of learning a language? Practising it in the country where it is spoken! Lingoo helps you to create a tailor-made language study holiday for your child, just the way you want it.

More translation links

http://www.dur.ac.uk/daniel.newman/translation.html

Myers Briggs personality test online

http://www.intelligentelite.com
I came out as extrovert, sensing , feeling and perceiving

Translation and editing resources at the European Commission

http://ec.europa.eu/translation/index_en.htm

Writing skills websites and links discovered today in the United Nations

From Mauricio

http://csdportal.unog.ch/spatrans/

This is a portal used by freelance Spanish translators.  It has search engines, databases etc.

   

Our colleagues in New York also have interesting websites with documents on writing skills

http://unejn.org/LME.htm

http://unejn.org/Report_Writing.htm

http://unejn.org/Writing_Workshop_II.htm

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/sds/lcp/English/resources_un.html

There is a very comprehensive online report writing course

http://69.94.137.26/editorialcontrol/support%20for%20authors/Online%20course.htm

Explore this site for UN courses, reference documents etc

http://www.dgacm.org/

http://www.iamladp.org/secure/writingcourse/1_intro_01.html

Also, here are a few useful links for UNCTAD documents:

GA resolutions - http://www.un.org/documents/resga.htm

UN Editorial Manual - http://69.94.137.26/editorialcontrol/index.htm

UNTERM - http://unterm.un.org/dgaacs/unterm.nsf/375b4cb457d6e2cc85256b260070ed33/$searchForm?SearchView

ETAS presentations

Carol has a BA in Language Studies (Oxford Polytechnic), a CTEFLA  (RSA London), a DTEFLA (Sydney, Australia), MA in Applied Linguistics (TESOL) (Sydney University), a MEdAdmin from (University of NSW, Sydney), and a PhD in Education from UNSW.  She has taught English and administered modern language programmes in Spain, England, Australia and Switzerland.

2009 in Chur

Title of presentation:  How to use an internet platform with intermediate to advanced learners to help them become more autonomous and advance more quickly at their pace

Brief abstract (max. 100 words): Students learning English at the United Nations in Geneva come from varied national and educational backgrounds.  All share a burning motivation to move ahead quickly with their English skills, which they need to interact with their international colleagues and for their careers.

The teachers enable them to progress quickly by giving students access to English outside the classroom in their daily lives.   Carol will show how she blends classroom learning with an internet platform, Blackboard, to help students become more autonomous.  She will also demonstrate a free platform http://www.nicenet.org/, which is simple to use with all levels.  

2008 in Lugano

Title of presentation:  Giving feedback on students’ written work

Abstract:  When students submit written work, various approaches to giving feedback can be used.  The ones students seem to find most useful are those which involve them in reflecting, researching and correcting their own work. 

This talk will present correction techniques which can be modified to suit any level of student.  The techniques combine correction codes with comments from the teacher and pointers to useful internet assistance.

The talk will also include tips on adapting the same model to give feedback to very advanced writers or native speakers writing in a professional context.

Presenter’s bio:  Dr Carol Waites is currently an English and Writing Skills teacher at the United Nations Staff Development and Learning Section in Geneva. 


2007 
Joint presentation with Sarah Jordan

Teaching advanced writing skills to report writers and administrative writers in the United Nations and other international organizations.

 

Abstract:

International civil servants write reports, minutes of meetings, expert briefing papers, chapters of books, emails, memoranda, letters, press releases and brochures. 

Our role is to help them with clarity and style.  To do this, we use workshops we analyse their own writing.  We will demonstrate both aspects of the course:

Workshop resources include: 

• A list of ‘red flags’ or ‘editors’ nightmares’
• Internet sites dealing with effective writing
• Flesch’s readability score in MSWord
• Analysis of authentic samples

Feedback on assignments is given through ‘track changes’ and ‘comments’ in MSWord. 

2004  ETAS in Sierre

Title of presentation:  Using a ‘blended learning’ approach to teaching advanced writing skills 

Abstract

At the United Nations Language Training Section, writing skills used to be taught through seminars.  Recently, this course has been adapted to provide a ‘blended learning’ approach, using a web-based platform to provide the weekly program, coaching, seminars and ongoing writing practice through drafting and redrafting after feedback from the tutor.   Specializations offered include administrative writing and report writing.

This presentation will demonstrate the type of material which has been developed, will discuss the pedagogical reasons for having this type of program, and will point out the advantages and some of the pitfalls involved in the ‘blended approach’ used.   

2003 Appenzell

Title of presentation:  Using a web-based platform (Blackboard) as a pedagogical tool and integral part of a general English course.

Abstract

At the United Nations Language Training Section, the Distance Learning Team has been involved over the last 18 months in developing and conducting a Web-based support program for its regular English courses, particularly at the advanced level.  The long-term aim is to use Web-based support as an integral part of the general English programs at all levels.  This presentation will demonstrate the type of material which has been developed, will discuss the pedagogical reasons for having this type of program, and will point out the advantages and some of the pitfalls involved in the process of designing Web-based support programs. 

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