Irina Lutsenko

This article struck a chord. Instantly. It was written by the wonderful Marina Khudolei in my " Writing with The Guardian " course, but I can totally see it in the actual The Guardian . ✼✼✼ Who’s Talking? Finding a Human Voice in the Age of ChatGPT A couple of weeks ago, I needed to write a polite email to a colleague. As a non-native speaker writing in English, I often second-guess the tone of my messages—am I being too formal? Too direct? Too vague? Wanting to get it just right, I turned to my loyal friend—ChatGPT—for help. The resulting email draft was immaculate in both tone and style, and, pleased with myself, I sent it off without a second thought. When she replied a day later, I burst out laughing—her email was so eerily similar in tone and phrasing that it was instantly obvious we shared the same virtual ghostwriter. It was clear: she, too, had asked ChatGPT for help. There we were—two humans outsourcing the simple task of polite correspondence to a machine. That wa...

I want to share an absolutely awesome IELTS essay written in my " Writing with New Scientist " course by the wonderful Alyona Borisova . This is what a topic "explored in depth" looks like (Task Response Band 9). Topic: "Many ultra-processed foods that people consume in large amounts today are known to cause health problems. Such foods should be made more expensive to encourage people to decrease the consumption of such foods. To what extent do you agree or disagree?" ✼✼✼ There is now ample evidence that ultra-processed foods are a significant driver of poor health, linked to multiple diseases ranging from diabetes to heart attacks and depression. These facts have given rise to the opinion that the government should introduce taxes on ultra-processed foods to deter people from consuming them in large amounts. However, I completely disagree with this view for several reasons. First, there is no consensus yet as to what exactly makes ultra-processed foods de...

Writing helps people process events and feelings. Written in my Creative Writing Club , this piece helped Svetlana Demchenko process some events in her life. I was moved. ✼✼✼ "A tree, a home and a life. Split in half." She woke up and sat up on her bed. Last night she had a nightmare, one of those nightmares that can be hard to shake off and wake up from. One of those that resemble a cat's claws or a snake's teeth because the harder you try to escape, the more you find yourself hopelessly trapped. All she remembered from this nightmare was a thunderstorm, overwhelming and never ending. It felt like there's no life after this thunderstorm. And she couldn't remember what was before the thunderstorm. The strangest thing was that the thunder had a metal rattle to it. It was driving her crazy. It was unusually quiet in her room. Seemed like there was life after a thunderstorm after all. She looked around and saw that it wasn't actually her room. The wallpaper ...

Do ideas matter in writing? Yes, they are the only thing that matters in writing. Well, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but writing is certainly not about commas alone. What is writing about then? It has somehow been established in the Russian ELT community that writing is all about language - grammar, vocabulary, linking phrases, maybe commas or dashes. But ideas - who cares? Well, I think ideas are the only reason to write. Why else would you sit down and spend an hour on this activity?! What is more, ideas are the only reason to read. No one reads for commas or linking words. People read for ideas. As a result of this erroneous understanding of writing, people tend to believe that this is an example of bad writing:  "It's important to protect the environment." But this is an example of good writing:  "Never has it been more crucial to protect the environment. Little do people realize how imperative it is. The environment - the world we live in - is ou...

I want to share an awesome IELTS essay written in my " Writing with New Scientist " course. The essay was so great when I first checked it that I had to read it several times in order to find something to correct or at least suggest. It's absolutely awesome now - it has academic lexis, hedging, a range of cohesive devices, a sharp focus - everything you need for a high score. The author of the essay decided to remain anonymous. Some people believe stress is such a detrimental force that it should be avoided and minimized as much as possible. Others, however, say that stress should be welcomed as it is a natural part of life and can even be beneficial. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. ✽✽✽ It is generally agreed that stress is an integral part of life, but there is no agreement as to what attitude towards it is best to adopt. Some welcome stress, claiming that it could be turned to their advantage. Others, however, feel that stress should be eliminated o...

I want to share a great IELTS essay written in my " Writing with New Scientist " course. The author is the wonderful Anna Skopina . Just look at the plethora of cohesive devices she used (I highlighted some to make sure you notice).  Task: Some people think that economic well-being is the most important factor for achieving happiness. However, others think that there are other factors involved in happiness. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. ✽✽✽ Some people claim that financial well-being is of paramount importance to an individual’s happiness, whereas others are convinced that other factors contribute more to life satisfaction. I am going to discuss both views and agree with the latter. One view is that money plays the most important role in people’s quality of life. This could be explained by a certain correlation between economic well-being and the level of life-satisfaction, with rich people in general being more satisfied with their lives than poor one...