The great news is this: you can be developing your Reading skills for the CELPIP exam every single day and totally on your own! Keep reading to find out how!
Don’t Box Yourself In!
Read widely. There. That’s the big tip. If you’ve only got 30 seconds to read this post, then this is what I want you to do! Read widely.
What is reading widely? It means you read many different kinds of books or reading resources like, brochures, magazines, newspapers, opinion articles, formal and informal e-mails, etc.
Read widely means you don’t keep reading just one kind or style of writing! If you read a variety of different material, you’ll expose yourself to new words and ways of communicating which will help you prepare for the CELPIP exam.
What you might encounter on the CELPIP
Remember: the CELPIP measures your ability to use and interact with everyday English! This means you need to be doing your best to be reading materials you can find around you on a regular basis.
Some important examples were mentioned above, but just to make sure you know where to start looking – the CELPIP could have examples of e-mails, opinion pieces where the writer shares their point of view about something, formal articles that you might find in a newspaper or a magazine, etc.
The secret to preparing for this?
You guessed it….be reading a little each day from a variety of sources.
What I Discovered From Reading Widely This Weekend.
I am a writer. I’ve been working on a novel for the past…oh, maybe ten years. (I know…that’s a long time!) Sadly, I have not been working on it as often as I should, but I have been chipping away at it over the years.
One piece of advice I often hear from other writers is that if you want to improve your writing skills as an author, you should be reading other authors and other genres than the one you are writing in.
For me, I’m working on a Young Adult thriller. These past two weeks I’ve been off from work on a mini vacation, so I decided to do some reading. One was a Stephen King book so that I could try and see how he built up suspense and wrote scary scenes. I didn’t really like the book, and stopped about half-way through – but not before I noticed some great things about the way he wrote to build up suspense. (I will be trying to do what he did in my own writing.)
I started reading, and this I am very much enjoying, a second book that is written for Young Adults. I had never heard of this author before nor her book, but I love it so far!
She writes with a very distinct style, and devotes one chapter to one character, another chapter to another. It’s easy to follow! I will be using that idea in my writing too!
See what happened there? I developed my writing skills as a writer simply by reading wider than what I normally do.
The same will happen for you if you want your reading skills to improve! Read widely! Don’t get stuck with one kind of book or article. Go for variety!
I dare you!
I bet you’ll find your vocabulary growing in ways you never thought it would!
I’ve got a podcast episode on this! Check it out.
So…comment below: what is one new thing you will read today?
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