1. LESSON 2: Giving Opinions
PERSONAL EXPRESSION

2. Basic Structure I like this movie because the plot is interesting
Your point
Values & Beliefs
Ideas
Preferences
Emotions
Explanation

3. cont
Explanation
General elaboration
Personal Experiences

4. Explanation: Personal Experience
In my opinion, students should not be allowed to bring their cell phone to school.
I used to bring mine to school and I spent most of the time being distracted by the phone instead of paying attention to my lessons.
POINT
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE EXPLANATION

5. Evidences from the stimulus
cont
Explanation
may or may not include
Evidences from the stimulus
Knowledge of the world

6. Evidence from the Stimulus
I also find the plot of the story to be quite engaging. In fact, I could not want to stop reading because Cool’s identity remains a secret until halfway through the book.

7. Knowledge of the Word
I love the main character: Cool. Cool is a socially-awkward teenager- who happens to be a ghost! You’d think that being a ghost might give him some perks in the arena of popularity but the truth is, Cool is a boring, somewhat dorky high school student who spends his time online and chatting with the girl he likes-via a computer.
I am sure that a lot of teenagers could connect with Cool’s ‘lack of social skills’ problem and the reason why he chooses to bury himself deep in the virtual world. I also believe that this problem is the reason why online games such as Dragons and Dungeons and Dota are immensely popular among this particular age group.

8. Personal Expression: A Step by Step Guide
Describe your emotional reaction/general opinion/idea to what you have read/viewed/heard (stimulus). For example, anger, sadness, hilarity, etc.
Analyse why you react the way you do to the stimulus by highlighting the elements in the stimulus. For example, in the case of fiction, you may choose elements such as themes and characters.
Alternatively, tell a story from your own life which relates to the stimulus to justify your reaction
If you do not have a strong reaction to the stimulus—explain and support it just like 1 & 2
Add current issues, trends or any knowledge about the world related to the stimulus you are responding to.

9. Convincing Phrases In my opinion, As far as I am concerned, ...
Speaking personally,
From my point of view,
As for me
I would say that ...                         
It seems to me that ...                           
It is my impression that/ I am under the impression that                      
My view/opinion/belief/conviction is that…
I have no doubt that ...                            
I am sure / I am certain that ...                
It goes without saying that ...   
I consider/find/believe/suppose that
I guess that .../ I bet that .... /I reckon that…

10. A Review on Malcolm Mejin’s ‘Cool Diary’ by Humaira
I bought a new book today and it is entitled ‘Cool Diary’, written by a talented new writer named Malcolm Mejin. My overall view of this book? Well, I like it. In fact, I like it so much that I award this book a 3.5/4. Personally, I think that for a first book, Cool diary is really good. So here are the reasons why I like Cool Diary; firstly, I love the main character: Cool. Cool is a socially-awkward teenager- who happens to be a ghost! You’d think that being a ghost might give him some perks in the arena of popularity but the truth is, Cool is a boring, somewhat dorky high school student who spends his time online and chatting with the girl he likes-via a computer I am sure that a lot of teenagers could connect with Cool’s ‘lack of social skills’ problems and the reason why he chooses to bury himself deep in the virtual world. I also believe that this is the lack of social skills is the reason why games such as Dragons and Dungeons and Dota and social networking websites such as facebook are immensely popular among this particular age group.

11. cont
Besides that, I feel that the plot of the story is quite engaging. In all honesty, I could not put this book down because Cool’s identity remains a secret until halfway through the book.
 The two drawbacks of this book are firstly, the time and cultural setting of the story. I would say that they are quite unclear. While reading the book, I was not able to establish these aspects hence as a result, I felt a bit disconnected from the it. Secondly, there are several essential questions which remain unanswered up till the end of the book, namely
1) Is Cool able to age?
2) Does Cass like him back?
3) Is Cool allowed to marry a human?
Other than these burning questions, I enjoyed every page of Cool Diary and hope to see more great works coming from this author.

12. END OF LESSON 2