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Guides & Handouts

Practice Assignments

Reading and Writing Practice Exercises

These are for Langara students who are currently enrolled in an English class. You can use them to practice your reading skills, your summarizing skills, your essay writing skills… or all three!

How to Use The Exercises

Pick one of these activities:

  1. Summarize the passage, then make an appointment with a tutor to discuss your summarizing skills, organization, comprehension, or anything else you would like.
  2. Write an essay based on one of the practice topics, then make an appointment to discuss that essay with a tutor. They will be happy to look over your work to talk about any part or parts of essay writing that you would like, from brainstorming to planning to drafting to revising.
  3. Discuss the passage with a tutor even if you have not written a summary or essay. Tutors can talk to you about your ideas, and how you could turn them into an essay or summary.

How to Make an Appointment

  1. Go to https://langara.mywconline.com/
  2. In the appointment form, please enter the course number and Instructor for the English class that you are currently enrolled in. a. Please note that these exercises are available only to those students who are currently enrolled in a class taught by the Langara English Department.
  3. In the appointment form section “Describe the Assignment You Are Working On,” please mention which exercise you are working on (eg. Practice Exercise 03) so that the tutor can read the passage in advance if they have time.

Important Points to Remember

  • You must book your appointment at least 2 hours in advance.
  • Tutoring sessions are 20 minutes long, so you can bring one summary OR one essay to each appointment. o However, you may make up to four appointments a week.
  • The Writing Centre does not provide grades or assessments of any kind.
  • You may find this handout helpful for writing summaries:
    Introduction - How to Summarize - Research Guides at Langara College (libguides.com)

If you have completed a practice summary and essay for each of these practice exercises and you would like to try others, please contact tchernoff@langara.ca.