How much can you learn from one sentence?

When it comes to writing, you often here that you need to learn from reading. It is true, but you need to know what to look for.

What can you find in this sentence?

"It’s also true that a sea of laptops changes a place’s vibe, from chatty community hub to co-working space (insufferable, as discussed); no doubt the ratio of we laptoppers to other punters must be as carefully calibrated as our behaviour."

I find at least three things for my students to practice: a metaphor, parentheses, a semi-colon. (Actually more, but let's stop here for now.)

What we do in my "Writing with..." courses is we learn to notice writing techniques and to then implement them.

If this is something you would like to do, how about my summer mini-course "Writing with The Guardian"?

"Writing with The Guardian" is a writing mini-course based on articles from The Guardian. It is geared towards the C2 Proficiency exam (or CPE) articles but is also good for a variety of non-fiction and creative non-fiction types of writing.

📝 Who is the course perfect for?
- people who have taken CPE and want to stay in a good writing shape;
- people who want to take CPE some time in the future;
- people who blog, write copy, or write for pleasure - and those who want to.

📆 July 2025 schedule: Thursday 10-11:30 Moscow time

📝 More about the course: https://vk.com/market/product/writing-with-quotthe-guardianquot-47977221-10225379

📝 Student's article from this course: "Who’s Talking? Finding a Human Voice in the Age of ChatGPT"

💌 @iraluts