Writing a Short Story — PEEL Structure
From Sourov's world: One night at The Ivy in Sydney, a champagne glass slipped from a tray. I caught it mid-air, less than a metre from a dress that would have cost more than my…
Tag: writing
Writing Formal Emails
From "Bye" to professional — the structure that works every time
How to Write a Formal Email in English — Structure and Phrases
💬 The email that cost me a meeting: Early in my career I wrote an email starting "Hey, just wanted to check in..." to the CEO of a hotel group I was trying to work…
Linking Words in English — Join Your Ideas Like a Pro
💬 The chain of ideas: When I first wrote essays in French, my teacher said: "Les idées sont là, mais elles ne se parlent pas." — The ideas are there, but they don't talk to…
How to Write a Clear Paragraph — The 3-Part Formula
💬 The essay mistake I made at 30: Writing four connected sentences is not a paragraph. A paragraph has a job. It makes one point, proves it, and tells you why it matters. This 3-part…
Describing Graphs and Data: The Language of Numbers
When I rebuilt my professional history from years of email records, I had to describe trends: 'email volume increased sharply in 2014', 'it declined steadily after 2018', 'it remained stable throughout'. The language of data…
The Writing Process: Draft, Revise, Edit
When I started writing formally — appeals, job applications, eventually blog posts — I tried to write perfectly on the first attempt. I couldn't. No one can. The best writers I know treat the first…
Conjunctions: Connect Your Ideas Clearly
My daughter is 18 months old. She already knows 'no' — but she doesn't yet know 'however'. That one word, 'however', is the difference between a child's logic and an adult's argument. Conjunctions are the…
Formal Email Writing: Get It Right Every Time
I have sent thousands of emails — job applications, complaints, appeals, formal requests. Each one from a different country, in a different situation. The best advice I can give: a formal email is not a…
Describing Places: The Language of Home and Belonging
I have called four places home: Chittagong, Sydney, Plessis-Trévise near Paris, and Réunion. Each one needed its own vocabulary. Réunion is not just 'nice' — it is lush, volcanic, remote, tropical, and for me, something…