7 Ways to Improve English Writing Skills IELTS EXAM ESSAY ACADEMIC

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with lucy today i’ve got a video

that i’ve never really done before I’ve

never really spoken about writing as far

as I know so this one has been highly

requested I know a lot of you are doing

your IELTS exams so I have got 7 top

tips that are going to help you improve

your writing quickly before we get

started I’d just like to thank the

sponsor of today’s video lingo de lingo

de is an amazing online language academy

they don’t just teach English they also

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qualified native teachers it’s actually

highly relevant to this video because

you you really ideally want somebody to

check through your writing so in your

private lessons on lingo de you can

mention that you’d like them to look at

your writing and that’s what you can

focus on for that lesson lingo de has

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let’s get started with the lesson so my

first tip for improving your writing is

keep it simple now I know this seems

really really obvious but I always say

to my students simple done accurately is

better than complicated done

inaccurately

in other words is better to keep things

simple and do it well rather than over

complicate everything and do it badly

so in English writing exams you want to

show off your English but you want to

show off your accurate English not all

this English that you don’t know or

haven’t learnt yet now that leads me on

to point number two in order to avoid

making mistakes in your writing it’s a

really really good idea to have a

collection of

set phrases and key words that you can

use in that exam so my tip number two is

prepare key phrases now you do have to

be careful with this you don’t want to

rehearse

what you’re going to write but you do

want to have a nice selection of things

that you could possibly say if the time

arises now especially on the IELTS exam

and I know a lot of you are studying for

this but this really goes for any

academic writing exam you want to have

linking words and key phrases prepared

now I’m going to give you a list with

two examples for each point it doesn’t

cover everything that you need to know

but if you study everything in the list

you will be much much more prepared for

your English writing exam so pay

attention and if there’s any point that

you think I really could expand on that

go and do your research and prepare

yourself you want to make sure that you

have a variety of different ways to

compare in the same way at the same time

contrast on the contrary however give

examples for instance to illustrate give

your opinion from my perspective from my

point of view generalize overall all

things considered to express certainty

undoubtedly of course to express a

partial agreement in a way to some

extent to show cause owing to do - to

show effect for this reason consequently

to mark time to begin with following

this to add information furthermore

moreover to express condition unless

provided that and to conclude in summary

in short so that’s just a very brief

list showing you exactly what you need

to study to be fully prepared for any

English writing exam now point number

three and definitely definitely

definitely for academic writing ie

English tests or university pieces do

not use contractions or is that don’t

use contractions so cannot - can’t do

not -

shall not to Charlotte I am too I’m

these are all examples of contractions

and in your writing exams you want to

avoid these I know that you guys really

really really want to keep your word

countdown because you are restricted and

you want to show off as much as you

possibly can but I’ve got lots of tips

for reducing your word count coming up

so make sure that you do not feel

tempted to include contractions in your

academic writing so tip number four

reduce your word count use as few words

as possible completely contradictory

because I’ve just told you that you

should not use contractions but I’ve got

some really really good mini tips within

this big tip to help you keep your word

countdown and your English level up

the first one is avoid these deadweight

words like very so a lot really I have

mentioned this before in a video but if

you want to show off your English avoid

these they’re pointless they are empty

calories in English replace them instead

with a strong word so instead of saying

really happy I would say I am elated

instead of saying so scared I would say

terrified okay so by using strong words

and avoiding these boring words you can

reduce your word count by a fair bit now

another way to really reduce your word

count but really improve the quality of

your writing is avoiding there is and

there are we want everything to be as

clear as possible and sometimes there is

and there are can act as fillers they

add extra words to our sentences so I’m

going to give you an example so you can

see this and bear it in mind next time

you’re doing an academic piece of

writing sentence 1 there are many

problems that we may encounter there are

many problems that we may encounter

sentence 2 we may encounter many

problems we may encounter many problems

the first sentence has 8 words the

second sentence has 5 words you have

reduced your word count

and you have increased the quality in

the clarity of your writing so make sure

you apply this in your next exam number

five read the right documents read the

right pieces of writing I know many of

you like to read in your spare time you

like to do it for fun and a lot of you

will read books in English which is

amazing for improving your spelling and

improving your vocabulary as well but if

you’re trying to get a good score in an

academic writing exam you might not be

reading the right kind of thing look at

the potential pieces of writing that

they’re going to ask you to do are they

asking you to write articles reports

essays maybe they’re asking you to write

all three if they are read all three you

need to go online or go to your library

and read articles read reports read

essays read reviews do everything you

can to familiarize yourself with all the

styles of writing number six is one that

you will have heard in schools so many

times but I’ve worked as a teacher for

many many years and I get so frustrated

with silly stupid mistakes that I know

that my students know they don’t make

these mistakes when they’re speaking so

why do they make them when they’re

writing so many times I’ve gone and I’ve

prepared a lesson because I’ve seen that

there are some very clear mistakes in my

students writing and I prepare a lesson

to correct this mistake and when I go to

teach it they say but teacher we already

know this this is baby stuff and it’s

because they don’t check their work I

have a clear example of this I used to

work as a proofreader I used to check

through documents before they got sent

off to publishers to make sure that they

were all correct that there was no

spelling mistakes there were no grammar

mistakes there was nothing nothing wrong

they were all perfect and I was amazing

at doing this I could get every single

mistake just by looking at a document

from a distance I could pick out those

errors however if you follow me on

instagram you will see that I make

spelling and grammar mistakes

all the time why because I don’t check

I don’t check my writing I am a native

English speaker and I make spelling

mistakes granted many of them are due to

autocorrect on my phone which I’m

battling with but a lot of them are my

fault and I don’t check them so I don’t

see them I know when you finish an exam

you’re like oh I’m done I want to move

on to the next question but you can

avoid so many point deductions just by

checking through your works so please

please please make it your absolute

priority I personally think it’s much

better if you write less and check more

fewer words higher accuracy and I know

normally I promote fluency over accuracy

but not in writing exams in writing

exams you want perfection now number

seven is perhaps the most relevant and

the most difficult of all especially if

you’re in really remote parts of the

world

number seven is write and get it checked

right and get it checked and

unfortunately the getting it checked

thing is a lot harder than it seems you

want to write as much as possible

checking of course it used to really

annoy me when my students would come in

with five essays but they I was so happy

that they’re done that but then I saw

that they’d made loads and loads of

stupid mistakes and I just thought oh

why didn’t you check it I’m just

regretting the same thing over and over

again but write as much as you can check

it and then see if you can find somebody

to correct it now I’m not saying find a

complete stranger it’s got to be in

their interest to correct it as well

I personally think it’s very unlikely

that you’re going to find a random

teacher on the internet that will be

willing to check your writing free

however there are lots of services and

penpal sites if it’s like a mutual

exchange if you find somebody who wants

to learn your language and they can help

you with your English then you can do

that or like I mentioned on services

such as lingo de and you can just have a

straight hour of analyzing writings that

you’ve already done and already sent

them but I will say especially to my

younger viewers really really really be

careful when you’re contacting people

online to practice your English

make sure it’s a trustworthy person

because there are so many predators that

want to talk to especially young girls

to practice their English and it doesn’t

actually turn out to be a English

practice it turns out to be something

quite different so please please please

be careful if you’ve got the funds and

if you’ve got the time get a proper

teacher and pay them to help you it’s

the only way that you’re going to be

guaranteed the proper skills and the

proper qualifications and also the

proper incentive why would a random

stranger on the internet want to help

you with your writing what’s in it for

them always think about that right guys

that’s it for today’s lesson don’t

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another lesson

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