How to Become Good at Writing in English

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week actually

is a pair of questions I got a question

from zou hair which was hi Alicia how

are you how can I improve my writing

skills and a question from xeric xeric

said how do i improve my writing skills

so I want to answer these two questions

together

so the simple answer is write more so if

you’re having trouble starting your

writing practice something that you can

try doing is copying so if there’s a

blog a magazine a book that you enjoy

reading if there’s something that kind

of stands out to you something that you

think is really good or really

interesting you can start your writing

practice by just copying the things that

you find that you read so if you find

for example if you find a blogger that

you really enjoy and it’s easy for you

to read you can start by copying the

lines from that blog when I say copy

I mean write by hand like with a pen and

paper try writing those things by hand

so you can kind of practice creating a

sentence on your own this can be a

really good way for you to begin writing

practice then when you get a little more

comfortable you can try using your own

words in your own vocabulary to kind of

make your own sentences in the same

style as your favorite writer

so I would say a good way to start

writing and a good way may be to improve

your writing making it more natural is

to just begin by copying other people

it’s just a matter of practice so keep

practicing keep writing keep creating I

hope that this helps you okay let’s move

on to your next question next question

this week comes from long on high-flown

huang says how do i write a good

paragraph in English okay there is kind

of a three-step process to writing a

good paragraph

English you can think of your paragraph

in three parts you can think of first an

introduction second a body and third a

conclusion so in the introduction to

your paragraph the beginning of your

paragraph you should share the ideas

you’re going to talk about in the

paragraph so that’s like your first

sentence what are you going to explain

to your reader what are you going to

share in this paragraph in the second

part the body of your paragraph you

should give the details if you’re

explaining data you can put numbers in

that section for example if you’re

giving like quotes if you’re giving

supporting information or supporting

evidence you can include that in the

body part of your paragraph this is your

details you can also include your

opinions in this part of the paragraph

so what do you think third your

conclusion the conclusion part should

summarize your main ideas so what do you

want the reader to remember from this

paragraph and maybe how does it connect

to your next paragraph so try to think

about writing paragraphs in kind of this

three-step process you introduce

something you give details and you

conclude so think about this for your

paragraph yes but also think about this

when you’re writing a paper as well you

should have an introduction and a body

and a conclusion to your paper so I hope

that this helps you in writing

paragraphs smaller pieces of writing and

in writing papers or essays larger

pieces of writing thanks very much for

the question

okay let’s move along to your next

question next question comes from ahmed

mohamed hi ahmed ahmed says hi Alicia

how are you good

why is it when I watch you or watch any

other English teacher on YouTube I

understand them easily but when I watch

any programs on TV like movies and news

I find it difficult to understand what

should I do to understand anything I

listen to okay so your first question

why can you understand the teachers on

YouTube this is a common question from

lots of people actually the reason that

you can understand teachers on YouTube

or maybe teachers in your classroom is

because we’re doing what’s called

grading our language so grading your

language means that you choose to use

vocabulary words and grammar points that

are suitable for the learners so that

means that we choose our words and we

choose the way that we speak to help

learners understand us so that means

that we speak a little slower we speak

with very clear pronunciation we’re

speaking with a level of grammar that we

think our students will probably be able

to understand and we’re choosing to use

vocabulary words that we think are

probably easy for learners to understand

too so when you’re watching YouTube

teachers a lot of YouTube teachers

including us on this channel we’re

thinking about how to help people a kind

of an intermediate level like a medium

level so I’m choosing grammar and

vocabulary words and kind of the way

that I speak to try to help people move

into like intermediate to advanced

intermediate language territory so this

is why there seems to be such a big gap

between like YouTube teachers and

regular movies and news when you’re

watching movies and news those people

are not grading their language so

they’re not aware of their vocabulary

choices they’re not thinking about the

level of grammar they use their speaking

regularly so the way that teachers speak

is kind of a way to help learners ease

into or get used to that native level of

speaking it can be really hard for

learners to pick up all the small

details of native level speech so we

slow it down and we present it in a

different way to help learners so when

you get comfortable with people who

teach like me on YouTube you can kind of

look for other things at higher

difficulty levels so maybe this means

you find a vlogger on YouTube that

speaks in English or you start to find

other topics or other things related to

your hobbies but that use English so

that will take a little bit of searching

on your part but just keep working on

leveling up your language skills so if

I’m too easy for you to understand

that’s okay you can move on to find

something else until you can gradually

work up to understanding native level

conversations so that’s a long answer

but I

hope that it helps answer your question

thanks very much okay let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from baka Tarkan haibach tar bak tar

says hi Alicia what is the difference

between swear vow and oath I don’t

understand the difference okay

swear swear is a verb swear is like a

rough word that means promise some

examples I swear I won’t break your

computer again he swore he wouldn’t

forget to take out the trash

next is vow the word vow can be used as

a noun or as a verb it’s used in more

formal situations we use it for example

in weddings or maybe in like legal

situations some examples do you vow to

take this woman as your wife I vow never

to do anything like this again both is a

noun and it’s kind of an old-fashioned

word it’s sort of like an old-fashioned

mysterious word for promise it kind of

has a very mysterious a little bit of a

dark feeling and both examples I took an

oath to never reveal the details of our

group have you ever taken a blood oath

so I hope that helps you understand the

differences between swear Val and oath

thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from Yosh Tuckahoe

Takashi hi Yoshitaka Yoshitaka says hi

Alicia I watched the video English

greetings for every day it was easy to

understand and fun however in the video

you said where was I what do you mean

where was I ah this where was I this is

a common expression that means where was

I in my notes so when you’re reading

something or when you’re giving a

presentation and you get lost like in

the details like you have some notes

some kind of like reference material

you’re using to give your presentation

and you miss like your place you forget

your place you can say where was I

meaning where in my notes was I so will

often use this when we’re presenting

material and we need to start again so

in that case

if I’m teaching a lesson and I like miss

my place if I forget my place in my

notes I might I probably said where was

I meaning at what point was I in my

presentation so I would use this if

maybe like a student had a question and

I answered the question and then I

forgot exactly where in my lesson notes

I was located at that time so where was

I means like what was I talking about a

moment ago I hope that helps you thanks

very much for the question

all right let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from I’m on

heigen I’m on I’m on says hi Alicia

what does stack the deck mean ah to

stack the deck means to prepare an

advantage before a situation before some

kind of event so the advantage is

prepared so that one person or like one

organization wins so this expression

comes from card games first we see a

deck so to stack the deck the deck

refers to a deck of cards that’s the

vocabulary word we use to mean a

complete set of cards a deck of cards to

stack to stack means to put things one

on top of another so when we stack a

deck or to stack the deck as in this

expression it means we’re placing cards

in a careful like organized manner to

create an advantage for someone in a

situation so to stack the deck means

before the situation you prepare all

like the parts to create a win for one

person or maybe to create a loss for

another person so to stack the deck

means to create an advantage or a

disadvantage for someone else so some

example sentences the deck was stacked

against him in that expression the deck

was stacked against him means the

situation was created so that he would

lose we use against someone to refer to

creating a situation where a person

loses something so we stacked the deck

just means we created an unfair

advantage or we created an advantage

before the situation so I hope that this

helps you understand this expression

thanks very much for the question

all right that’s everything that I have

for this week thank you as always for

sending your questions

remember you can send them to me at

English class 101.com slash ask - Alicia

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alisha and I will

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