Improve Your Writing Skills and Make Long Sentences in English

we’re back alright hi again everybody my

name is Alisha and today we are here

talking about improving your English

writing but we are having a few

technical problems so I hope that you

are able to clearly watch the stream on

YouTube this week so thanks very much

for your patience we’ve been trying to

fix everything here but I think we’re

gonna have to continue on without our

Facebook watches this week oh no I’m sad

okay so as I’ve said a few times now

today for those of you who have been

watching today we’re talking about

improving your writing so I’m gonna

introduce a sample essay and talk about

the structure of an essay and we’re

gonna get started in just a moment

we’re going on YouTube where you are you

• hi okay good so sorry for all that

stopping and starting but we’re gonna go

just with YouTube today Facebook

I’m sorry facebook viewers sorry guys we

don’t know I don’t know what happened so

let’s get started um couple of things I

wanted to share or know we can I share

anything no we can’t share anything okay

alright I’m just gonna go from over here

then so we’re gonna start today’s lesson

I want to begin with introducing the

basic structure of an essay so when you

are preparing your your text when you’re

preparing the thing you want to write

there are three parts to keep in mind

and those are these three things over

here so structure structure means like

the organization the way that you keep

your information organized so this

number one the first thing is your

introduction your introduction is the

beginning part oh great news our

Facebook watchers are there yeah

everybody’s here this week sorry that’s

a very magical magical things happen I

guess thank you guys thank you technical

to you

okay so you’re just joining on Facebook

today we are talking about improving

your writing I just started here I just

started here so let’s get back into it

so hi face back welcome sorry for the

delay today okay so I was just

explaining the structure the basic

structure of an essay so when we make an

essay we think of an essay in three

parts three parts so as I was explaining

the first part is your introduction so

the introduction to your essay is where

you share what’s called your thesis

statement your thesis statement this is

a word that’s used in like university

level courses your thesis statement

means your main point so like what’s

your opinion or what’s the thing you

want to communicate to the person

reading your essay so that’s called your

thesis statement your thesis statement

it’s very important to have a very clear

thesis statement so that your reader

understands your main point so this is a

key a key vocabulary word for today a

thesis statement okay so in your

introduction then - it’s a good idea to

include a couple other points so like

why are you writing this essay so in

other words like what’s the reason why

should we care why is this topic

important and then another thing to

consider why you why you so this part

when I mean why you I mean why are you

specifically writing this essay so

especially if you’re a university

student or if you’re preparing essays

for like sharing internationally in like

a journal this can be important to

indicate or to share why you personally

are writing this essay writing about

this topic so that’s in your

introduction your introductory section

is about like introducing these

ideas okay the second part part number

two an important keyword for this lesson

is the body the body of the essay so the

body is your main points all of your

main points this means your research

your data your opinions quotes from

other people so all of the things that

support this idea from your introduction

this all of this information is in the

body of your essay this is the biggest

part so this is usually quite a long

section the introduction is fairly short

so the body part is where you share all

of your main ideas like where you’re

sharing your opinions and you’re trying

to convince the other person okay good

his Facebook still okay mysterious okay

so finally the third point is your

conclusion your conclusion so conclusion

means end it’s the finished point for

whatever you’re writing in the

conclusion you need to recap

so to recap means like to cover

something again you summarize all of

your main points you summarize

everything you shared in the body and

you remind your reader of your main like

thesis point your argument your main

idea so these are the three points the

three key parts of an essay typical

English essay okay so those are three

introduction body conclusion and your

main argument so argument doesn’t mean

fight here your argument means the

opinion or the idea you want to

communicate to your reader so those are

the key points for the structure the

structure of your essay okay and then do

I can I share

today’s free things yes I will show it

here okay cool so before I continue on

to the main part of today’s lesson that

sa part I do want to share free stuff

with you guys this week so we don’t have

any big sales anymore

but thank you if you check those out

this week just a quick reminder if you

have not checked it out already we do

have a bunch of free I can’t come around

there can I can I come around here hi

camera we have a bunch of free PDFs

about a bunch of different topics this

one’s about business English I thought

that this one would be good for this

lesson because I know lots of you are

working on improving your English for

your careers or for your studies so this

is English PDF PDF here has lots of

phrases on the back for a business

meeting this says business meaning here

yes but there are some points here that

are really good for discussing like an

idea so discussing an essay so if you

have like a university course or even a

high school course with discussion you

can use some of these phrases for

example like what are your views on this

or I don’t really agree so this is the

business one yes but I think this is

good for like getting some phrases for

just formal discussions too so check

this out you can find this from the link

below the video if you’re watching on

youtube and if Facebook is up you can

find it above the video on Facebook okay

let’s carry on so as I said I don’t know

do we lose our facebook is

facebook.com/paes what’s still there

we don’t know Facebook is mystery today

okay Facebook it’s still there that’s

good okay so today I’m gonna move on

then to the second the big part of

today’s lesson which is an essay so I

prepared an essay Oh someone says Alicia

what is essay oh I keep saying that

expression

de si es si y si an Si and si is a piece

of writing a formal piece of writing we

write essays in high school we write an

essay or a paper in university an essay

that’s the word so not sa but es si why

that’s a piece of writing so I made an

essay today so let’s take a look at it I

have a lot to share with you I’m gonna

move over here okay okay

alright so let’s take a look I want to

first just read the beginning part here

and we’ll go through

each bit piece by piece so first this

part let’s look at this beginning part

so my essay is about smartphones I read

this about smartphones it is the first

line here smartphones while useful

present serious problems in this essay

I’ll talk about the harmful effects of

smartphones I’ll also share some ways to

minimize these effects so this is the

beginning of my essay this part right

here is my introduction so I talked

about the introduction how the

introduction is like the point where you

need to explain your main ideas your

introduction your introduction so I have

a couple points underlined here

so smartphones I have this while useful

while useful so this is a really handy

convenient expression to use while it’s

used to mean even though even though so

I could say even though smartphones are

useful they present serious problems but

that’s quite long so I used this pattern

smartphones , while useful , present

serious problems so we can use these

commas to kind of present a but or an

even though statement

in our writing it’s very quick and very

easy to use second I move on to this

expression I said in this essay or maybe

in this paper so here I’m clearly saying

this is what I’m going to write about so

in this essay I’ll talk about the

harmful effects of smartphones the

harmful effects of smartphones also

please note this is effects with an e we

use effects with an e when we’re talking

about when we’re using it as a noun the

harmful effects of smartphones then I

said I’ll also share some ways to

minimize these effects here I’ve got

also why did I do this because I’m

adding another key point so in my first

sentence here I said I’ll talk about the

harmful effects of smartphones that’s

one my second thing I’ll also share so

also comes before my verb here I’ll also

share some ways to minimize so to

minimize means to make smaller to

minimize these effects so this right

here these refers to harmful effects

these effects so you can see even in

this short introduction I’m connecting

my ideas together so I’m not repeating

the same thing like many times I’m using

words like these for this to refer to

the essay itself so this is my

introduction this is a sample

introduction okay let’s move on to the

next part this next part is big now

let’s read it in a group so first

smartphones affect us negatively in a

number of ways first smartphone use

increases stress levels according to a

survey by the American Psychological

Association people who continually check

their phones report higher stress levels

than those who do it less frequently

I’ll come back to this in a sec

then second checking notifications on

smartphones leads to decreased attention

span if it’s difficult that’s okay

third older workers may be better at

focusing than younger workers simply

because they don’t feel the need for

distraction okay let’s stop here let’s

look at just this part right here let’s

go back to this main are sorry this

first sentence so smartphones first

effect I mentioned this in the

introduction here this is using effect

with an a so effect with an a is used

when the word is being used as a verb

we’re using effect as a verb here so

smartphones effect us us means all

people here affect us negatively in a

number of ways in a number of ways this

is a really useful expression which

means in a lot of different ways or in

various ways so this is a one useful

thing you can do in your writing to show

that there are many possibilities in a

number of ways your preposition is in

here

okay then I’ve underlined a couple

points in this paragraph if you joined

our live stream maybe two or three weeks

ago we talked about sequence words so I

talked about using first next then

second and so on I did it in this

paragraph too so I used first and I used

second and I used third in this

paragraph to introduce three points so

this helps the reader follow along like

okay point number one point number two

point number three so this is really

good to help you organize your ideas

when you’re writing and it helps your

reader understand like the steps as they

are reading okay good um let’s take a

look at this next one I used this

expression which is very very useful for

quotes for data for research

according to so this is the most

important part maybe according to

someone in this case according to a

survey according to a book

according to a report so according to up

or an some kind of reporting or data or

research noun phrase according to this

shows us the reader this communicates

this is not my information I got this

next information from someone else and

this is super super important when you

are writing essays okay alright good so

in this case actually this is real this

is a real source actually according to a

survey by the American Psychological

Association this is true people who

continually check their phones report

higher stress levels than those who do

it less frequently okay so there are

some really important points here this

first these marks this and this so these

are called

it’s hard to see I know those tiny

little marks these are called quotation

marks quotation marks so we put

quotation marks when you’re talking

about information you got from a source

we put quotation marks around the text

that we took directly from the source so

in this case this marks the start and

this marks the finish point of the text

I took from a survey by the American

Psychological Association

so these marks show that this is not my

information this is something I took

from this source then I have to finish

this by showing where I got my

information so if I’m reading this like

paper or this essay and I want to know

where can I read more about this quote

where can I see more information about

this

I look at this thing so this is called

an in-text citation and in-text citation

in-text citation so this shows me there

are many different ways to make a

citation to make an in-text citation

this one uses my favorite which is from

the a style guide a very popular and

commonly used style guide called the

Chicago Manual of style

so for this one we use the author’s name

and the date or the year of publication

the author’s date our author’s name and

the year of publication in this case the

author’s name was bud the year of

publication was 2017 so at the end of my

essay I include a link or I include a

reference to where a person can read

more from this so this is extremely

important if you are a university

student or if you write essays for

publication for journals and so on okay

so let’s continue on so I mentioned this

second and third thing here and then I

want to go on to the next paragraph so

we’ve connected some ideas here

introduced some reasons or rather we

introduced some harmful effects of

smartphones and then here I talked about

something else a little different so

let’s take a look I said to practice

building focus studies recommend reading

books also make a smart phone smart

phone free time every day lastly users

can check their usage habits with

monitoring tools on their phones okay so

a few points I want to look at here to

practice building focus so a lot of

people ask like how do I know when I

should use the infinitive to plus verb

or the gerund form the ing form of the

verb using to

this year to practice building focus

think of this infinitive form as meaning

in order to in order to practice

building focus if that makes sense

then it sounds natural to use this

infinitive form here so the gerund form

doesn’t have that feel in this case

we’re talking about doing something like

there’s a reason there’s a purpose the

purpose is to build focus so we

recommend reading books so this is a

pretty good way to understand when to

use the infinitive or the gerund form

okay then on to this point I mentioned

this in the introduction as well this

also so I’m adding a point this sounds a

little better than and also in this case

sounds a little bit more it sounds a

little nicer in text so some people have

some very strict teachers maybe it will

tell you don’t use and at the beginning

of a sentence in informal speech in

informal writing it’s okay I personally

prefer also in something like this okay

um onward to this ah this next point

this is a really small point but I hope

that it helps you a lot in your writing

I know we can’t zoom in today but

there’s this tiny mark right here this

this is called a - a - or a - but

technically a - I have it here with

smartphone free time this is really

important to use when you need to

closely connect to words so in this case

smartphone free smartphone free means

time with no smartphone so why is this

important why is this - important if I

don’t have this - it looks like

smartphone free time and that doesn’t

really make any sense you might confuse

the person reading so when you need to

show a close connection like that

between two words like smartphone and

maybe don’t usually connect but it’s

important to connect them you can do

that with a - so this is a more advanced

writing point but this can be very

useful for making your writing a little

more clear okay let’s go on to the next

point I have to finish singing now I

introduced the last point here in my

body section with the expression lastly

lastly that means finally lastly users

can check their usage habits with

monitoring tools on their phones so this

part right here this is my body the body

of my essay this is the body of my essay

so it introduces all the main points

everything that I want to communicate to

support this argument this idea I

introduced at the beginning I put

everything in here I put it all in here

okay all right let’s go on to the next

part then so the conclusion the

conclusion part of this essay is

beginning with this expression down here

hard to see I think but it says in some

in some in some is like a short way of

saying in summary so to summarize

something means to put everything

together in a short easy-to-understand

way in some in some in some although

they are convenient and entertaining we

should all be aware of how smartphones

are affecting us negatively we should

take steps to ensure we minimize these

effects so we can lead well-balanced

lives okay a couple points here so this

part although they are convenient and

entertaining we should all be aware of

how smartphones are affecting us so this

they is connected to smartphones

they refers to smartphones so this part

right here underlined in red this is

like one big even though statement this

is very similar to the pattern I used in

the introduction here so while useful

here I used even though they’re

convenient so we can use this to show

kind of contrasting ideas in our writing

so you’re using while or even though

although and to so on ah some of a

couple of you wrote in the chat in some

yeah it’s in I n space some s um in some

or to summarize in some even so yeah ex

Caesar and the YouTube chat you have it

nice okay um so finally I ended this

with this part right here we should we

should so we should is a way to give a

recommendation so it’s like saying these

are this is what I think is the best

thing this is the next step okay so you

might see some some sa some articles

that finished with a recommendation or

they talk about like the next steps in

their research so this is quite informal

we should in a more formal essay you

might see like recommended next steps

are like the recommended next steps are

a B and C so actually this essay is

fairly informal I made this a fairly

casual essay but you can use the same

kinds of things the same sorts of things

to make your essay as well so this part

down here this is my conclusion

my conclusion point down here so this is

a really quick introduction really to

the basic structure of an essay

introduction body conclusion in my

conclusion I talked about my main point

again up here so as you write you can

revise so to revise means to rewrite

like to check things and write them

again angel this is somewhat formal yeah

this is

somewhat this is how we write a paper

how we write essays in English sir Khan

yes

to sum up yeah it is like to sum up so

to sum up yes you could use that to sum

up is used more in a meeting though I

feel we don’t use to sum up so much in

writing we use in sum or in summary more

in writing Selva thesis your thesis

statement is like your main point your

main argument your main idea that’s your

opinion your focus opinion okay good can

I use a great point Nickerson long time

no see can you use reductions like aisle

in an essay great question uh in this

case I used it here because it’s a

fairly informal essay if you’re writing

a formal essay I prefer I recommend not

to I recommend not using contractions

maybe when you’re presenting data like

the research showed we didn’t succeed in

this or this was some yes you can maybe

use it when you present data but I

personally don’t do that okay finally I

did want to mention a little bit about

citations but we’re kind of out of time

I will just say again if you want to

know more about citations you can check

style guides my favorite is the Chicago

Manual of style it’s good for like books

novels social sciences if you are

interested in journalism

you should try The Associated Press

style guide that’s great for newspapers

and other journalists other things are

the MLA style guide the Modern Language

Association style guide that’s good for

Humanities so those are three style

guides my favorite is Chicago Chicago

Manual of style that’s a great resource

and advanced resource if you’re

interested but I have to go for today

unfortunately so I hope that this lesson

was useful it was like a useful kind of

sample that shows you how to connect

your ideas and gives you the basic

floo for your writing so if you have

questions of course please do send them

in the chat please do send in the

YouTube chat I think we lost Facebook

today is too bad and then uh let’s see

what else do I need to do uh yeah if you

haven’t checked it out we do have free

stuff for you as always so please check

out the link below the video on YouTube

to get a bunch of free PDFs I showed the

business one earlier but there are lots

and lots of different topics so there’s

shopping ones and Hobby related ones

there’s food as well so please take a

look at this below the video the link is

below the video okay so I’ll finish

there we will be back again next week

next week’s live stream will be about

the third conditional the third

conditional a lot of you have asked

about this the third conditional is for

example if I had or if I hadn’t that

kind of thing

unreal situations so we’ll talk about

that next week please join us next week

9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Wednesday evening that’s New York City

time so please check it out that should

be a good one a challenging one for some

of you I think so we’ll finish there for

this week thank you as always for

watching and liking and sharing we

really appreciate it

enjoy the rest of your week and I will

see you again soon bye