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hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson we’re going to talk about an

introduction to email writing so i have

email writing here but this is email

writing especially for business or for

other formal situations we’re going to

talk about the format the general format

of an english email and we’re going to

talk about some patterns that you can

use maybe to explain yourself or to

introduce an idea

and so on we’ll see a few examples so

let’s get started all right

first i want to take a look at the

general format the basic parts of an

email an email at least in terms of

american english business emails

simply put we begin with a greeting a

simple greeting the dear part of your

letter a greeting perhaps then an

introductory phrase or something that

introduces the purpose the reason you

are writing the email

following that will be any background

information or any details you need to

provide to make the purpose of your

email clear

following that a closing statement

something to kind of wrap up to show

your reader you’re ending the message

and then a sign off which is really the

final point before your name in the

email so we’re going to talk about these

points let’s look at some patterns you

can use in these emails

let’s begin with the greeting part of

your email if you don’t know the person

receiving your email you can use the

expression

to whom it may concern this is kind of a

classic line some people feel it’s a

little bit old-fashioned

but it’s polite and most people are

familiar with it to whom it may concern

just means the person related so this

email is to the person related to this

inquiry to this question so it just

means in other words i don’t know who to

address this email to but

please give it to the proper person the

appropriate person this is a polite way

to say that to whom it may concern to

whom it may concern we don’t use this in

speech just to whom it may concern is

good for opening emails for your

greeting in emails

if however you do know the person you

are sending the email to you can begin

with dear

then add mr miss or mrs the difference

between miss and mrs misses is used for

married women miss is used for unmarried

women if you don’t know is she married

not married use miss miss is the safer

choice you can also use a title like a

professor or doctor if you know that the

other person is a doctor has a phd

is a professor assistant professor if

you know their title you can use that in

the greeting dear professor xyz or dear

dr abc for example

you can also use

department names here so dear maybe

international department staff for

example you can use the name of the

department and staff if it’s a little

bit more general like you don’t know

exactly who to send it to but you do

know the department you can use

department staff there so department

name in this case

okay so once you have written your

greeting at the beginning of the email

then you can go into your introduction

and your purpose so why are you writing

the email these are a few patterns that

you can use first my name is so if this

is the first time you have contacted the

other party the other person you can use

this to introduce yourself so in my case

my name is alicia and i am writing

regarding and then your topic so

regarding means about so you’re putting

this about statement before your topic

so my name is alicia and i’m writing

regarding uh studying english for

example so your topic should probably be

a noun phrase

so whatever it is whatever the topic of

your email inquiry is you can put it

here

a simpler one maybe you already know the

other person you can say i’m writing

regarding your topic so i’m writing

regarding english studies at your school

for example

another one i’m writing to reach out

about so here i’ve used about you can

use regarding here too regarding just

sounds a little bit more formal than

about so reach out though this implies

you’re maybe introducing something or

you want someone to do something for you

so i’m writing to reach out about a new

event i’m planning so maybe you’re

trying to gather support for a new event

for example so to reach out you’re

introducing something you might be

asking for help for something

one more i’m writing to see so here i

have to see meaning to check to check

with you in other words i’m writing to

see if you would be interested in would

be interested in means in the future is

there a chance

uh you would be interested in something

interested in again a topic so i’m

writing to see if you would be

interested in coming to an event later

this month i’m writing to see if you

would be interested in teaching a

seminar in my school for example so this

is something again you want the other

person’s participation or you want them

to do something for you you can ask

about their interest here this is much

better than saying please do this so

please do x y z sounds too direct ask if

the other person is interested in would

they be interested in something

much better introduction okay so these

are a few simple examples uh when you’re

making a request or when you’re writing

about a general topic so how do you then

explain some background and some details

about this point so

if you are writing uh regarding like a

a question maybe you ordered something

from the company there was a problem or

maybe it was a service transaction uh

some some kind of like business

transaction that’s your topic so for

example my name is alicia and i’m

writing regarding a textbook i ordered

if you want to write and explain a

problem you can use a couple of these

patterns these top two for example i

placed an order for a textbook on

january 15th but it hasn’t arrived it

hasn’t arrived so here the product i

ordered the date of my order and maybe

an order number would be good too so

after this statement you can explain the

problem so for example the textbook i

received was wet or the textbook was the

wrong textbook so you can explain the

problem after this expression

so these are perhaps for orders or maybe

a service situation let’s look at the

second pair here if you’re looking for

someone to do a job for you or if you

want someone’s participation in

something you can try using one of these

patterns let’s look at the first one

we’re looking for someone too plus your

task so we’re looking for someone to

help us with data entry we’re looking

for someone to teach english lessons on

the internet so would you be interested

again we have the same would you be

interested

as we saw up here asking about their

interest so if you say please do this or

do this for us it’s too direct use would

you be interested we usually say would

you be interested in participating would

you be interested in teaching would you

be interested in leading the lesson for

example so ask would that other person

like to do that thing or are they

interested in learning more so here is

one way to invite someone for something

or to make a request of someone’s time

or a request of someone’s skills so

here’s one pattern

another one

we’re planning an event and would like

to extend an invitation to extend an

invitation is a formal expression which

means we want to invite you so here is

our this is our official invitation to

extend an invitation means to invite

someone to something but this is a

formal expression we use to extend means

like to put something out so like to

make something longer imagine your arm

coming out to extend an invitation like

here on our hand

um so we are planning a seminar and

would like to extend an invitation to

you perhaps as well so this is for an

event invitation or maybe there’s

something else you would like to invite

this person to like we’re

we’re planning a conference and would

like to extend an invitation to you to

give a speech at the conference for

example so there are many ways we can

change this sentence to invite someone

to participate in something all right

let’s move on then to some closing

messages so after you’ve explained the

background and the details and you’ve

kind of asked the key question or

explained the problem then we can show

the reader that the email is finished by

including one of these expressions these

are just a few examples

but they’re quite general so first thank

you for your time so this is good for

maybe a simple inquiry or if you’re

explaining a problem perhaps and you

just want to express your appreciation

thank you for your time um that’s a nice

one another one i look forward to

hearing from you soon i look forward to

hearing from you soon shows you expect a

reply from the other person so it’s a

little bit of a push in this case so i

look forward to hearing from you soon i

look forward to receiving a reply from

you soon you’re expecting a reply in a

timely fashion you’re expecting a reply

in a reasonable amount of time

one more if there is any additional

information i can provide i would be

happy to prepare it so this means if

there’s something else additional

information here if there’s any

additional information

that the other person needs

you the writer of the email are happy to

prepare that information so in other

words this is an invitation if you need

something please let me know i will

prepare that so these are a few nice

sentences you can close your email with

then the final part in email writing is

the sign off so

there are many different sign-offs here

are a few that i feel are common and

easy to use and polite as well sincerely

is good sincerely is quite basic um

you can use that in most situations

without trouble it just sounds quite um

i guess quite typical it doesn’t sound

warm i suppose but it’s fine to use

another one i personally like to use

best so best shows um this is short this

is kind of an abbreviated expression of

my best or i wish you the best

but kind of short and a little more

professional i feel best another popular

one is warm regards warm regards in

other words my warm feelings or like i

mean this in the best way possible i

mean my email to be warmly received

another one i’ve seen is kindly kindly

so this one is in like a request or just

perhaps an information related email

kindly so meaning i intend this email to

be read with kindness so please don’t

mean like i’m angry or anything kindly

kindly um sometimes i see people use

yours or sincerely yours those are too

intimate they are personal so using

yours implies that you have a personal

relationship with the person reading the

or it could be an intimate relationship

so yours is something i typically avoid

in professional emails

don’t use love in professional emails

either like my love or anything like

that don’t use that in your emails

either

but stick with one of these and you

should be just fine in most cases so

please just be careful don’t use yours

don’t use love as well

all right but that’s just a quick

introduction to email writing especially

professional and business related emails

i hope that that was helpful for you if

you have any questions or if you want to

try one of these patterns or if you have

a different pattern you like to use in

your emails let us know in the comment

section below the video if you like the

video please make sure to give it a

thumbs up subscribe to the channel and

check us out at

englishclass101.com for some other good

resources thanks very much for watching

this lesson and i will see you again

soon bye

hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson i’m going to introduce some

spelling tips these are a few tips that

i hope can help you to improve your

spelling i prepared these tips with

english in mind but i think some of

these tips could work for other

languages that you’re studying too so

let’s get started okay the first tip and

the most important tip for improving

your spelling is to read reading is

really really important because you can

actually see the words on the page so

especially in english there are many

words that are pronounced differently

from the way they are spelled

reading can help you familiarize

yourself can help you better understand

the correct way to spell a word not just

listening to the word but actually

looking at the word so reading is very

important

when you read however there’s one thing

that’s good to keep in mind there’s one

thing that’s good to think about

so choose books or newspapers or

magazines for reading but what you

should do is make sure you read and

listen to things as well i’ll talk about

this

read things that have been edited

edited means someone checked the text to

make sure there are no errors there are

no mistakes so make sure that you are

reading things that have been checked

a lot of native speakers especially on

like social media such as facebook or

twitter or instagram they’ll post

messages sure but they’re not checked

like the english is not properly checked

or they’re using very informal english

so when you read and when you’re

practicing your spelling paying

attention to the words when reading make

sure you’re choosing things that have

been edited so that you can be sure

you’re reading proper english sometimes

when we’re speaking casually or writing

casually we don’t think very much about

our grammar or our spelling so please

make sure to use materials that have

been edited for your spelling studies

i mentioned also listening if you like

another thing you can do as you read is

choose a book that has an audio version

so that means as you read the book you

can listen to the pronunciation at the

same time of course if you’re busy too

you can just listen to the audio and

learn the story but if you want to

practice your pronunciation and

listening skills in addition to your

spelling and reading skills you can

consider trying an audio book so you

read along and listen at the same time

so this could be another interesting way

to practice a few skills

at the same time but this is the most

important tip for this lesson is to read

read read lots and this is something you

can do every day as well if you find an

online magazine or a newspaper or

something similar that you enjoy you

could read it on your way to work for

example or maybe during lunch for

example just a few minutes here and

there each day to practice your reading

skills and to boost your spelling skills

okay let’s move along to the next tip

the next tip here is to play word games

or to do word puzzles we have a lot of

these in english i’ve given a couple

examples here so word games and word

puzzles are similar i’ll introduce first

what’s called a crossword puzzle so this

is what a crossword puzzle looks like

a blank crossword puzzle this is a brand

new one a simple one i made is made from

boxes

the boxes go from left to right and from

top to bottom when you play a crossword

puzzle or when you try to complete a

crossword puzzle your job is to read

clues that are next to the puzzle each

clue matches with a row or a column of

boxes so your job is to find the word

that matches this clue

and you have to spell the word correctly

to put the letters into the boxes so i

prepared a very simple one here so i’ve

numbered these as one

two and three going down so here i have

hints one two and three again this is

very simple usually crossword puzzles

are very big and they have lots of clues

but just to show you how a crossword

puzzle works

the first clue here number one this says

a yellow fruit a yellow fruit so a

yellow fruit is a lemon so we place each

letter

in the box l-e-m-o-n

we know the spelling is correct or we

can have a pretty good guess at least

that the spelling is correct because it

fits in the box

then we look at the next clue number two

down here number two oh sorry i made a

mistake number two should actually be

here

number two is eye accessories eye

accessories so an accessory is a small

piece of clothing or like jewelry for

example in this case it’s for your eyes

so eye accessories that’s glasses so we

write

glasses

with one letter in each box glasses and

it fits here it also fits with the l

from lemon from our first clue

so glasses is here finally the last clue

down here the clue is something that

costs no money something that costs no

money so a word we can use to describe

this is free f-r-e-e

so this is a very simple example of a

crossword puzzle but your job is to fit

the different vocabulary words together

like i said this is simple

but there are lots more challenging ones

out there if you’re interested in

crossword puzzles you can do a quick

google search and you can find beginner

crossword puzzles more difficult ones

and there are some extremely challenging

ones that you need to know a lot about

like history or science or pop culture

to find the answers but this is a really

fun way to improve your spelling because

you have to make sure to have the

spelling right in order to finish the

puzzle you can do this alone or with

friends it’s fun another thing

you can play word games word games so

this is kind of a more general thing

i’ve listed a couple examples of word

games there’s one very popular and very

well known word game called scrabble it

looks similar to a crossword puzzle but

the difference is there are no clues

there are no hints you play with a group

of people and each person has to make

words from the letters so imagine you

have a lot of little single letters and

your job is to create words from those

letters you put the words on the board

and your friends make new words from the

words that you choose so this is a fun

way to practice spelling and to kind of

think about other things that you can do

with the letters that you have so this

is kind of a fun way to practice

spelling i think

if however it’s difficult for you to get

this game or to play this game you could

try

this game words with friends this is a

free application so if you have a

smartphone you can find this online it’s

called words with friends it’s basically

scrabble but it’s online and it’s free

so you can find a partner somewhere in

the world you don’t have to talk to that

person but you can play this game

building words from the words your

partner makes and so on and you try to

compete you try to get the top score in

the game to win so if you want to

practice word games you can try these

there are other word games as well if

you do a quick google search you can

find some other examples of word games

but these are quite popular

okay

finally there is spelling contests i

included spelling contests here because

this is something that we do in the usa

at least we have a spelling contest for

kids that’s called the spelling bee so

you might have something similar in your

country or you might be interested in

participating in the spelling bee if you

are a young person in the usa so with

spelling contests each contestant has to

spell a word correctly however the

person has to rely on his or her

knowledge of words so that means maybe

the root of the word the word’s history

like where did the word originally come

from how the word is used in a sentence

the part of speech and so on so this

could be an interesting way to practice

your spelling and to practice the

history of words so spelling contests

can be fun of course if you don’t have

an official spelling contest you can

just create a spelling contest with your

group of friends okay let’s move along

to the next tip

the next tip i have here is to memorize

some basic rules some basic spelling

rules so i’ve included a few examples of

just basic rules here for example words

that end in a shun sound we often use

this

t-i-o-n spelling to spell that sound

shun

another example is words that end in gh

like enough or rough so this is an

example

where the spelling is different from the

way it sounds you might think we should

use an f to spell this word but enough

actually ends with a gh

there are words that end in able or the

similar ible like possible for example

or capable so remembering these kinds of

word endings

can help you because they’re very very

commonly used and if you understand how

to spell the word

roughly like this you at least have this

sort of rule in your mind it can help

you when you’re reading and when you’re

trying to spell the word

however there are some cases where you

need to remember that the rules are not

perfect so i marked it rules here

because it’s not like 100 percent a rule

so a great example is this really common

expression i learned this in school but

this is actually not 100 true it’s

helpful sometimes this rule is i before

except after c this is a very common

spelling rule which means we should

always put i first i before e

however when you’re spelling a word and

c is in the word we should not follow

this rule that’s what this means so it’s

kind of helpful in some cases but there

are some situations where this rule is

not effective it doesn’t work so

examples where it is okay

here receipt so here we have a c

and the e comes first the i comes second

which is the opposite here that’s

correct

in this word fried it’s correct there’s

no c so the i is before e i e d we see

the same thing in this word here cried

as well so in these examples it’s

correct however here are a few examples

where this rule is not correct like

weird the e comes first the i comes

second in this word weird means strange

another example the word height

referring to how tall something is the e

is first the i is second

here the word science there’s a c here

but the i still comes before the e

so remember if you hear a rule like this

or some kind of you know expression to

help you with your spelling try to

remember that it’s not always a perfect

rule they’re very helpful sometimes but

you need to consider that there are some

exceptions some things that don’t quite

fit the rule okay let’s go on to the

next spelling tip the next spelling tip

is to watch english media with subtitles

to watch english media with subtitles

means like movies tv youtube videos as

well so read and listen to the

pronunciation at the same time so the

words appear at the bottom of the screen

in english that means not necessarily

watching in your native language but

you’re listening to the person speaking

in english and you’re reading the

subtitles in english so you can find a

new word perhaps that way or you can

better understand the spelling that way

too

so this can be a fun tip if you know a

movie very well for example you’ve seen

it many times you might try to watch it

with english subtitles to pick up some

new things that you never noticed in the

movie before so this is another fun

thing you can do and you can enjoy media

while you study

okay so those are a few spelling tips

remember the most important thing to do

here is read read i really recommend

reading it’s fun too

but those are just a few things that you

can do to hopefully improve your

spelling if there’s something else that

you like to do that you think has helped

you to be a better speller please let us

know in the comments section of this

video if you have questions or comments

or just want to share something as well

please feel free to write it in the

comment section too if you like the

video please don’t forget to give it a

thumbs up subscribe to our channel if

you haven’t already and check us out at

englishglass101.com for some other

things that can help you with your

english studies thanks very much for

watching this lesson and we will see you

again soon bye-bye

and internet and texting phrases these

are acronyms so words that

are made from the beginning

of other words you’ll see let’s get

started okay

lol

the first word or the first acronym is

l-o-l you can read it as law if you want

l-o-l stands for laugh out loud or

laughing out loud we use this in text

and on the internet when something is

funny you receive a funny picture lol

you see something funny in a video lol

you

read something funny

so lol

is used to express laughter in a

sentence what a funny picture l-o-l

g-o-a-t

next is

g-o-a-t it spells goat but it actually

means greatest of all time greatest of

all time goat this is this acronym goat

you can use this after something that

you think is really great like the best

of something the most amazing of

something you have an amazing

i don’t know amazing lunch and you take

a picture post it on instagram uh

g-o-a-t like this salad something like

that or like a in this sentence i made

that beyonce performance g-o-a-t like

greatest of all time so you think

something is the best you can use

g-o-a-t for that okay

fyi

next one is fyi fyi is used in

text and internet

communications but we also use it in

speech we can also use fyi in speech

it’s okay in business as well fyi means

for your information for your

information blah blah blah just giving

you some information so

anytime you want to provide extra

information you can use fyi so fyi the

barbecue is still on tomorrow though

it’s going to rain or fyi

i’m leaving in 30 minutes so if you need

to talk to me do it now or in this

sentence fyi i have to leave early today

brb

the next one is b-r-b b-r-b b-r-b means

be right back be right back i’m going to

go away for a moment and come back very

quickly so be right back means very soon

i’m coming back be right back brb

sometimes especially young people use

brb in speech as well like they’re

leaving the room for a moment up near me

and then they come back too so some of

these words are used actually in speech

particularly among young people in a

sentence i’m gonna grab a snack brb

omg

the next one is extremely popular the

next one is omg omg means oh my god oh

my god oh my god so

very very useful expression you can use

omg for surprise for anger for sadness

for any extreme emotion causes surprise

causes some

whenever whenever you want to use oh my

god to express an extreme emotion you

can use this so you see something funny

omg l-o-l you can combine these like the

first word l-o-l omg-lol that video

you can use

for laughter by the way i use that

h-e-h-e-h-e

or h-a-h-a-h-a so you can use that or

you can use l-o-l but omg oh my god

that’s what we use to express that

feeling that

shock feeling omg so in a sentence we

could say omg i can’t believe it oh my

god i can’t believe it

okay

what

the next one is w-u-t actually sorry

this one is not an acronym this is not

an acronym it’s a misspelling actually

so the pronunciation of this is what

what so a very strong u sound this comes

from the word what w-h-a-t

what what

but we use a misspelling uh in the on

the internet and with text and stuff to

imply like kind of uh a dumb feeling

when you when you want to say what like

you’re confused about something but the

situation is very very dumb or it’s just

um it’s hard to understand or confusing

or it doesn’t make sense you can use

what like a very it has like a very uh

like kind of dumb sound the same u sound

in dumb is in word so it’s like what

uh instead of what

which has a stronger a sound so we use

what in

in situations where yeah something

doesn’t make sense so like my roommate

didn’t come home last night what so it’s

something that’s a little bit um

confusing that might be a little more of

an extreme example actually in this

sentence your roommate wants a dog but

doesn’t want to pay for it what

so again this is something that’s used

more in text it’s hard to make the sound

accurately

speech i suppose it’s it’s hard to

detect but when you spell what

incorrectly w-u-t

it gives the impression that um the

situation doesn’t make sense it’s it’s

kind of stupid or strange and it shows

you are confused it shows something

doesn’t make sense to you so this is

more common well actually this is

primarily used this is mostly used in

text only we don’t use it so much in

speech okay

btw

uh the next one is btw btw means by the

way by the way um young people will use

bt dubs or uh yeah bt dubs instead of

btw in conversation

by the way is just giving extra

information about something so like any

time you would use by the way in

conversation you can use btw

on the internet i don’t recommend this

for business emails or business writing

but in like on twitter facebook

instagram so on you can use btw to mean

by the way very convenient in a sentence

btw can you give me back the money you

owe me

a f a i k

the next one is a f a i k a f a i k

means as far as i know as far as i know

this expression means with the

information i have here is my

understanding of the situation so as far

as i know means

my understanding is blah blah blah so

uh as far as i know our barbecue is

going to happen at three tomorrow or as

far as i know the meeting is still on

for today or as far as i know i’m dog

sitting for my neighbor this weekend so

according to my information this is the

situation as far as i know a-f-a-i-k

okay one more um

a-f-a-i-k we’re still meeting on sunday

iirc

the next expression or the next acronym

is i i r c i i r c means if i recall

correctly recall means remember if i

recall correctly so meaning if my memory

is correct this is the situation if i

recall correctly uh

spider-man’s real name is peter parker

or if i recall correctly um donuts have

no calories lol so if i recall correctly

um tokyo is the capital city of japan uh

so this is like if i remember correctly

or if my memory is correct

this is what i think or this is the

information i i rc um so you might see

this like on message boards and

discussion boards in particular here one

more sentence

iirc we’re supposed to meet in front of

the station

the next one is dm dm means direct

message direct message so this is very

common on like twitter and facebook and

instagram very common on social media

and other social media portals dm direct

message so for for example on twitter we

can send public messages among users but

to send a direct message means other

people cannot see that message so a dm

is a direct message to someone so in a

sentence you could say uh dm me your

email address 10 ways to improve your

writing so let’s go

don’t use text speak

okay so the first tip to improve your

writing is don’t use text speak text

speak by that i mean for example like

brb or lol or

those kinds of words the words that you

use on the internet like sns or in text

messages with your friends those very

short like slang words ttyl or lmao or

those sorts of acronyms do not use those

in your formal writing if you are

writing a letter a

a business email whatever do not use

those the only one that you can use in a

business email so not in a letter of

recommendation not in a formal letter

but the only thing you can use that’s

sort of text

speakish

is the acronym fyi which means for your

information you can use fyi in a mail to

your colleagues and an email to your

colleagues or your co-workers

but usually it’s with somebody you have

a good relationship with you can say fyi

in those cases other texts speak other

acronyms like that don’t use them you

you will sound

immature you will sound

too casual

not a good idea use proper punctuation

the next hint is to use proper

punctuation proper punctuation

punctuation for example we have commas

we have periods semicolons colons

apostrophes quotation marks parentheses

all of these are punctuation marks the

little points in our writing that tell

readers where to stop reading or how

sentences are connected using proper

punctuation in your writing will help

your reader understand you and if your

reader understands you well and you’ve

used proper punctuation you will also

look a bit smarter too if you’re not

using proper punctuation like for

example if you forget to use an

apostrophe in a word it’s gonna look

kind of bad honestly for example if you

use the word uh your y-o-u apostrophe

r-e if you leave out the apostrophe if

you just write y-o-u-r-e

it looks lazy it looks lazy so make sure

to use proper punctuation to avoid

appearing lazy so don’t forget your

little periods commas semicolons all

that

don’t repeat the same vocabulary words

the next tip is don’t repeat the same

vocabulary words don’t repeat the same

vocabulary words she says repeating the

same sentence but don’t repeat the same

vocabulary words means if you are using

like an adjective a specific adjective

in a sentence uh don’t use that same

adjective in every other sentence like

try to use different adjectives to

describe your points if you’re always

using exactly the same words to describe

your point like if for example i want to

write about

cake if i want to write an article about

cake and i just say this cake is

delicious this cake is so delicious i

loved this cake because it was delicious

this was so delicious

it’s boring for the reader to read the

same word every single sentence or and

also you’re not really communicating

very much if i just use the word

delicious to describe a cake the reader

doesn’t understand why the cake is

delicious so give more detail when

you’re sharing your opinions of course

this time it’s a very simple opinion

about delicious cake but use a variety

of different adjectives

support your arguments with statements

that use different vocabulary words so

don’t always say

the same word to describe something try

to use a lot of different vocabulary

words and think a lot about different

adjectives you can use if this is

difficult for you there is a tool you

can use

the english word for it is thesaurus

thesaurus so many of you know what a

dictionary is a book or a resource to

check the meaning of a word but you can

also use what’s called a thesaurus with

a thesaurus you can search for synonyms

words which have the same or similar

meaning as other words so if i look for

the word like delicious i might get

let’s see some synonyms for the word

delicious might be yummy tasty good um

delectable for example so there are a

whole range of other words that you can

use if you find that you are using the

same word in every sentence try to find

a different word you can use a thesaurus

to help you do that so avoid using the

same word in every sentence or avoid

using this repeated vocabulary words

avoid use of very and really

okay the next tip is to avoid the use of

very and really by this i mean

instead of saying to go back to my cake

example the cake was very delicious the

cake was really delicious very and

really are sort of lazy words of course

they’re very very useful

they’re very very useful when we’re

speaking casually and when we’re

thinking quickly but if you’re writing

and you have some time to think about

what you’re writing instead of using a

word that’s

common like delicious and just attaching

very like this cake is very delicious

what’s a different word that means very

delicious so can i replace very and

delicious with one different word like

scrumptious for example this cake is

scrumptious scrumptious means very

delicious it’s only one word so if you

can do this if you apply

a word that means the same thing as very

or really plus another word it’s going

to level up your vocabulary and you’re

going to reduce the number of words in

the sentence so if i say this cake is

very delicious or if i say this cake is

scrumptious scrumptious has a much

stronger meaning than just very

delicious so avoiding the use of very

and really can level up your speech

quite significantly so give it a try

use transition words and phrases

the next tip is to use transition words

and phrases use transition words and

phrases so transition words are words

and well and phrases we use to move from

one idea to the next idea so continuing

in my cake example if i want to

introduce my scrumptious cake and then i

want to move on to a description of the

store that sells that cake i might use a

transition phrase or some kind of

sequence phrase to help me do that so if

in paragraph a i’m talking about my

scrumptious cake and how much i enjoyed

it and the chocolate flavors and the

amazing frosting i could use a

transition phrase for example by the way

if you’re interested you can purchase

this cake at abc store for example so in

that case my transition phrase was by

the way a very casual transition phrase

depending on the kind of thing you’re

writing you can use different transition

phrases if you’re writing an academic

paper for example

when you want to add information you can

say additionally moreover furthermore

you can also use plus if you’d like to

add information in addition is another

one that you can use so when you want to

add information there are some

transition phrases or some ways to give

more information

to describe a sequence you can say next

then following that you can use your

words like first second third fourth

depending on the sequence you can say

subsequently or

consequently as well so think about the

relationship between the points you’re

introducing think about all these

different relationships how do you want

to connect these ideas so instead of

just listing your points each point try

to think about how to connect those

points naturally

so depending on what you’re writing the

words you use will change which is fine

but just think about the way you’d like

your reader to understand your

information and choose transition words

and phrases accordingly

organize your writing intro body

conclusion

okay the next one is a tip about

organization so the next tip is organize

your paper or organize your writing into

an introduction a body and a conclusion

so these are the three basic elements of

an academic paper or of an essay perhaps

an article as well introduction is as it

sounds it’s introducing the main points

what are you going to talk about what is

your opinion what is your argument we

introduce that in the introduction then

the next part is the body of the paper

in other words the main points the

your real arguments everything you would

like to say about the things you

introduced in your introduction this is

where you get into the details of that

so the body of the paper is typically

the longest part of the paper or the

longest part of the essay so there’s a

lot of information in the body section

finally the conclusion the conclusion of

the paper concludes or finishes the

paper in the conclusion you will

summarize your points from the body of

the paper and you should connect those

points to the items you introduced in

the introduction of your paper so all of

these elements these three elements

should connect together so if you are

finding that it’s difficult to organize

your thoughts or you don’t know how to

approach your paper or this item maybe

even an email you’re writing you can try

to separate it into three sort of

categories introduction body conclusion

so introduce idea explain idea summarize

idea this can be very helpful in writing

avoid use of second person

okay the next hint is avoid use of

second person second person this is

going to take a little explanation so in

english writing we have three sort of

ways that we can write we can write in

first person which means for example i

went to the store i wanted to buy

something i met a friend so first person

i am the person sharing the story

sharing the information

in second person which is kind of rare

actually except in very casual styles of

writing uh the subject of the sentence

is you like you go to the store you buy

some milk you call your friend this is

kind of rare we see this in children’s

books and like i say in sort of informal

articles online

third person style writing is using he

she and character names like he went to

the store she called her mother they

needed to see a doctor so there are

these three types of writing in english

language so first person second person

third person generally when you are

writing especially an academic paper

you’ll use first person or third person

to do that if you’re writing something

formal you should probably not use

second person sometimes you’ll see uh

like a person describing an experiment

for example like you should submerge the

item in water or you should bake this at

350 degrees using you is fine in casual

situations when you’re giving

instructions for example if you find it

in a recipe fine it’s kind of sounds a

bit more casual it’s very informal not

so important however if you find that

you are using

you you you in an academic paper it

sounds a bit uh too casual too informal

so please avoid use of second person so

reminder second person is the subject of

the sentence is you you so it sounds

like you’re kind of commanding the other

person commanding the reader or giving

advice to the reader or telling the

reader what to do it sounds very odd so

avoid use of second person in your

writing

consider the tense you’re using

the next tip is to consider the tense

you’re using consider the tense you’re

using so i’m just going to talk about

two tenses here really uh present tense

and past tense um so we can use the

present tense uh and the present

continuous tense really to explain a

story or to tell a story like it’s

actually happening so if i say like i go

to the store i see a friend of mine

she’s buying milk for example if i use

the present tense and i use the present

continuous tense it sounds like the

listener or if it’s in writing uh it

sounds like that’s actually happening

it’s easier for the listener or the

reader to kind of experience the story

in that moment so if you want to create

some tension in your writing if you want

to create some excitement you can use

the present tense and its associated

tenses to kind of heighten the energy

level if you use past tense however you

might create more of a report nuance so

for example when you watch the evening

news or you read the newspaper

you might find that it’s written in past

tense it’s just reporting information

what happened so simple past tense is

used past tense and the other associated

tenses in past tense are used so when

you’re writing consider what do you want

the reader to feel or what do you want

the reader to experience are you writing

a report maybe you should just use past

tense are you writing about general

facts

then if you’re writing about a general

fact you should probably use present

tense but if you want to create like a

fiction story for example and you want

your reader to experience the story and

kind of feel enthusiastic or energetic

about your story uh present tense and

maybe continuous tense um with present

would be a better choice so just think

about which tense you’re using for your

writing

consider appropriate vocabulary

the next tip is to consider appropriate

vocabulary consider appropriate

vocabulary so depending on the type of

thing you’re writing there are words

that are good to use and there are words

that are not so good to use if you’re

writing an academic paper for example

don’t use casual words don’t use curse

words in your paper don’t use anything

that could be interpreted or could be

understood as informal if you’re writing

something very casual on the other hand

it’s fine to use casual words it’s fine

to be informal to be a little bit funny

and it might sound strange if you do use

informal words or extremely polite words

so consider the appropriate kinds of

vocabulary words to be using depending

on what you’re writing

learn to use references

okay the last tip is maybe the most

difficult tip the last tip is learn to

use references learn to use references

this is especially important if you are

writing academic papers or if you are

writing something

you’re going to publish in like a

journal or maybe even a magazine using

references means you are using

references reading references and

writing about them and including what’s

called a citation in your writing so

you’re taking a piece of something that

someone else has written putting it in

quotation marks perhaps depending on the

way you choose to cite it and then

adding a reference list at the end of

your document to show

which documents you referenced which

documents were important to you in

making your argument so if you can use

references in your writing to support

your argument it can be a very very good

tool so if you

have just kind of an opinion piece you

want to write an article even for the

internet for example it can be very very

helpful to support your argument with

links to other

references with links to other

information about your opinion so yes

i’m it’s most important it’s most

focused on in academics in academia

really

but if you’re writing even for the

internet learning how to reference

properly learning how to include others

works properly in your work can be

extremely valuable so try that out it’s

it’s a big topic it’s a difficult topic

but learning how to use references can

really help you improve your writing

hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them maybe first

question this week comes from hardik

patel hi heartick heartick says how can

i improve my spelling um yeah this is an

important question and we did a live

stream about this topic so i’ll quickly

introduce the key points we talked about

in the live stream and hopefully they

can help you as kind of a starting point

so the first and most important thing to

do to improve your spelling is read

and make sure that you read things that

are properly edited properly prepared so

this means i don’t recommend for example

social media posts because not everybody

is preparing everything thoroughly

before they write it it’s not being

checked it’s not being proof read before

it’s being posted so i would recommend

books and magazines and newspapers that

kind of thing that has been properly

edited and properly checked this is

important because you’re not just

listening to the words you’re actually

reading the words you’re reading the

words on the page so you’re getting

familiar with how the word should be

spelled instead of just how it sounds

some other things that you can do are

word puzzles word puzzles are a lot of

fun in the live stream i talked about

something called crossword puzzles

crossword puzzles are word puzzles you

need to know some vocabulary words you

also need to know some like history

perhaps or science or maybe pop culture

and then you need to put your knowledge

together with your spelling knowledge to

create like the finished version of a

puzzle so a crossword is really fun and

you can find beginner level crossword

puzzles to try so as you practice as you

learn more english and as you learn more

about other topics too you can level up

the difficulty of your crossword puzzle

so that can be a fun way to do it

another thing that you can do is join a

spelling contest depending on where you

live you may have a spelling contest in

your city or in your country in the u.s

we have something called the spelling

bee it’s for kids yes

so if you’re watching this and you are a

kid if you are a young person who’s

studying you can look for a spelling bee

if you are in the usa or maybe there’s a

similar spelling contest in your country

so those are great ways to practice your

spelling because it’s a contest you’re

competing with other people to spell the

word correctly so that can be a fun way

to do things if you are a student if you

are a young person

another thing you can do regardless of

your age is watch english media with

subtitles so again like i mentioned for

the reading point make sure that the

subtitles have been properly prepared if

it’s someone who has like created

subtitles that are maybe not perfect or

they were prepared by a non-native

speaker there might be some errors in

there

so if you can try to find media like

movies or even our videos for example

sometimes they have subtitles you can

try watching that with the subtitles on

so that you can understand the spelling

of the words as they’re being said so

that’s another fun way to study i think

really though i think reading is the

best thing that you can do this was

something i love to do when i was a kid

i participated in a spelling bee when i

was a kid and i think that reading

really helped me understand the correct

way to spell words and to like learn how

to identify new words in the future so

read i think that’s the best thing you

can do thank you for your question and

good luck with your spelling let’s go to

our next question next question cabs

fram nor aslina hi noor noor says hi

alicia my question is what is the

difference between i’m looking

and i’ve been looking we use i’m looking

for when we are in the act of searching

for something right now in this moment

we’re looking for something so for

example at like a department store you

could say i’m looking for shoes i’m

looking for the restroom that’s

something that you’re doing right now

you’re in the act of doing something

right now on the other hand i have been

looking for is used for something that

yes we’re searching for it but the

search has continued for a long time so

for example i’ve been searching for a

new apartment for four months or

i’ve been searching for a new job in

general if you are in the act of

searching for something right now you

can use i’m looking for if it’s

something that you’ve been searching for

for a period of time a long period of

time you can use i’ve been looking for i

hope that helps you thanks for the

question all right let’s move on to our

next question next question comes from

lyan hi again lion lion says hi alicia i

hope you’re doing great thank you uh i

have two questions what are the rules of

semicolons and when should i avoid them

there’s one and two

in some languages a multiple choice test

is called an american test so is it true

that american tests are really mostly

multiple choice interesting let’s go to

your first question about semicolons the

quick version is semicolons have two

uses the first use is they are used to

separate what’s called compound

sentences a compound sentence is a

sentence that’s made from two

independent clauses so there are two

clauses two parts to the sentence an

independent clause is a sentence that

can stand alone like we don’t need any

other words to explain this sentence

that’s an independent clause so when we

connect these two in a compound sentence

we can use a semicolon to connect the

two like right here so let’s look at

some examples an independent clause is a

clause that is grammatically correct by

itself

no other words are required the

semicolon is used to separate the two

clauses like a period we do this when

the ideas are closely related the second

use is when you’re separating items in a

list this can be tricky to do but the

reason we do this is because when you’re

making lists that have like lots of

complicated information they include

commas for example it may be difficult

to understand where the items in a list

end or start so we use semicolons to

help readers understand the points in a

list here’s an example this is a long

list so i’m going to read it the

citizens requested a new park complete

with a swimming pool improved roads

sidewalks and traffic lights and cleaner

schools

we have a few plans for our vacation

hiking biking and swimming near our

campsite having a bbq and enjoying

fireworks so you can see in these lists

actually all of the items have a

semicolon in between them that shows us

that’s one item so we do that because

there are commas in other parts of the

list if we use commas to separate the

items in the list we might confuse the

reader so to show that each item is

clearly one item we use semicolons to do

that this is not as common like there

are not so many situations where you

need to use a semicolon in this way but

just in case this is the second use in

most cases we just use the first one you

don’t need to avoid using the semicolon

it’s a very convenient way to punctuate

your sentences so you don’t have to

avoid it you can use it

just remember that you need to use it to

separate independent clauses like we

talked about in the first use

as for your second point that’s very

interesting i didn’t know that tests

were called american tests that’s

interesting

we do have a lot of multiple choice

style tests for sure especially in like

high school and university levels for

like official tests like um and the sats

for example however we do have other

styles of tests too so we have fill in

the blank which i use a lot on this

channel in the whiteboard videos

we also have like essay essay tests or

essay examinations where students write

essays

we also have like free answers so a

student has to come up with an answer

like just from their own mind or using

their own skills we see that a lot in

math classes for example so yes there

are a lot of multiple choice tests but

doesn’t mean that all tests are multiple

choice just it is very common so hope

that helps okay thanks for the questions

let’s move along to our next question

next question comes from dewey sitta hi

again dewey sorry if i pronounced your

name wrong uh dewey says what is the

difference between below under

underneath beneath bottom and down nice

okay um there may be some differences

depending on the situation but generally

speaking let’s look at the first

four examples you’ve presented we can

use all of these adverbs in the same way

let’s take a look at some examples i

keep my hair dryer below the sink

i keep my hair dryer under the sink i

keep my hair dryer underneath the sink i

keep my hair dryer beneath the sink all

of these mean exactly the same thing the

differences here is that probably i

would say under is the most commonly

used in american english beneath sounds

perhaps the most formal and maybe the

most old-fashioned

so you can use them all in the same way

they refer to being positioned under or

like below something else so there’s not

really much of a difference there i

think we just use under the most

uh the word bottom however that’s a noun

that refers to the lowest part or like

the underside of something let’s look at

some examples there there’s dirt on the

bottom of my bag he cut the bottom of

the pumpkin so these refer to the

underside or the lowest point of

something so it’s an actual noun not an

adverb then the last word in this list

is down so down is also an adverb but

down refers to motion so we use down

when we’re actually talking about

movement of some kind so for example put

your hand down or walk down the stairs

he sat down in the chair so we’re using

some kind of motion there’s where

there’s something happening from like an

upper level to a lower level there’s

movement happening there so we use down

to express movement the first four words

that we talked about are used to talk

about position not about movement down

is used to talk about movement bottom is

used to talk about a place on something

so i hope that helps you thanks for the

question okay so that’s everything that

i have for this week thank you as always

for sending your great questions

remember you can send them to me at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia if you like the video

please don’t forget to give it a thumbs

up subscribe to our channel and check us

out at englishclass101.com

for some other resources for your

english studies thanks very much for

watching this week’s episode and i will

see you again next week bye hi everybody

welcome back to ask alicia 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 zohair which was hi

alicia how are you how can i improve my

writing skills and a question from zirak

xerox 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 and 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

maybe 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 wong

ang hai fuang fuang says how do i write

a good paragraph in english okay

there’s kind of a three-step process to

writing a good paragraph in 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 mohammed 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 at 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

they’re 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