Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Writing in English

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everybody welcome back to top words my

name is Alisha and today we’re going to

talk about ten ways to improve your

writing so let’s go

don’t use text to 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 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 sort of text speak ish 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 in 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

also look a bit smarter do 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 your y ou you apostrophe re

if you leave out the apostrophe if you

just write y ou you ar 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

don’t use that same adjective in every

other sentence like try to use different

adjectives to describe your points if

you are 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 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 ok

the next tip is to avoid the use of very

and really by this I mean instead of

saying to go back to my kick 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 uh-huh 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

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 you

to describe a sequence you can say next

then following that you can use your

words like 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 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 ok 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

introducing the main points what are you

going to talk about what is your opinion

what is your argument we introduced that

in the introduction then 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 thing is 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 introduced idea explained idea

summarized 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 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 childrens 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 will

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 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 kind of sounds a bit

more casual very informal not so

important however if you find that you

are using you-you-you in an academic

paper it sounds a bit 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 are using

consider the tense you’re using so I’m

just going to talk about two tenses here

really present tense and past tense so

we can use the present tense 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 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 rapport 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 reported

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 present tense and maybe continuous

tense and 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

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 so

those are ten ways to help you improve

your writing I hope that there were some

useful tips in there for you if you have

any questions or comments please feel

free to let us know in the description

no not the description okay let’s write

there again okay so those are ten ways

that you can hopefully improve your

writing I hope that those were useful

for you if you have any questions or

comments please let us know in the

comment section below this video if you

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for more good stuff too thanks very much

for watching this episode of top boards

and I will see you again soon

Mike writing I love writing sometimes

seriously though writing when you have

to write is just it’s not fun

don’t use text e language use texty

texty speak text e language text speak

that’s hard to say yeah text speak text

speak I guess I could be very text speak

that doesn’t sound the same text speak

wow that’s hard to say in English

alright

writing writing I don’t even know great

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