8 Tips to Improve Your Writing in English
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to improve your writing skills?
Let’s talk about it.
Are you ready to write like a pro?
Today, let’s talk about my top eight tips
to help you improve your writing skills.
If you ever need to write business emails,
write academic essays, write essays for English
exams like the IELTS exam you need to practice
perfecting your writing skills.
Throughout these eight tips you’re going to
see that in general writing emails is more
relaxed and more informal than writing essays.
When I write to my tax accountant, when I
write him an email, I say, “Hi George.”
And I keep it clear and simple.
He doesn’t have much time, I don’t have much
time, so this is the best way to write emails.
But for essays it’s a little bit different.
If you’re taking the IELTS exam or another
English exam, you can’t write just a few sentences.
You can just use bullet points.
You need to write four paragraphs, maybe more.
But the same general principle applies.
Every word is valuable and powerful.
So you can use these eight tips to make sure
that your language, your writing, impresses
other people, is clear, and is easy to understand.
Let’s talk about them.
My first four tips fall under the category
of don’t use repetitive or undescriptive phrases.
Every word needs to be powerful, so if you
are repetitive or if you are not describing
something with each word, you don’t need it.
You need each word to pack a punch.
Pack a punch is a great idiom that means powerful,
you need each word to be powerful.
Let’s start with the first tip.
First tip is to avoid using the word I. In
emails it’s gonna be necessary, you’re gonna
have to say, “I’m writing you to follow up
about something.”
Emails, no problem, but in essays, no way.
Especially essays that are not about your
personal opinion.
Let’s take a look at a quick example.
Let’s imagine that you’re writing an essay
based on the topic what are the advantages
and disadvantages of social media?
You might think that you’re talking about
your opinion and you should start with, “I
think that social media …” But in reality,
cut out I think.
Start with social media, and then you can
go on to create a beautiful sentence, “Social
media often creates the illusion of relationships
while leaving users feeling empty inside.”
Great, this is descriptive, it packs a punch,
and does not use the word I.
Number two is contractions.
When you’re writing an email it’s perfectly
fine to say, “The director isn’t available
at 4PM.”
But when you’re writing an essay, an academic
essay, an IELTS essay, an exam essay, no way.
Try to write out the full words.
For example, the graph does not show which
product sold first.
Great, you didn’t say, “The graph doesn’t
show.”
Instead you said, “The graph does not show.”
Excellent.
Simple tip, avoid contractions in essays.
Number three tip is kind of big.
It is avoid boring beginnings.
For example, there is, there are, first, second,
third.
These words don’t pack a punch, like I said.
They’re not powerful.
So instead of writing, “There are many reasons
why coffee is popular.”
You could say, “Coffee is well loved for three
reasons.”
Excellent.
Each word is powerful.
So what should you use instead of first, second,
third?
How about some more interesting, expressive,
and advanced expressions like first of all,
first off, to start with.
Great, you’re showing that your vocabulary
is beyond just those basic words.
And a little bonus tip.
If you’re writing an essay and you have limited
time to write the essay, I recommend when
you’re practicing, memorize five great linking
expressions and use these every time that
you write an essay or as many times as possible,
so that you can include them and know that
you’re using great vocabulary.
Here are my top five favorite linking expressions.
As for, another point to consider is, having
said that, therefore, to conclude.
My fourth tip for avoiding repetitive and
undescriptive words is to avoid the passive
voice in essay writing.
The passive voice has a great place, there
are times when you should use it.
You can watch my video up here to make sure
that when you use it it’s the right time.
But when you’re writing an essay, this is
not the time.
Let’s take a look at a sample sentence.
The reason why the TV show stopped was because
it was boring.
No, this is not powerful.
This does not pack a punch.
You’re using the passive voice.
The reason why the TV show was stopped, it
sounds academic but it is not powerful.
How can we change the sentence to be active
voice?
Viewers stopped watching the TV show due to
the predictable story.
Much better.
Much better.
Here we have the subject doing the action.
Viewers stopped.
This is powerful.
This packs a punch.
Viewers stopped watching due to a predictable
storyline.
That’s another great expression, due to.
My fifth, sixth and seventh tip are things
that you should do.
The fifth tip is to stay on topic.
You’d be surprised how many times my students
have started to write about something and
then they’ve switched to something else in
the middle of the paragraph, and then gone
back, and my mind is just going to explode
as I read it.
So, make sure that you stay on topic.
And this is true for emails as well.
Are you writing about Friday’s shipment?
Stick to that topic.
If you have multiple topics, just use bullet
points.
I’d like to email you about … Great, use
those bullet points to be clear and precise
and short.
Of course in an essay you’re not gonna use
bullet points, but if you have a topic for
that paragraph, stick to it.
Let’s imagine that you’re talking about some
of the reasons why coffee is well loved, and
your first reason is that people enjoy getting
that boost of energy from coffee.
Great, stick to that topic.
Stick to the boost of energy, that good feeling
that people get.
Don’t talk about addiction, don’t talk about
taste, stick to that topic.
My sixth tip to do is to summarize at the
end.
If it’s an email that’s only a paragraph,
write a one sentence summary.
I look forward to talking to you again at
9AM on the 15th.
Beautiful.
If it’s an essay that’s a couple of paragraphs,
write a three to five sentence summary.
Excellent.
Don’t forget this tip, it’s so valuable.
My seventh tip, do not forget, is to check
your writing.
If you’re writing an email there is a big
difference between we are choosing to cancel
our contract and we are not choosing to contract.
Take a few seconds to read over your email
before you send it.
And for an essay, if you have one minute left,
if you have 30 seconds left before you need
to turn it in, read over it.
Read over it as many times as you can.
Check your writing.
My eighth tip and final tip is a bonus, it
is to write every day.
Just like with speaking, if you wanna improve
your speaking you need to speak little by
little every day.
If you wanna improve your writing, you can’t
improve your writing just by studying for
three hours one day before your exam.
You need to practice little by little every
day.
So how can you do this?
One of the easiest ways is to just simply
keep a journal.
Every day when you get ready to go to bed,
sit down and write a couple sentences about
your day.
Or if you wrote an email to your boss that
day, think about what you said and try to
write it in English.
Try to write with that same formal tone.
Or if you’re taking an exam soon, write that
essay.
Practice that essay as much as possible.
When you practice day by day, your skills
will increase, you’ll be motivated to continue
because you’ll see your progress, and in the
end you really will improve.
And now I have a question for you.
In the comments, let me know, have you ever
needed to write formally in English?
Maybe a business email, maybe an exam, maybe
an academic essay.
Let me know.
Maybe you need to do it in the future at some
point.
Thanks so much for learning with me, and I’ll
see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel.
I’ll see you later, bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps To Becoming A Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much, bye.