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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