Transcription
I want to help you develop your overall writing skills, and that is why I put together this 1-hour Mega lesson covering a variety of topics. We're going to talk about tips to write professionally. I'm going to help you write more descriptively by teaching you many different reporting verbs. We're going to improve your academic writing, as well as look at some common writing mistakes. So, this lesson, it has it all.
And if you are someone who would like to improve your writing skills, please subscribe, turn on notifications. That way, I can become your teacher. My name is Wes, the channel is Interactive English. It's all about trying to help you reach your fluency goals. So, let's begin with some useful writing tips, especially when it comes to writing professionally. Here are 13 tips to help you write professionally. And what we're going to do is we're going to start with the big picture, which is an idiom that means like the entire view of a situation or issue. And then we're going to try to narrow it down to your actual writing.
So, the first tip that I have for you, the first thing that I want you to do is understand your purpose. So, it's a very simple question that needs to be answered: What is the purpose of your writing? Now, in general, there are four major types of writing. It could be a narrative, and you're telling a story. Maybe it's descriptive, and you're trying to capture an event. Or perhaps expository, you're giving facts and information. Or even persuasive, and you want to influence someone's opinion. Now, whatever your purpose is, you just need to have one because without it, your writing is going to lack direction. It's like trying to understand, what is your purpose for being here right now? You would like to improve your writing skills.
The next tip that I have for you is that you need to know your audience. Who is going to be reading your writing? Is it your boss, your teacher, your peers, your colleagues, or or just the public in general? Because once you know your audience, then that's going to help you choose your style. And in a nutshell, which is another idiom I'm giving you some idioms in this lesson, it really means in the fewest possible words. In a nutshell, when I'm talking about style, I'm really referring to formal or informal writing. So, if we're talking about formal writing, you should avoid idioms, slang, just those colloquial expressions. You're also going to want to use more complex structures, which I'll get into a little bit later. With informal writing, well, then the rules are relaxed. You can use some of those colloquial expressions. But because we're talking about writing professionally, I really want to focus on helping you develop your formal writing style. This is the style that you need to use if you'd like to appear professional. You want people to take you seriously.
So, that is the big picture. Now, let's talk about your actual writing, when you put pen to the paper, or or even your hands to the keyboard. So, the next tip that I have for you is that you need to organize your ideas. This is so important. I don't want you just to think about this; I want you to write it down. Start with, uh, brainstorming. Use that information to develop an outline. And when I say develop an outline, I want you to develop a comprehensive outline. Don't just write down a few words; write down complete thoughts. Because when you do this, it's going to help your writing have cohesion and unity. When I say cohesion, I'm just talking about your sentences are logically ordered. Unity means that your paragraphs are centered around one idea. So, when you organize your ideas and you write this down, it's going to make sure that your writing has cohesion and unity. It's very important.
The next thing that I want you to do, which can be a little challenging, I'm not going to lie, and that is find your voice. And when I say find your voice, it it's really referring to the words that you use, the way that you write your sentences. Think of voice like your your fingerprint when it comes to writing. That maybe you forgot to write your name, but somebody reads your writing, they know that it's you because of your words, because of your sentences. Now, when I say find your voice, that means that I I don't want you to think about, well, how would somebody else write this and present these ideas, or what are the words that my audience probably wants to hear? You need to discover what is unique about the way you present the topic. Use your words, your sentences, be authentic. People appreciate originality. And I I mentioned that this can be challenging. And if you're having trouble finding your voice, I think the best thing that you can do is just to write as much as you can. And you can start by writing to me down below in the comments. But once again, if you're putting together that comprehensive outline, this is something that should start to be reflected in your outline when you're organizing your ideas.
Something else that should be reflected in your outline is your tone. You need to establish a tone. And there there are many examples of this. Tone could be aggressive, or humorous, nostalgic, cheerful, sad. And what what this really does is it shows your attitude about a topic. No matter what topic you have, you can have different tones, but you need to be consistent. You don't want to switch between an aggressive tone to a cheerful one, humorous back to aggressive. All right, writing is not a roller coaster. Don't think about it like that. Think about it more like you're traveling down the straight road, moving from one idea to the next, going from one paragraph to the next.
Which then takes me to my next tip: is that you need to organize your paragraphs. So, I talked to you about organizing your ideas, and then you can take a closer look at those ideas and make sure that each paragraph is organized with a topic sentence, with supporting sentences, and then wrapped up with a conclusion. And this is a structure that you can follow over and over and over, especially if if your purpose is you're you're writing something that's descriptive, or persuasive, or even expository. And just to emphasize how important this is, when you organize your paragraphs, it is the easiest and most effective way to convey your ideas.
Something else that's going to help you move smoothly down that road of ideas is that you need to take full advantage of transition words and phrases. So, these are words and phrases that will allow you to effortlessly and seamlessly move from one idea to the next. Now, there are many transition words and phrases out there. I I think it's very useful vocabulary for you to learn. But just to give you an example, if I want to add information, I could use "in addition." If I want to contrast different ideas, I could use "however." If I want to start out and say, well, well, this idea is very important, I could begin with "first and foremost" and then share my idea. Now, what this does is it makes it so much easier for the reader to follow along. Not to mention, it's going to help you sound more professional because you're you're going to sound like you know what you're talking about.
My next tip is that you need to vary your sentence structures. So, when I talked about formal writing, I said that you'll use more complex structures, and this is part of what I was talking about. So, you have four different sentence structures: you have simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences. And I've given you some examples here so you can see what what the sentences are like. But when you vary your sentence structures, it it's going to make your writing a lot more engaging. People are going to want to continue reading because I if you're using too much of one structure, if you're only using simple sentences, it's just going to sound really choppy. If you're only using compound sentences, well, then it may sound a bit repetitive. When you vary sentence structures, it's going to create a nice rhythm and flow to your writing. And and this is probably something that that you're not going to be able to do the first time. It's likely something that you can do and develop when you proofread. You may go through and find a couple of simple sentences that you can turn into a compound sentence, or maybe you'll add a dependent clause and create a complex sentence, and then you'll be developing that rhythm and flow, as well as finding your voice.
And this leads me into my next tip, which is to keep it simple, especially at first. Use the vocabulary that you already know. If you're writing a rough draft, don't stop and analyze everything. Use your outline, keep it simple, find your voice, and then when you're done, you can go back and proofread it and really fine-tune some of those words and sentences.
And proofreading is what I want to talk to you about next, because I want you to effectively correct your own mistakes. So, when you're writing, I think many of you are going to use a computer, and you need to use those programs to your advantage. Because if you're using something like Word, it will tell you I if something is misspelled, or perhaps there's a problem with the grammar. Use these programs to your advantage. Now, if you're just going through and proofreading on your own, what I would suggest you do is look for one mistake at a time. Don't try to look for all the problems at once. So, you could start with punctuation. Read through your writing and only look for punctuation mistakes. And then go through it again and only look for spelling mistakes. Go through it again and only look for word choice, and maybe change some of those words. So, what you end up doing is that you proofread your writing multiple times. And the more you do this, the more you go through it, you're likely to find some mistakes. You'll make some changes to make your writing better.
Another tip that I have for you is to get others to look at your writing. It's always good to have a second set of eyes because people may find spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes that you did not see before. It's also good to get feedback in regard to the content. But one thing I would tell you is that remember, just because somebody gives you feedback about the content, that doesn't mean that you have to accept it. You can take it into consideration and then decide whether or not you would like to make the changes, because remember, it's your writing, it's your voice.
And then I think it is very helpful for you to maintain healthy writing habits. And there are two things that I think you should be doing a little bit each and every day. First, I think you should read regularly. This is going to help you distinguish between different writing styles. You'll get a feel for how someone else's writing is organized. You'll also be able to see how people use transition words and phrases, as well as varying their sentences, and how that makes their writing more engaging. I also want you to write regularly. And this is something you can do writing in a journal each and every day, or like I said, you can write to me down below in those comments. It's going to help you develop and find your voice. You'll also be able to explore different purposes in writing, as well as writing to different audiences. In addition, you'll be able to practice correcting your own writing.
Now that you have these useful tips to keep in mind, let's talk about vocabulary because writing is a productive skill, which means vocabulary is important. And I want to help you write more descriptively when you're telling a story because often there's going to be dialogue. And I want to teach you many different reporting verbs that you can use instead of just always using the word "said." So, let's look at different reporting verbs to help you be more descriptive. Let's talk about some creative ways that you can say the word "said." So, why is this important? Well, first, it allows you to be more descriptive. It's also going to keep the reader's attention because these words are are just more engaging, they're more captivating. And you will avoid redundancies because you don't want to keep saying "he said," "she said," "we said," "they said." You need to mix it up.
So, let let's begin and say that you would like to persuade someone to do something or think something. Here are some verbs to help make your writing more descriptive. You could use "pleaded," and this is when you're making an urgent or emotional request. Uh, like, "Don't leave," he pleaded. This is very similar to the next one, which is "begged," except I I feel like "begged" is probably a little stronger than "pleaded." But once again, this is a strong way to make an urgent request. "I want a balloon," the child begged. So, in this case, it's just more descriptive. I'm capturing that feeling. "I want a balloon," the child begged. This is something that, uh, well, yeah, my child told me last week. You can also use "entreated," which means to try hard to persuade someone to do something. Now, this verb, it it's probably not as common as these others. However, it's still very useful because it's specific. And if I want to capture a direct quote, I could say, "If you help me with the presentation, then I'll work your weekend shift for you," he entreated. And then we have the verb "implored." This means to ask someone to do something or not to do something in a very sincere and emotional way. Think about this situation: say that a woman gets pulled over by the police for speeding, and and she's getting ready to get a ticket. So, she says, "Please don't give me a speeding ticket," she implored. So, she's imploring the police officer not to give her a ticket, and doing this in a sincere way. And of course, I had to include the picture of that dog because I think this is a good association with these verbs because dogs may plead for things, or beg for things, or implore their owners to do something.
Let's continue with some more verbs. If you'd like to persuade someone, you could use "beseeched," which means to ask for something in a way that that shows you need it very much. "I need this raise," he beseeched his boss. Now, this is not the most common verb in the world, but once again, it helps you get that variety. Same with the next verb, "cajoled." This means to persuade someone to do something that they might not want to do, and you're you're persuading them by just talking pleasantly and nicely. Like, "Please, please, pretty please say yes," she could. So, this is a a good reporting verb that I could use if I want to capture my little girl's direct speech if she wants something and I maybe I don't want to give it to her, she might cajole me into giving it to her. "Please, pretty please."
The next two verbs, I think, are definitely more common. "Insisted." This means to say something firmly, especially when others either disagree or just oppose what you're saying. "I want to see my client," the lawyer insisted. So, in this context, I it makes me think of a situation in which somebody is asking more than once, and then they start insisting. The next verb, I think, is similar, but it's a bit stronger. "Demanded." This means to ask for something forcefully, and really in a way that you don't expect to be refused. "I want another candy," the child demanded. So, again, I'm yeah, I just I can't help but give many examples with children. I have a little girl, so again, these are these are things that I hear, and this helps capture the mood and switch things up a little bit so you can avoid those redundancies.
So, if you are wanting to express happiness or excitement, there are some great verbs that you can use, such as "gushed." This means to express a positive feeling, especially praise, but doing so in a way that it may not seem sincere, perhaps they're doing it a little too much. So, if I'm writing a story and my character is just praising someone over and over, and he says, "You look amazing," he gushed. Right? That that tells the reader that perhaps they're they're going a bit overboard, it's a little too much, and maybe the other person does not find it all that sincere. Then we have "cheered," which is to give a loud shout of approval or encouragement. "We won!" she cheered. All right, really expressing that happiness. And I think this verb is commonly used in the context of maybe a competition, and you're really trying to encourage others. Then we have the verb "touted." It means to advertise, talk about, or praise something repeatedly, and you're really you're doing this because you want the other person to accept what you're saying, or maybe even buy something. "You won't find another car like this," the salesman touted. So, in this case, it's like, well, the salesman's really proud of the car, they're really happy about it, and they're kind of advertising it, they're praising it. Yeah, "You won't find another car like this." So, this is a good verb for that context.
Then we have these three verbs, which are somewhat similar, but also express happiness. And in all of the examples, they really provide that extra bit of information to show you that, well, that something is funny. Like "laughed." It means that you are smiling and making sounds. You believe that this is a funny situation. "I knew it was you," she laughed. We also have the verb "chortled," which is not as commonly used. It means to laugh and really just showing some satisfaction. "Did you hear the news?" she chortled, giving that extra information that this news is funny, it's satisfying. And then there's the verb "giggled." This means to laugh repeatedly in in kind of an uncontrolled way. I think it's perhaps not as strong as saying "laugh," but again, this is something we all do. "Giggle." We all giggle from time to time. "Where did you get that hat?" he giggled. I'm telling you that this hat maybe it looks a little funny, which is why he giggled.
Here are some more verbs. "Proclaimed." This means to announce something officially, especially something that is positive. "This is the start of a new beginning," he proclaimed. Another verb, "announced," which means to make something known or to tell people something officially. "We got engaged," she announced. All right, really happy news. There's also the verb "declared," and this means to announce something clearly, firmly, officially, publicly. Uh, I could say, "We made it to the finals," the coach declared. So, with each of these verbs, they they may be used interchangeably depending on the context, but it's still good to get that variety.
Let's move from happiness to sadness. If you want to show that you are upset about something, there are many different verbs that you could use, like "pouted." This is when you want to show that you are annoyed, and you you're pushing your lips together, and really pushing out your lower lip, like Mmm, and and you're just unhappy, unhappy about something. "I want some ice cream," the child pouted. You can also use the verb "complained," which is very common. It just means that that you're saying that something is wrong, or or just not satisfactory. "We don't want to work over the weekend," the employees complained. All right, it's not a good situation. I would complain about it as well.
If you want to emphasize that sadness, you could use a verb like "sobbed." It means to cry noisily, and you're really taking these deep breaths. So, think about this situation: if someone says, "I worked so hard on this project, and now it has been destroyed in a matter of seconds," she sobbed. You could also use "cried," which means you are, well, producing tears and expressing that strong emotion. "She told me it was over," he cried, and really conveying that sadness.
Let's keep it going with some more sad verbs. Keep building your writing vocabulary with verbs like "lamented," and this means that you are expressing sadness and really just feeling sorry about something. And I think that's a key part of it, just feeling sorry, maybe a little bit of regret. "I should never have accepted the offer," he lamented. You could also use the verb "sneered" when talking about someone or something in an unkind way that shows no respect. "Is that the best you can do?" she sneered. So, it's not a good thing to sneer at someone, but it it does it really captures that emotion. "Whined" is making that long, high, sad sound. I'm sure you can think of someone from your life who has whined before. "My ice cream melted," the boy whined. You're really sad and upset about this. And then there's the verb "bemoan." This means to complain or express sadness about something. Great verb to use from time to time. "Our department has to lay some people off," the manager bemoaned. All right, the manager's not happy about this situation, bemoaning this situation.
Now, let's raise the noise level and talk about, well, if somebody's being loud, you could use verbs such as "shouted." This means to to speak in a loud voice, especially when you're in a situation that, well, it's very noisy around you and you want others to hear, so you have to shout. "We won!" they shouted. So, in this context, I I feel like the atmosphere is very noisy, and he's very excited, and just shouting, "We won!" We also have the verb "exclaimed," which means to shout something suddenly because of surprise, fear, or pleasure. "That's not fair!" she exclaimed. In this situation, it makes me think, well, perhaps she's a little surprised. "That's not fair!" And then there's "bellowed," which is to shout in a loud voice. "Who's there?" he bellowed. Tells the reader that, wow, this this is a very loud voice when someone bellows.
Let's move on with some more loud verbs, like "yelled." This means to shout and make a loud noise because you're angry, you're in pain, maybe you're excited. "Get out!" she yelled. In this case, uh, makes me think she's not happy, and I should probably get out. Then there's the verb "screamed," which is similar to yelled. You may use these verbs interchangeably, but let me give you a different context. If, um, people say, "Help us," they screamed. And in this situation, they are screaming for help. And then there's the verb "hollered." This means to shout loudly. "Pass me the ball," he hollered. And and you really want to get someone else's attention when you're hollering at them. "Pass me the ball."
Let's now bring the noise level down a little bit and talk about some verbs that you can use if you want to say someone's trying to be quiet, like this verb right here: "murmured." Murmured just means to say something very quietly. "I love you," the boy murmured. And in this context, it makes me think that, well, the boy is a little shy, perhaps he doesn't want the other person to hear it, but he really just still feels the need to say it, and he murmurs this. Then we have the verb "muttered." It means to speak quietly in a low voice so that it's not easy to hear. And and when I think about this verb, "muttered," I think that people do this because they don't really want the other person to hear what they're saying. It could perhaps cause an argument. So, if we are in a classroom, and maybe a teacher gets angry and they call a student lazy, and the student's a little upset, "You're the lazy one," the student muttered. And they say it in that low voice because they don't necessarily want the teacher to hear. And that's why you would mutter something. And this verb is also used in the phrase "to mutter something under someone's breath," which has the same meaning. You're speaking softly, it's not easy to hear because you don't really want the other person to hear, and you mutter something, something under your breath.
Then there's "mumbled," which means to speak quietly and in a way that's not easy to understand. So, to to give you an example of someone mumbling, uh, I could say, "I can't believe they," he mumbled. And you're like, "Wait, wait, what was that last part? 'I can't believe they'," he mumbled. So, when I'm mumbling, it's kind of like you're just trailing off, and you just don't understand what someone's saying because it's like they're trailing off, it becomes quieter, and they may be mixing some sounds together, and you're like, "Wait, what was that? Can can you say that again?" And then there's "whispered." Okay, if somebody's really trying to be quiet, whispered, it means that you are speaking quietly, really, so only the person next to you or close to you can hear what you're saying. And you would whisper something. "Don't tell anyone," she whispered. So, this is a very common and and a great verb to use if you really want to show that somebody's trying to be quiet.
So, I just gave you many different verbs that you can use instead of saying the verb "said." These are very useful reporting verbs that that'll really help you improve your writing. They're more descriptive, they're more precise, and it's just going to make your writing that much more captivating. I know I just gave you a lot of vocabulary, and I I do not expect you to memorize all of it. The goal is just to be aware that there are many different reporting verbs that you can use to help you be more descriptive.
Now, I want to switch gears from descriptive writing to academic writing. And I know I've talked to you about different tips to help you write professionally, but I I really want to do a deep dive to help you improve your academic writing skills. And it doesn't matter if you're a student or a working professional, this information will help. I want to talk to you about some very useful tips that's going to help you immensely improve your writing, really, it's going to help you greatly improve your academic writing and develop those skills. And I know that when I say academic writing, you you may think of university, which is where a lot of academic writing is done, but this is also very important in a more professional setting, a business setting. So, these tips will help.
So, let's begin with the first tip, and I think this one is is very important, which is why I've put it at the very beginning. And that is to be concise. And what it means to be concise is that you are stating the information clearly, and you are using as few words as possible. So, really, you just avoid wasting words. And I think this applies to so many different things. So, let me give you an example, uh, with these video lessons. Before, a long time ago, when I first started doing these lessons, I thought that, well, the longer I could make them, then that would just make it better, and more people would be watching them. But what I realized after once I started doing this is that I shouldn't be trying to make the lessons longer. I should try to give you the information, I should try to teach you the lesson, and then whenever it's finished, then, well, that's how long the lesson is. And and that's the same with your writing. You should be concise. State the information and try to use as few words as possible. Because why say something in 10 words when you could say it in five?
And one way that you can do that, that that's going to help you be concise, is to use action verbs. So, let me give you some sentences so that you know what I mean. A simple way that you can avoid using too many words is to stay away from the "tion" words. And I'm not saying that you should never use these, but really, just keep this in mind because it will help you cut down on unnecessary words. So, if I were to say, "The report provided an explanation for these unusual results," you see that "tion" word, "explanation." Well, can just make that an action verb and say, "The report explained these unusual results." I've said the same thing, it's more concise, I've used fewer words, and and you're still saying the information clearly. Another reason why it's very important to be concise is because it's going to help whoever it is that's reading your writing, it's going to help them more easily understand what you're trying to say. The final thing that I'll say about this is that you should try to use the vocabulary that you already know. I think quite often people will try to look up words that are more difficult, that sound more academic, intelligent, and and they put that into their paper, even if it's a word that maybe you don't even know. Try to avoid doing that. Use the vocabulary that you already know. It's going to help you say things clearly and be concise.
The next tip that I have for you is to organize your paper. This is going to help you carefully structure your writing. And all all you need to do is create an outline. It's as simple as that. And I cannot emphasize this enough because often I think many people will just skip this part of the writing process. I used to teach IELTS, and IELTS is a proficiency exam. And part of the exam, you have to write, and it is timed. And I would work with students to help them try to achieve a a high mark. And what I would always tell them is that at the very beginning, just take five minutes, organize your paper, and write down, create a quick little outline about what you want to say before you start writing. And so so often they would tell me, "Well, I I just don't have time. There's no time for this. I just need to start writing." And when I would read their writing, I could see the lack of organization. Some of the ideas would overlap, and and some points were not even connected to their main thesis. So, I I think without organizing your paper and saying, "Okay, this is what I'm going to talk about first, second, and third," it it's very easy to lose track of where where you want to go. And when you start to lose focus of your main idea, you you kind of go off track, and you start writing about things that may not even be relevant. So, please take a little bit of time, create an outline, organize your paper, and think about how your writing should be structured.
My next tip is that you should avoid contractions, idioms, and other colloquial expressions, simply because they're very informal. And writing in general, writing is more formal, and academic writing is definitely more formal. So, let's have a look at some informal language, like contractions. Instead of writing "its," write "it is." Instead of writing "could've," write "could have." Or instead of writing "there's," write "there has." I I'll also include phrasal verbs in this because they can also be a bit informal. And in that case, instead of if you were to say like "put up with," use a more specific verb like "endure" or or "tolerate." Instead of saying "check out," you could use a verb like "view" or "consult." So, not only are you using more formal language, but you're also, you're also being more concise. You're using fewer words. And as far as idioms go, just just please avoid them. Look at these two sentences right here: "Collecting data was easy and efficient," or "Collecting data was a piece of cake." It just, uh, just reading it is a bit awkward. And the same goes for colloquial expressions. If you, you, if I were to write something like, "The scientist had trouble finishing the experiment, but no biggie. If they didn't finish, they could just go back to the drawing board." And I, the colloquial expressions like saying something is, well, "no biggie," it's no big deal, or I use that idiom, "go back to the drawing board." Not only does this informal language sound unprofessional, but it's probably going to seem strange to the person who's reading it. So, please avoid contractions, idioms, and these other colloquial phrases.
The next tip is that you should vary your sentence structures. And this is going to help you avoid choppiness. And if you're unsure what that means, I'm going to tell you a little story, and I think it will make more sense. But let's get into some more details about sentence structure. So, there are four basic sentence structures: you have simple sentences. This is one independent clause. So, if I'm going to tell you a story about my day, I could say, "I woke up late this morning." It's a simple sentence. We also have compound sentences, which is when you have two or more independent clauses. So, continuing the story, I could say, "I immediately went to the kitchen, and I made myself a cup of coffee." A complex sentence is when you have one independent clause plus one or more dependent clauses. "After I finished my coffee, I got ready for work." Then we have compound-complex sentences, which is when you have two or more independent clauses plus one or more dependent clauses. And let's continue: "When I looked at my watch, I realized I was running late, so I ran out the door and jumped in my car."
So, let's review our story using all of those different sentence structures. "I woke up late this morning. I immediately went to the kitchen, and I made myself a cup of coffee. After I finished my coffee, I got ready for work. When I looked at my watch, I realized I was running late, so I ran out the door and jumped in my car." If we were to change this and just use simple sentences, the story is going to sound, well, it's going to sound very choppy. If I say, "I woke up late this morning. I immediately went to the kitchen. I made myself a cup of coffee. I finished my coffee. I got ready for work. I looked at my watch. I realized I was running late. I ran out the door. I jumped in my car." All right, it's it sounds more like a children's book, and it's definitely not academic writing. So, when you vary your sentence structure, it's going to help your writing have a nice rhythm and flow. And to be perfectly honest, when you are writing, you may not analyze each sentence and and really look at the sentence structure. This is more likely something that you will notice and you'll be able to get a feel for it as you reread your writing. So, when you reread, you'll be able to get a better sense if there is some choppiness and you need to adjust some of your sentence structures.
My next tip is to use the active voice. And that is because the active voice, it just gives more clarity. Now, I'm not I'm not saying that you should never use the passive voice. It really depends on what you're writing. If you're writing some scientific paper, then yes, it's likely you may have some passive sentences. But in general, overall, most of your sentences should be active. So, let's compare the active and passive. If I were to say, "Archaeologists conducted a study of the newly unearthed artifacts." This is an active sentence. It has nine words. And if we compare it to the passive, "A study was conducted of the newly unearthed artifacts." You see that the issue is that, well, in the passive, we don't know who conducted the study. Now, we could add that to the end of the sentence, and I could say, "by archaeologists," but now I have 11 words. Why say something in 11 words when I could say it in nine? So, again, it's about being more concise. So, just keep in mind that most of your sentences are going to be in the active voice.
The next tip is to avoid repetition. Try to use a variety of words because it's going to make your writing more captivating. Use precise language if possible, and try to avoid words like "very" because words like that are often overused. Now, in writing, one one way to avoid repetition is when it comes to transition words. These transition words are when you can, well, add information, perhaps you're moving from one idea to the next. But when you're writing transition words, it's easy to repeat them. Let's take the word "also." This is a word that's commonly used to add more information, but you do not always need to use this word because there are other words that have the same meaning. So, instead of saying, "The crisis caused severe economic damage. Companies were forced to downsize, and many people lost their jobs. Also, banks were forced to tighten lending practices, which meant small businesses had a difficult time accessing money. Also, the local government proved ineffective in offering relief." We can just remove "also" to replace with some other words like "in addition" and "furthermore," and it's going to sound much better. So, we have "also," "in addition," "furthermore," "moreover," "besides." There are a variety of words that you can use when you're talking about these transition words. The good news is is that, well, repetition is pretty easy to spot when you reread your writing. You should be able to identify if you continuously use the same word again and again and again. And really, unless you're writing a poem, there is no good reason to continuously repeat words over and over. Just remember this famous saying: "When you avoid repetition, your writing won't suck." Actually, it's not a famous saying; I just made it up right now, but the message, the lesson is still relevant: avoid repetition.
The next tip, and I really want to emphasize this, is proofread. And the reason why I say I want to emphasize this is because it's another step in the writing process that some people tend to skip. And the reason why it's so important to proofread is because you're able to do some of the things that I've already talked about. You're able to get a feel for the sentence structure that you use. You're able to spot some of the words that you may have repeated. Most of you are probably proofreading because you want to correct mistakes. So, in that case, I have a bonus tip for you, and that is read backwards. Go to the very last sentence, read that one, try to look for mistakes. Go to the next to the last sentence, read that one, look for mistakes, and just continue reading backwards until you get to the beginning. And the reason for that is because you're you're really isolating the sentence, and you're able to look for spelling mistakes, uh, grammar mistakes, punctuation. And in short, when you read backwards, you're focusing more on the text and not the ideas. So, proofread forward from beginning to end if you want to get a feel for the rhythm and flow of your writing, make sure that your ideas are logically ordered, as well as check for repetition. Proofread backward if you want to really focus on the text and check for grammatical errors. And most importantly, just make sure that you proofread and do not skip this step.
So, I hope that you found these tips and suggestions useful because I definitely think this will help you immensely improve your academic writing. So, let's practice some of the things that we've been talking about in this lesson. And the way that I would like to practice is by correcting some common writing mistakes. Now, I'm sure that you may have heard the expression, "Practice makes perfect." So, let's do that right now. I want to talk to you about some common writing mistakes and see if you can identify them. But most importantly, I also want to talk about how you can fix these mistakes and really just try to avoid them altogether. This, uh, well, these are the directions. So, I am going to give you a sample writing, and I want you to read the sentences, read what I have for you, and see if you can identify all three mistakes. So, in each writing sample, there are three mistakes. But not only that, I also want you to identify the common writing mistake, like, what is the overall problem? What is the overall issue? And that's really going to help you try to go through your own writing and tell you what to look for, some of the things to keep in mind to help you improve your writing and help you correct some of those mistakes. So, let's just jump in. I think as we go through this, you'll you'll get what I'm talking about.
So, the first one is this right here, this little writing sample. So, I'll I'll read this as is. I'll give you a moment to think about what are some of the mistakes. Write them in the chat, and then we'll talk about the overall problem. So, here is the first writing sample: "Neither John nor Mary are at school today. John is a good friend who always asks for help. I am happy to give my friend a hand from time to time. However, Mary usually tells me that he don't need my help and should do his own work." So, in this, in these sentences right here, there are three mistakes, and I want you to think about, well, what are the mistakes? And all of all of these mistakes are similar. I think the one thing that stands out, which you can probably see, is that "he don't." Let me show you all three, and we'll talk about the general, well, topic, the category. So, what I'm really referring to, the three mistakes, and what they have in common, is that they all deal with subject-verb agreement. So, the first sentence, there's that first mistake: "Neither John nor Mary is at school today." When you're talking about that phrase "neither" or "nor," if we, we have a singular subject, in which case John is singular, Mary is singular, we're going to use a singular verb: "Neither John nor Mary is at school today." And if it were a plural subject, like "neither children nor adults," then you could use that plural verb. The next sentence: "John is a good friend of mine who always ask for help." We need that "s" at the end. So, "who," who is referring to John. In this case, again, it's singular. John asks, who asks? And then down there at the bottom: "However, Mary usually tells me that he don't." This is a common mistake that I I see in writing, but also in spoken English, when people want to use that negative, and they're talking about "he" or "she," and I'll hear people go to and and use "don't" instead of "doesn't." So, just something to keep in mind. But the first common mistake that I often see when it comes to writing is just subject-verb agreement. Do the, does the subject agree with the verb? And that's something you should look through as you go through your writing to make sure that they do agree.
The next one: "Please let me know when you're ready to talk. I think there is much that we need to discuss. It's been a difficult time for both of us. To be honest, I don't know if I can forgive you for your many mistakes." And there are three mistakes in this little short passage right here, and they all have, they all have one thing in common. So, the three mistakes all have to do with contractions versus possessives. These are words that they sound the same, but they have a different meaning. "You're," the contracted form, or "your," the possessive form. Or "it's," the contracted form, or "its," the possessive. So, in that first sentence, "Please let me know when you are ready to talk." "You're ready to talk." We need that apostrophe. "It's" can mean "it is" or it can mean "it has." You could use "it's" for either one. But in this case, you see that past participle "been." So, that tells you right there that we're talking about the present perfect tense: "It's been a difficult time for both of us." And then that last sentence, "To be honest, I don't know if I can forgive you for your many mistakes." In this case, we're talking about "your," the possessive form, y-o-u-r.
"What do you think? I never really check weather forecast. Luckily, a friend told me it was going to rain tomorrow. I made sure to bring a umbrella when our group of friends traveled to the Yosemite National Park." There are three mistakes. They're all the same. But once again, they have this in common. One thing that I think is also a challenge when you're looking at someone else's writing, it can be a little easier when you're going back through your own writing. It, it, it's actually a little more challenging. The three mistakes in this sample right here, they all have to do with articles. Here are the, the mistakes. It's just we're talking about article misuse. And when I say articles, I'm talking about "a" and "the," or just no article, and not using an article. So, "I never really check, uh, the weather forecast." You could use the article "a" in this case, but mostly when talking about the weather, you're referring to the specific weather where you are, so I think it's preferable to use "the." "I made sure to bring an umbrella." An umbrella. All right, we're going to use that article "an" instead of "a." "An umbrella." When our group of friends traveled, um, travel to, not "the Yosemite National Park." It should be no article. And that last one, when talking about no article, we're talking about "a."
National park. We don't use an article before that. So the next one, see if you can find the three mistakes.
He spent much of his time studying Finance because he was interested with economics. Perhaps it came naturally because he was great in math. He understood that people's H spending habits depended to their income. What are the mistakes in this writing sample? And you know what is the category? What category of mistakes am I referring to? What I'm referring to the mistakes, the overall category is just the wrong preposition. So, so that first sentence, he spent much of his time studying Finance because he was interested in economics. If you're using that adjective interested, you're going to say you're interested in something. Perhaps it came naturally because he was great at math. Great at something. You're good at something. And then finally, he understood that people spending habits depended, not depended to, it depended on their in income. So something depends on something else. One thing that I'll say with these prepositions, which can be tricky, is that sometimes more than one preposition may be used. The reason why I'm pointing this now out now is because I want you to look at that phrase great at math. And again, I think in just general conversation, colloquial speech, you may hear someone use the preposition in when talking about a subject. Oh, he's is great in math. But if you want a point of reference, and I wanted to share this site with you, and I've talked about it before, andram viewer, this is a good way to try to understand the language and understand which words or phrases are more commonly used. Good at math, good in math. And looking at the graph right there, you can see that good at math is more frequently used.
Every day I get get up and go for a run. I usually took the same route yesterday. However, I decide to go jogging in the Hills nearby. I had never been there before. I really enjoy seeing the beautiful Forest. Perhaps I will do it again tomorrow.
So this actually goes back to what I was talking about before when I feel like in that one sample number three, I had made a mistake. And again, the other thing is making mistakes. It's, it's natural. It's going to happen. And I, I think it is especially difficult when you are proofreading your own writing. When other people are doing it, I think it can be a little easier and you're able to spot some of those things, mistakes, because they're not your words. We're talking about changing tenses. And even in that sample before, I made a mistake in terms of talking about the future and then kind of switching to the past. And this is a mistake that people not only make in writing, even whether you're an English learner or a native speaker, it's a mistake that people make and spoken English as well when they're telling a story.
So every day, we're talking about a routine, a habit. We're going to use the present simple. I go for a, I get up and go for a run. We're continuing with the present simple in that next sentence, talking about what you usually do. This is your routine, your habit. I usually take the same route. The next sentence, you see that word, that time word right there, yesterday. That tells you that we're talking about the past. Yesterday. However, I decided with that ED ending to go jogging in the Hills. I had never been there before. I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful Forest. We're going to use the past tense because once again, in the previous sentence, I had just said, well, I never been there before. So it's not something you regularly do that you enjoy, uh, and that you're familiar with. We're talking about again, a finished action in the past. And then the next sentence, we switch to the future because we have that time word tomorrow. Perhaps I'll do it again, uh, tomorrow. Think about those time words when talking about yesterday or a few days ago, tomorrow, at the moment. And those are indicators as to which verb tense you should be using.
Then here is sample number six. After going to the dentist, I learned that I have three cavities. The dentist said, you need to take better care of your teeth. He requested that I floss regularly and I should come in for a cleaning once every six months. Even as I was reading that, hopefully, just listening to it, you might think that it sounded a little off. What are the mistakes? And it is the same mistake. I'll give you a hint. It's a punctuation mistake. What is the problem with the the punctuation in this writing sample? We're talking about comma misuse. So comma misuse could be, you're using a comma when you shouldn't. Perhaps you're using a full stop. But in all of these example, these mistakes right here, I should have used a comma, but I didn't. After going to the dentist, that is my adverb phrase. When it comes before the independent clause, you need a comma. The next one, the dentist said, comma, and this is in quotes, you need to take better care of your teeth. This is, I feel like this is what my dentist would say, says to me when I go there. Uh, so again, the dentist said, said is that reporting verb. Before you say, you give that direct quote, those quotations, you need a comma there. The dentist said, comma, you need to take better care of your teeth. He requested that I floss regularly, comma, and I should come in for a cleaning once every six months. That is a compound sentence. You have two, two independent clauses joined by that conjunction. And often they're joined by and, or, but. So in this case, and, but you need a comma before that conjunction.
Sample seven. Her colleague was late to the meeting. She was attempting to purchase some time in hopes that he would arrive. Clearly, she was not prepared to make the presentation on her own. This would certainly have a negative effect on their upcoming work evaluations. So identify the mistakes and then think about, well, what category would this fall under? Some of these may be a little more difficult than others, but I think if you find one, you can start searching for those others. So the three mistakes are right here. All right, right. We're talking about the wrong word. You're just using the wrong word. A lot of times this happens with collocations, words that are frequently used together. The first mistake, uh, in that second sentence, she was attempting instead of purchasing sometime. We're talking about the phrase to buy sometime. And buy and purchase, they're generally synonyms, but in this case, you, it's a fixed phrase, to buy time, which means to delay or you're trying to avoid doing something, you're trying to buy some time. So that's why I said, think about the situation she's in. This meeting, she's trying to buy time because her colleague's not there. Clearly, she was not prepared to give the presentation on her own or do the presentation. Now, what makes this tricky is when talking about a presentation, I just mentioned collocations. You could use use the verb make, give, or do depending on the context. So let me be a little clearer. To make a presentation would really be creating the presentation. If you're talking about give, in that case, you're really referring to presenting and you're actually in front of your audience, speaking, and you are giving the presentation. With the verb do, it can really refer to either one. Who's going to do the presentation, like give the presentation, or you could say, who's going to do the presentation as in make it and create it. It makes sense why some of these simple mistakes are made when it comes to these collocations. It can be a little confusing. And then at the end there, this would certainly have a negative effect. Effect with an E is a noun. So that is what we need there. A negative effect with an E. A effect with an A, this is a verb to affect something. So effect and affect, they're commonly confused words, different parts of speech.
The next one. See if you can find all three mistakes. I think one of them will definitely be easy to spot. So I'll, I'll read it for you. Dear Sir or Madam, I'm writing to let you know that I submitted the pro proposal in the nick of time. Time. The project should be a piece of cake. So I believe it will be completed within a week. My team is going to work hard to make sure the project is finished in a timely manner. Okay, what three mistakes do you see with this writing sample right here? As I said, one, I think is pretty obvious. And hopefully, maybe that'll help you identify the other two. If I want to give you a little bit of a hint, think about that very first line, Dear Sir or Madam. What is that telling you? If somebody begins a letter or an email, Dear Sir or Madam, Dear Sir or Madam should tell you that this is a formal message. It is either a formal letter or it is a formal email. And because of that, you really should avoid you using informal language. Dear Sir or Madam, this is a formal message, a formal email. I am writing to let you know that I submitted the proposal in the nick of time. Is an idiom. And if you're writing in a formal, uh, email or letter, I would recommend avoiding idioms altogether. They're more casual. So instead of you, you submitted the proposal in the nick of time, I submitted the proposal before the deadline. There are other phrases that you could use to finish that sentence, but I would get rid of in the nick of time. The project should be a piece of cake. Once again, piece of cake is an idiom. I would avoid it if you're writing something that's a little more formal. So instead of a piece of cake, maybe you could use simple and straightforward or just one of those. The project should be straightforward. So I believe it will be completed within a week. And then that last sentence, my team is going to instead of writing the reduction, you need to spell out the full form. Going to. My team is going to work hard to make sure the project is finished in a timely manner. Now, even if I'm reading this and I see going to, the full form, in my mind, I, I'm saying gonna. I'm changing that to the reduction. My team is going to work hard to make sure the project is finished on time. But I would certainly avoid writing reductions. Sometimes I, I know I say that and sometimes you may see it if somebody's writing a text message or perhaps like song lyrics and you see people spell out these reductions. It's very informal. But the problem that I notice is that when people start writing these reductions, it then carries over into more formal writing, which can look really unprofessional if it's something for work or or school. You definitely want to avoid using those reductions. So just keep that in mind. This informal language.
And I just want you to keep these things in mind. And as you're proofreading, these are the things that I want you to look out for. So it's really difficult, especially if you're reading your own writing, to track down all of the mistakes. But one problem that I notice is that people will write something and they, they tend not to proofread it all. And I would definitely recommend it, whether you're writing an email or even just a, an informal letter, it's just a good habit to get into.
Now, I, I know that I just gave you a lot of information this past hour. And I, I hope that you really think about some of the things that we've talked about. You can go back and rewatch parts of the lesson because I really think that will help when it comes to improving your writing skills. It is something that's going to take time. It's going to take practice. So if you enjoyed this lesson and learned something new, please hit that like button. As always, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time. So long.