- [Jack] Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com.
And this is episode 16
of the To Fluency Podcast.
And like the title say's,
we are going to talk about writing today
and more specifically, six tips to help you
improve your writing.
Now, before we go into those tips, it's important to know
that writing is one of the four skills of English,
where we have reading, writing, listening and speaking.
So reading and listening, are both input skills
whereas speaking and writing are output skills.
And obviously, when you're having a conversation
with somebody, you're speaking and listening
at the same time.
And this is a difficult thing to do
so when you think, I can't speak in English,
it's difficult to have conversations in English.
Know that is normal
because what you're having to do
is to think about the grammar, the vocabulary,
the way you speak, the sounds of English
and you also have to listen
and understand what the other person is saying.
Whereas when you're reading,
you can take your time to understand something
and look up new words and phrases.
And if you want to learn about my reading method,
then listen to episode, I'll put it in the description too.
I'm just looking at up now,
episode 10 of the To Fluency podcast
if you're listening on iTunes or elsewhere.
Now, with writing, I think it's a great skill
to practice for a few reasons
because when it comes to writing
as an output skill
but you can take your time,
where when you're speaking
if you're having a conversation
and you're obviously having to speak
to people in a spontaneous way to adapt,
to think about what you're saying
and to speak more quickly.
Whereas when it comes to writing,
think about just sitting in your office
or in your bedroom or at school,
wherever it is, at your kitchen table
with a computer or a pencil and pen.
And just taking your time to create sentences
to write paragraphs, to keep a diary
if that's something you want to do.
where you can go into Google,
look up new words and phrases,
type in a phrase into Google
to see if it works
and also use different apps
which we're going to talk about later.
So I see writing as a great skill
to help you formalize
which means create your own sentences
without feeling rushed,
without having to do this quickly within a conversation.
So think about how you can implement more writing
into your daily schedule
and enjoy it.
Don't feel pressure, feel like what you can do
is take what you have learned recently
and try to create your own sentences from it.
So let's go into the six tips now,
and like I say,
be sure to check out the description
for some of the links I'm going to mention.
Now, the first tip is going to be quite specific,
especially if you're studying for the IELTS exam,
or if you're using English in a very specific way,
for example, for your job.
And this is to focus on the writing style you need.
So focus on the writing style you need.
So think about the way you're going to write in English
if you need to do this for a specific reason.
So if it's for the IELTS exam, focus on that,
if you have to write speeches for work, focus on that.
If you need to write emails at work, focus on that.
But also, if you want to learn conversational English,
then you can write
like you're having a conversation, okay?
So just some ideas for you.
You can make a story, you can create a story.
If it's a conversation English,
you can also write in like a diary
to write your thoughts about your day.
And I think this is a great thing
to do for any learner.
I do this on a daily basis,
just as a great exercise
where I talk about my day, what I did yesterday.
I talk about my, write about my goals.
I write about what I want to do.
For example, yesterday I wrote, let's write some reels
or shows for the next week
which shall be mini videos
for Instagram and YouTube.
And I'm saying do three to four this week
and get another podcast done.
One that focuses on how to learn English
which is what I'm doing right now.
So this is something I wrote yesterday.
And just doing that on a daily basis
will help you just get
into the habit of writing for English.
So tip one is to focus on the writing style you need
if you are going to write specifically for something,
but then if you're just wanting to improve your English
in a general sense,
I highly recommend doing a daily diary
so it makes you do it on a daily basis.
And then also thinking
about ways to write something conversational.
And another thing to do
is then to, if you watch a YouTube video
of one of mine, for example
like one of our conversations,
then you can write some thoughts
about that YouTube video.
Now tip two, is to find examples of text and copy them.
Now, what I've been talking about so far with writing
is more of a creative role
where you're writing in your diary,
your putting your thoughts across,
your creating a story, that type of thing.
But another way to improve your writing
is to imitate of the writers.
Now, if you follow me for a while,
you'll know about my method,
that will help you
with your general English
and especially your speaking
where you listen to an audio phrase,
you repeat that phrase, you record it.
So then you can listen back to it
and then you compare your version
to the original and think about making changes.
That's the speaking method
that I've been teaching for a long time,
but we can do this for writing too,
where what you do, is you just find
any kind of text and you copy it down.
I like to do this, or I think a good idea
if you're thinking about the text to find is,
for example IELTS exams, get the IELTS model answers.
If you're doing it for like emails,
find email templates and just copy them down.
What I'm saying here
is not to copy them for an exam
or copy them for your specific email,
but the way I like to see
is you put on some relaxing music,
you get a cup of tea
or your favorite type of drink.
And then you simply read a sentence
copy the sentence, read a sentence, copy the sentence.
And you don't focus too much on the language here,
you're not trying to memorize anything
instead, you're just writing things down
and copying things.
And I think this is a great method to try
because you're going
to naturally internalize sentence structures
and writing styles.
And if you do this again for specific purposes,
that's gonna be great,
but you can also just do this
with any sentences that you find online.
For example, let's say I do a video on 10 key phrases.
You can take those phrases, write them down,
copy them down in a notebook.
And then, if you want to then expand on this
and create your own sentences,
then use the app that we're going to talk about later.
But this is a great way
to internalize sentence structures, word order,
and also powerful way to learn grammar too.
Now, another way to, this is tip three
is basically about how you can improve your writing, okay?
And it's using a different skill.
And the tip is this, to read a lot.
So to read a lot,
because this is will be one of the most vital ways
for you to help become familiar
with the way that English is written
and it's also gonna help you spot the mistakes
you're making in the moment.
And if you copy passages from what you're reading,
it can also help you overcome mistakes
that you're making.
And I think graded readers is a great place to start.
And again, go to episode 10,
to learn more about reading.
And I'm not gonna talk much about this
because as a learner,
you'll probably know the power of reading
and how it can help you
but it's gonna help your writing too
because it's gonna give you the input you need
to then create something.
But like I say, also just copier.
So whenever you read something,
think about copying a few paragraphs,
especially ones that interest you
or paragraphs that contain the type of language
that you think is relevant.
Tip four, is about practice and getting feedback.
So it's important to get feedback on your writing
so that you can overcome mistakes.
Now, tip five is gonna give you an app
that will help you with this.
But here, what I wanna get across in tip four,
is just to feel
like practicing is a good thing to do,
and to implement this
into your daily routine
or your learning routine.
So after trying the copying tactic,
while you copy text,
and you start to feel a little bit more confident,
do some writing exercises
and try to find a teacher
or somebody who can correct you.
Now, there are ways to do this for free.
There are different apps
that you can use for this
and I'll leave some of them in the description below,
but also join the group,
Learn English With Jack on Facebook.
So search for, Learn English With Jack on Facebook
and copy or write in texts into there
and ask for people to give you feedback.
You can do this on different forums as well.
But there are apps you can use for this
or you can pay a teacher
who's gonna just give you that extra attention
and go through the writing tasks that you do.
And this is especially important
if you're doing the IELTS exam
and you need to get that feedback for your exam
or if you're given a speech,
or if you're writing an important proposal
for your work,
or a writing project for your work.
Where you can get somebody who really goes in there
and corrects things for you.
Now tip five, is to use apps
that are not just going to correct your spelling,
but they're also going to correct your grammar.
Now I'll leave a link in the description
for my favorite one here.
And it's an affiliate link,
it's free to use
but if you decide to get the paid version,
then I will get a little commission
if you use my link.
So feel free to use that link.
But this is an app
with a web browser extension
and also an app.
And it also integrates into your email, Facebook, Instagram,
different apps that you use
so that when you're writing,
let's say you write something like, he has
or let's think of a mistake that is quite common.
I enjoy to go to the beach.
It will say, not to go, but I enjoy going to the beach.
So it's gonna help you
with the patterns, grammar, prepositions.
If you use the incorrect preposition, it will tell you
so it's gonna help you improve your grammar
as you're writing,
but it's also gonna give you tips
and advice and more examples
so that you can just remember these rules in the future.
I think this is an output that everybody needs.
So definitely check out the description
under tip five
and use the link that I leave there.
Now, tip number six, is to take your time
and search for new sentences
to learn and practice, okay?
So take your time when you're writing, enjoy it
and also search for the sentences and phrases
that you want to use.
In a way to search for a phrase
is to use things like dictionary apps
and things like that.
But also, you can just type things into Google.
You can either do this in a general sense
or you can put the quotation marks over it.
So it's an exact phrase.
So if you insure about something
like I just did a lesson on everyday versus everyday,
and I'm just gonna do this,
you can hear me typing.
If I type in, I learn English every day, is two words.
Then I get off, I just say,
"I learn English every day," sorry.
Yeah, I get 94,000 results.
And then if I type in I learn English every day,
one word is 28,000.
And in those cases, it shows you that the one
with the more results, generally means it's the correct one.
But also, the app in tip five
will help you with that anyway.
And what you can do here,
is when you type phrases into Google,
a lot of the time, you can put ESL on the end
and it's gonna give you articles or forum posts
that we'll talk about that phrase.
And it will give you that phrase
and it will say, "Write it like this,
or write it like that."
And this is what I mean by taking your time.
So you can look for the correct phrase
and websites that are gonna help you with that,
so that when you're writing,
you are making sure it's correct as you write,
and then obviously getting feedback
or using an app to help you with that.
So those are the six tips.
What I recommend you do again,
is I think one of the best things you can do
is to keep a daily diary or journal
where you just put down your thoughts about anything,
what you did yesterday,
what you want to do today, what you're grateful for,
what you're happy about, your goals, et cetera.
And that just gets you into the habit, right?
Of using everyday English,
in a way that you might talk about to other people.
So you can even just write about
what you enjoyed about the TV show you watch last night.
Just anything, your thoughts on anything
but especially things that you like to talk
about in daily conversations,
because that's the type of English you're going to use.
And then use the copy method
where you can just absorb English
and learn it in a natural way
especially if you want to learn it for a specific reason.
And then use the app that I mentioned in tip five,
so that it gives you instant feedback
on the way you're writing,
and if you're writing in the correct way.
And then get feedback from a teacher
if you really wanna get that specialized feedback.
So I hope you found that useful.
If you were listening on one of the podcast platforms
and please leave a review
and also share it with your friend.
And if you watch on YouTube, welcome to you as well,
I'll leave some links in the description
especially the links I've mentioned
and then feel free to watch another video after this one.
Okay, well, thanks for being here today
and I will speak to you soon, bye bye.