hello i'm oli welcome to oxford online
english in this lesson you can learn
about how to improve your english
writing
learning to write well is often the most
difficult skill for english learners
writing well requires great control of
language and extreme attention to detail
even then it's not easy even for native
speakers
in this video you can see some advice
that will help you to improve your
english writing whatever level your
english is now
first
understand your audience
before you start writing you need to
answer two questions
question one
who are you writing for
are you writing for your friend
your colleague your teacher
your manager
an examiner
who
secondly
what are you trying to achieve
are you trying to give someone
information
are you trying to convince somebody of
your point of view
are you trying to entertain somebody and
make them laugh
are you just trying to pass an exam
or are you trying to achieve several
different things
thinking about your purpose in writing
can really help you to organize your
ideas
now these questions who are you writing
for and what do you want to achieve they
are important but there's an even more
important question
does your reader want
remember when you write you're normally
writing for someone else
unless you're writing a diary or a
journal for yourself
in which case you can write however you
want
normally however you're writing for
another person
whoever reads your writing will give
their time and their attention to read
what you've written
why
why will someone give their time to read
what you've written
okay so for example if you're writing an
essay at school or at university for
your teacher your teacher will spend
time reading your essay to see if you've
understood the topic or not
if you're writing an email or a letter
to a friend your friend will probably
want to
hear some news about your life and maybe
hear some funny stories
if you're writing in an exam the
examiner will be looking for some
specific things which you do or don't do
in your writing
in order to decide your score
understanding your reader or your
readers
and understanding what they want from
your writing is essential
you need to think about this from the
beginning to the end of the writing
process
so are you ready to start writing yet
not quite
next you need to
plan your writing
if you don't plan your writing there's a
good chance you will miss out some
important ideas you won't include them
in your writing
or
you might include some unnecessary ideas
that will confuse your reader and make
your purpose unclear
have you ever written something and got
stuck in the middle
you start a paragraph or you start a
sentence and in the middle you stop and
you think
what am i doing where am i going what do
i say next uh help
why does this happen
often it happens because you haven't
planned enough
imagine that you're in a new city and
you're trying to find your way somewhere
you don't have a map you don't have a
smartphone there's nobody you can ask
of course you'll get lost you'll go down
streets without knowing where they go
you'll go round in circles
if you do find the place you were
looking for it will just be because you
were lucky
writing without planning is very similar
you'll start sentences or paragraphs
without knowing where they're going
you'll waste lots of time writing things
deleting them rewriting them deleting
them writing them again
if you do achieve your goal it will only
be because you were lucky
remember you're writing for someone else
and you're writing for a reason
that means you have a goal even if it's
a simple goal
you need to have a plan of how you're
going to reach that goal
that means you need to think about these
questions
what are you going to include
what are you going to leave out
and how are you going to organize your
ideas
if you're writing something simple you
might just think for a minute or two
about what to say
if you're writing something longer and
more complex like a long essay you might
need to make a written plan
so what points should you include and
what points should you leave out well
that's a general question
if you're not sure think about your goal
and your reader's needs
ask yourself
does my reader need to know this
will my reader want to know this
does including this point or including
this idea
help me to reach my goal
thinking about these questions will help
you to decide what to include in your
writing and what to leave out
what about the third question how are
you going to organize your ideas
let's look
you need to organize your ideas into
clear paragraphs
organizing your ideas into paragraphs is
important for many reasons
it helps your reader understand what
your main points are
it helps your reader see where you're
going and why
and it helps you to stay focused on your
plan and reaching your goal
so what does it mean in practice to
organize your ideas into clear
paragraphs firstly each paragraph should
have one main idea
if you're writing an essay and you have
a list of points to include
put one point
in each paragraph
even if you're writing something shorter
or simpler you still need to organize
your ideas into paragraphs
don't try to do too much your writing
will be much clearer and much easier to
read if each paragraph is only trying to
do one thing
an extra point there's no minimum or
maximum length for a paragraph
sometimes when i teach students writing
they try to make paragraphs longer
because they say oh this paragraph's too
short it needs more words it needs more
sentences
no a paragraph should be as long as it
needs to be to make your point there's
no minimum length
next you need to decide how many
paragraphs you're going to have and what
you're going to put in each one
remember this is still part of planning
we haven't even written a single word
yet
again you could do this planning in your
head or you could make some short notes
or you could make a more detailed
written plan
it depends how much time you have what
you're trying to write and how important
it is
but the important point is
when you start writing you won't have to
think about questions like
what do i put in this paragraph how many
more paragraphs do i need
how am i how am i going to finish this
sentence
you will have thought about all of these
things already
this will make it much easier to write
whatever you're trying to write
okay so now you're ready to start
writing
what next
part four
cut empty words and sentences
there's a simple rule you can use to
make your english writing better and
clearer
write as little as possible
let's look at some examples
first
don't use two words if you can use one
word don't use three words if you can
use two words
for example
don't say very tired say exhausted
very is generally a weak word and it
should be avoided it doesn't add much to
your meaning
the same is true for words like really
or absolutely use these words as little
as possible they're very rarely
necessary
don't say as a result if you can say
consequently don't say on the other hand
if you can say nevertheless use fewer
words
don't say this will get better in the
future say this will improve in the
future
don't say she gave me a lot of help
say
she helped me a lot or even she helped
me greatly
or just cut greatly and say she helped
me if you can
use fewer words
don't say maybe this will solve the
problem say this will solve the problem
words like maybe or perhaps are
generally not necessary
if you're not sure about something do
you really need to include it
if you do want to include something that
you're not sure about use verbs like
might or could say
this might solve the problem
don't say we need to find someone who
can teach our son say
we need to find a teacher for our son
cut unnecessary words and use as few
words as possible
you can also look at sentences
in essays many people tend to include
sentences like there are many advantages
and disadvantages to this
of course there are two sides to this
issue
in this essay i will discuss all the
ideas relevant to this point
what do these sentences tell you
do they give you any useful or relevant
information
no and so they should be cut
why is this important well using fewer
words and fewer sentences will make your
writing clearer and easier to read
it will also help you to focus on what
you want to say
try to look at each sentence you write
and think
what does this add to my ideas what does
this give my reader
how does this help me reach my goal in
writing this
if you can't answer these questions
consider cutting it
or try to make it shorter
it's not easy to write in this way you
won't be able to watch this video and go
away and write like this
even in this script there are probably
several places where i could use my own
advice
however you can try thinking about it
the next time you write something in
english
over time you can learn the habit of
cutting empty words and sentences from
your writing
your writing will be much better and
much clearer if you can learn to do this
next let's look at some more advice to
make your writing clearer and easier to
read
use short simple sentences where
possible
shorter sentences are easier to read and
understand that's not my opinion that's
a fact there's a lot of research behind
it
longer sentences are harder to read and
harder to understand generally
if you're a non-native speaker of
english writing longer sentences is
especially dangerous there's a higher
chance you'll make some grammatical or
language errors which will make your
sentence difficult to read
or even worse hard to understand
how long is too long well
10 words is a good target length
10 to 20 words is okay
longer than 20 words this is dangerous
there's a high chance your sentence will
become unclear and difficult to read
so how can you do this well first
remember what we talked about before
using fewer words will make your
sentences shorter and tighter
here are some other rules you can use to
keep your sentences shorter and clearer
first
don't use the passive voice unless you
have a good reason
using the passive always makes a
sentence longer and more complex
now sometimes it's fine to use the
passive but not if you don't have a good
reason
if you want to use the passive make sure
you know why you're using it and make
sure it's really necessary
secondly start your sentence with the
subject whenever possible
thirdly don't use relative clauses with
who which that where etc unless it's
really necessary
when you use a conjunction like and or
but or or and so on
think
do these two ideas really need to go
together
if they don't consider breaking your
sentence into two shorter pieces
to be clear long sentences are not
automatically bad
good writers can produce long sentences
which are clear and focused and elegant
if you're writing about a particularly
complex topic you might need to use
longer more complex sentences to express
more complex ideas
the point is you should only use a
longer more complex sentence if it's
really necessary
if you can express the same point in a
shorter simpler sentence
you should
let's review what we've talked about
today
first you need to understand who you're
writing for and what they want from your
writing
secondly before you start writing you
need to have a plan you need to know
what you're going to include what you're
going to leave out and how you're going
to organize your ideas
thirdly your ideas should always be
organized into clear paragraphs with one
main idea per paragraph
fourth
cut unnecessary words and sentences and
fifth use shorter simpler sentences
where you can
follow these points and i guarantee your
writing will get better
i'm not just saying that i use these
points when i write something or edit
something and i see the difference even
now i'm still learning this you're never
finished
follow these points and you will see a
difference
okay that's the end of the lesson thank
you very much for watching if you want
to see more of our free lessons check
out our website
oxfordonlineenglish.com but that's all
thanks again i'll see you next time bye