hey everyone I'm Alex thanks for
clicking and welcome to this academic
writing lesson so today I will be giving
you some very practical skills practical
tools practical expressions words
phrases that you can use in your
academic writing so this might prove
useful if you're a high school student a
university student college student if
you are someone who is writing an IELTS
exam or a TOEFL exam or any type of
academic work so I'm gonna tell you the
name technical name of these tools that
I'm gonna give you today in a bit first
I just want to start teaching you guys
and after the first six I'll let you
know on the little secret okay let you
in on the little secret that's the
phrase so first we have be aimed at
let's just stay with me let's read the
example and you'll start noticing a
pattern so the advertisement was aimed
at males between the ages of 18 to 34 so
here you're saying the advertisement the
ad the promotion was targeted at aimed
at males between 18 to 34 so if you aim
an advertisement this means you try to
put your focus of the advertisement on a
specific group of people a specific
demographic so you have you know males
between the ages of 18 to 34 so this is
probably a beer commercial or a
videogame commercial maybe next we have
the expression to be associated with
something or someone so if you are
associated with something or someone
this means you have a connection to
something or someone so for example
drinking milk is often associated with
strong bones so this is you know what
research says or what advertise
wants us to believe this could be an
argument that you're making in in a
paper so drinking milk is often
associated with strong bones or with
having strong bones has a connection
with it
next to be based on something now this
is when you're using you know some sort
of facts to establish a theory so to be
based on the study was based on ten
years of close observation so this means
that the study the origin of the study
the facts from ten years you know that's
what we used to base this study on to do
this study the next phrase I want you to
remember to be regarded as or to be seen
as something or someone so example
Albert Einstein is regarded as the
premier theoretical physicist of the
20th century so this means people see
Einstein as you know the premier
physicist theoretical physicists of the
20th century they regard him they hold
him in a high position in their minds so
people say this you can use this phrase
to talk about not just people but events
okay like the Olympics the World Cup
World War two you know what was it
regarded as what were these things seen
as by people how did people see them be
defined as to give a definition right so
darkness is defined as the absence of
light if you're a high school student
this type of structure is it's okay to
use many teachers say don't tell me
Webster's dictionary defines this as
blank but you know if you're a high
school student you're just learning
essays it's important to define your
terms to give definitions so darkness is
defined as the absence of light I will
be using this definition in my paper and
finally here be derived from if
something is derived from some
thing else it means it comes from that
thing it originates from that thing so
for example some medicines are derived
from herbs they are taken from they come
from those herbs okay now we've looked
at six of these what do you see that
they all have in common okay
they all have bee bee bee bee bee they
all have a past participle verb be aimed
be associated be based and they all have
a preposition now these are known as
passive prepositional verbs okay so now
that we've looked at the first six of
passive prepositional verbs we're going
to look at another six and after you
look at these I promise you your writing
will be so much better and so much
clearer and so much more formal and
professional sounding to your teachers
or whoever you're writing for so let's
look at six more okay so six more now
first we have be divided in two so
something is divided it is separated for
example Canada is divided into provinces
and territories very clear next be
involved in so you have involvement in
something for example J robert
Oppenheimer was the primary figure
involved in the creation of the atomic
bomb very clear as well I hope be known
as if you are known as something this is
your primary identity or one of your
main identities for example the Wright
brothers are popularly known as the
pioneers of human flight those of you
who are watching from Brazil that's just
popularly known okay I know about the
other guy so be prejudiced against I
love you Brazil love you
be prejudiced against humans are often
prejudiced against people they do not
understand so if you're prejudiced
against somebody or some group of people
you have like a natural discriminatory
attitude you discriminate against this
group you hold strong negative feelings
towards them so people are often
prejudiced against people they do not
understand be required for so something
is required it is necessary for
something so regular sleep is required
for good health you need to sleep
regularly it's a necessity to have good
health and finally be used in so
flamethrowers which basically big guns
that shoot fire were first used in World
War one ok so I have given you guys 12
passive prepositional verbs you can use
these in your academic essays you can
use this on your TOEFL exam on your
IELTS exam and if you're wondering okay
this all still seems kind of confusing
what do you mean passive well we have a
lot of videos on engvid where you can
study you know what the construction of
the passive is very quickly I can tell
you the passive always has a form of the
verb to be there's always a past
participle the only difference in these
ones is that we're adding a preposition
to the passive verbs okay and these are
all specifically you know designed
specifically formal fixed formal
expressions formal phrases that you can
use in your academic writing or even
academic presentations as well right now
I suggest because it's very important to
remember which verbs which past
participle goes with which preposition
watch this video again if you think it's
a little weird for you now and after you
watch it again and you remember
everything check out the quiz on engvid
com
and while you're on engvid calm and if
you want to support what we do here
financially you can donate at the
support link and we appreciate every
donation we receive and also if you want
to follow me you can check me out on
Facebook you can check me out on Twitter
subscribe to my youtube channel if this
is your first video Hey
how are ya nice to meet you lots of
videos up on I like up on my channel
most of them I speak better than I am
right now so check out those videos
thank you and until next time you guys
know what I'm gonna say right say it for
me until next time yeah thanks for
clicking see ya