hi everyone in today's video i'm going
to teach you a tip for
writing better it's how to write
concisely
and this tip will help you to write more
clearly
and to get better grades on tests and
other writing assignments in school
in today's video first i'm going to talk
about what it means to write concisely
and why it's important
and then i'll show you four strategies
that you can use
to write more concisely and i'll give
you plenty of examples
i love to answer your questions and read
your comments
so in the description box below i've
left a few
questions that you can answer in the
comments to help you practice
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learners like you
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first let's talk about what it means to
write concisely
concise means that you state your idea
in the most effective way possible
it means that you use the best
vocabulary and grammar
to help you write clearly and in a short
way
so this can be sometimes tricky for
people who are
going to school in english because
sometimes they think that they need to
write
longer they need to write more that they
need to write long sentences or use a
lot of words
but actually a good writer states their
idea
in the most effective way and
to be effective you want to be clear and
short that means that you're not going
to use unnecessary words and you're not
going to
go on and on you're going to state your
idea
clearly and briefly writing concisely
can be especially important in school if
you have a writing assignment that has a
limit of the number of words
and this sometimes happens sometimes on
a test
you may have limited time so you need to
state your idea
and to be able to explain it without
writing too much
because you have limited time another
time this might happen is if you need to
write a report
or apply for a scholarship or apply for
a job
sometimes in those situations they give
you a space to write but they have a
limit of the number of words they say
maximum 500 words and in that case you
have to write
concisely another time is writing
summaries
in a summary you have to state the idea
concisely
in a short way i understand the idea of
wanting to use more words when you're
learning a language and you learn
vocabulary
you want to use those words you want to
practice it and
try writing long sentences but a good
writer
states their idea in the most effective
way which means that it's
clear it uses the best vocabulary and
grammar possible
so that the reader feels that it's
easier
and clearer to understand
so let's take a look at those tips for
how to write concisely
number one use the most
specific exact vocabulary possible
so what happens in this situation is
that often
when you are writing especially when
you're writing about higher level topics
you may not know some of the specific
vocabulary
and so you may use several words to try
to
express the meaning but in english we
have one word that states that meaning
for example if you talk about leaving
the house
very quickly in the morning so that you
won't be late
you can use the verb rush that would
explain that meaning
in just one word or if you're driving
and the car in front of you stops and
you suddenly
hit the bumper of the car in front of
you
there's a verb for that to rear end a
car
so we often have a specific word that
can help you to state
your idea efficiently in a short way
for example to run away quickly is to
vanish to get rid of a disease
is to eradicate to think about something
that you are excited will happen that's
to
anticipate so again this advanced
vocabulary can help you to express
your ideas in a more clear and concise
way for example if you need to write an
essay about some of the difficulties
that college students face
you might write this sentence because
universities in the united states are so
expensive
many college students take out loans to
help them pay for college
so in this sentence we have the phrase
loans to help them pay for college
and we have a word for that it's called
student loans
so in that case it would be a more
concise way
to use the vocabulary word that is
specific
and exact student loans here's another
example
it's hard to afford college because the
money that students
pay for school increases every year
so here we have the money that students
pay for school
we have a specific word for that do you
know what it is
it's the word tuition so again if
you use the specific vocabulary you're
going to write in a more clear
and concise way tip number two
avoid unnecessary words so this is
something that we do a lot
native speakers do it too sometimes when
we're speaking or writing we just
use unnecessary words but one of the
things that you should do
before you turn in your writing is to
check
that you don't have unnecessary words
and take words out where they're not
needed
this especially happens for people who
are learning a language because as you
learn
vocabulary you want to use it here's an
example of a sentence with
unnecessary words university students
pay
thousands of dollars for their classes
or courses
so here we have the words classes and
courses they are the same
in this case the student probably
learned the word courses and wanted to
use it
but here you should just use one of them
because they have the same meaning
here's another example each and every
student should think about how they're
going to pay for school
so each and every have the same meaning
so let's just use one
each student should think tip number
three
be careful with extra pronouns this is a
common mistake
but it should not be too difficult to
fix take a look at these examples
students who apply for financial aid
they need to wait
several weeks to get the results so here
the subject of the sentence
is students who apply for financial aid
who apply for financial aid is an
adjective clause that describes the
students
which students students who apply for
financial aid
now we already have the subject there so
we
cannot use this extra pronoun they
that's an example of an unnecessary
pronoun and it's also just wrong
the pronoun they should not be there
here's another example
my sister filled out the financial aid
forms and she sent them off last week
so this is a common sentence and it's
actually correct we have two clauses
each one with a subject and verb and
they're joined
with a comma and the word and but we
don't need the second
she that would be one way that we could
make the sentence shorter because
she and my sister are the same person
the sentence is not too long
so if we take out she we still know who
we are talking about
so to make the sentence a little bit
shorter and more concise
we can take out she and then we have
um a subject and two verbs so we're also
going to take out the comma
tip number four avoid unnecessary words
that don't add much meaning
these words are often adverbs that we
often use in speaking
but in writing we really don't need them
and
they are examples of words that just
distract
the reader because they're not adding a
lot of meaning
and they're not necessary so they're
just making the sentence longer
these can be words like for example if
you say
this was so terrible you don't need the
word so
if you say terrible we understand that
it means it was really bad
or for example my mother soup is really
delicious
well delicious means that it tastes
really good
so we don't need to say really delicious
delicious already has that strong
meaning
here's an example sentence applying for
financial aid
is really not so difficult basically
you need to visit the financial aid
office and complete all the forms
here we have some unnecessary words like
really so and basically these are
adverbs that don't help the meaning of
the sentence too much
so we can take them out or maybe we
could just use one of them
other unnecessary words can be long
phrases that have the same meaning
in a shorter way so for example if we
see the sentence
due to the fact that university tuition
is expensive
all students should apply for financial
aid
due to the fact that what does that mean
due to the fact that
it means because so we can use just one
word
because instead of due to the fact that
if you've already used because several
times in your writing then you could
change it to the word
since so the bottom line here is that
when you're writing in
english especially for school or work
more is not better you should aim to
write
concisely so that your writing is not
too long
and is clear and expresses your idea
in the most exact way possible
this means that you're going to avoid
redundant pairs of words like
classes and courses you're also going to
avoid
unnecessary long phrases unnecessary
adverbs
and unnecessary pronouns so next time
you write something
go ahead and look through your writing
and see how you can make your sentences
shorter and improve your choice of
vocabulary
so that you can express yourself as
clearly as possible
and this will help your writing to be
more concise
i hope you found this video helpful
please let me know if you have questions
and i will see you soon
take care