Hello friends, welcome back. How can you improve your English writing skills? In this video lesson
I'll be sharing with you three tips, three tips to help you improve your English writing skills.
These tips will help you improve your English writing skills so that you can write better
e-mails, better essays, better academic articles and even prepare for the IELTS writing section.
Friends, before we go through the three tips to improve your English writing skills, I would like to hear from you.
Tell me the comments below this video. How often are you writing in English?
Are you writing every single day? Are you writing once a week or once a month?
How often do you write in English to improve your English writing skills?
It's very important for you to be following these three tips on a regular basis.
It's not enough to be using only one tip or maybe only two tips, I do suggest that you use
all these three tips on a regular basis.
So what are the three tips to improve your English writing skills? The first tip is to be inspired.
Friends, writing can be daunting because maybe you're worried about words, about how you sound. You may be even worried about your grammar
So it's very important to be inspired. You want to be inspired and motivated to write in English.
But how do you get inspired to write in English? You get inspired by
reading. Reading people who are writing about topics
which you would like to write about.
You want to read texts, read works of the people that you would like to write like. Be inspired properly.
You don't want to be reading everything and anything, you should only be reading texts,
articles and works of people that are writing like you would write in the future.
So if you want to write better e-mails in English read more e-mails in
English. If you want to write better academic articles in English, read more academic articles in English.
If you want to write better blog posts in English, read blog posts in English.
If you're preparing for IELTS and you need to write an essay
read more essays in English.
Basically friends read one of the texts you will need to write about in the future and get
inspired. Pay attention to the vocabulary and grammar, how they express themselves when writing in English.
This will help you become more familiar with that style of writing and give you inspiration for when you have to write in English
Fantastic, so you're getting more inspired by reading other people writing about topics
you'd possibly write about in the future, but it's not enough just to be reading them. While reading a text,
try to think. Think about why you really like how that person is writing.
Is it because of their word choice, is it because of the grammar they use, is it because of how they're structuring sentences
Why do you like that writer? Now, you may be wondering. So how do I analyze a text that I'm reading?
What I suggest that you do is that you physically, you've physically read something.
So if you're reading something online, print it up, if you're reading a book,
fantastic, you don't need to print anything off, make sure that you're reading something on paper.
Then what I want you to do is to highlight parts of the text that you really like.
Highlight sections any words. You can highlight the whole paragraph.
Highlight any sections of the text that you like then try to take notes.
Take notes on the side of the paragraph and write down exactly
why you like that sentence. Is it because of their word choice, is it because of the grammar, is it because it's sentence is sure,
It's long. Write down exactly why you like that sentence or paragraph.
By doing this you may notice that there are common
trends, that some writers are doing the same thing over and over again
And maybe you should be doing this as well when you're writing in English.
Pay attention to common words English writers are using, pay attention to common grammatical
structures writers are using and try to use these words grammatical phrases when you write in English.
Anyway, you could do is try to imitate that writer when you are writing in English.
Now when I say imitate, I don't mean copy, don't copy or plagiarize anybody.
But try to use those words, some of the words, the vocabulary they are using when you have to write in English.
Friends, there is a big difference between
plagiarism and imitating.
Please choose the vocabulary and grammatical
expressions you like and try to apply them to your writing, don't steal any ideas, but vocabulary, grammar,
sentence structure is ok.
So now you understand the first tip and that is to be inspired.
Be inspired by reading other people writing about topics
you will need to write about in the future, but that's going to get you nowhere
if you don't follow the next tip. Now the second tip is really really simple,
but most likely you're not using and
applying this tip. The second tip is simply write. If you want to improve your English writing skills
you have to be writing in English. Now, I do understand, this is easier said than done.
Let's go through this together now. Now before you actually start writing what I want you to do is plan.
I understand writing
in the second language is so hard because, you know,
it's the second language and you probably forget all these words, grammar,
everything. So plan. A simple plan on post-it notes, just simply jotting something down on a piece of paper on the side
will save you time and a lot of frustration
when writing in English. Plan out the exact question, the exact problem you want to answer in your writing and
write down dot notes on the side. While you're planning it's very important to be clear.
Clear about the reasons why it is that you're writing. One way you could add clarity to your writing is asking questions,
questions you'll need to answer in your writing.
For example,
if you're writing an e-mail to your boss to schedule a meeting for next week, think about some
points you would need to talk about with your boss. For example, you need to set a location.
So write down I need to ask him for a location. You could ask about the time
So what time will we meet? You can ask where will we meet? Break down any questions
you need to go through and answer in your writing in that e-mail in your plan.
Now you've got your pushes down on your plan, but you need to be actually answering those questions
Making it some important information you'll need to add in your e-mail. So answer these questions in your plan.
You don't need to be planning out in full sentence, just in dot point form, use key notes. Just take notes
so that you know exactly what you need to write about when you do need to go and write.
Okay, so we've gone through how to plan, to ask questions and answer questions, but you know, it's all in dot point form.
It's very rough
And now you need to write. That plan will help you better write, faster, in English and improve your writing skills.
Put all these notes on a piece of paper or in that e-mail and form a whole paragraph,
e-mail in English. Now friends, while writing while constructing sentences I do suggest to keep it
simple. Now, what do we mean by keep it simple?
Don't try to use fancy words, fancy grammatical structures that you don't understand. Try to sound more smart. Friends,
it's better to be using simple language, simple vocabulary and
enable the other person to understand exactly what it is that you need or you want or what it is
you are trying to communicate with them. Instead of using complex grammar, vocabulary
which maybe you don't understand how to use and you probably, most likely,
misuse in the e-mail, in that essay and
maybe that person won't understand and maybe if you aren't prepared for IELTS
you will, most likely, be marked down. Also, in the beginning
I suggest that you don't worry too much about grammar. No, grammar is very important.
It is a vehicle of communication and you do need to know how to effectively use grammar
especially when writing in English.
But if you're just starting out, keep it simple, use the simple tenses that you do know and don't use a grammar book.
Okay, don't be writing and looking at your grammar book and thinking oh, should I use this tense or should I use that tense?
No.
Use the grammar that
you know on a piece of paper and just write. In the beginning
focus on actually writing and then later on
focus on improving your grammar skills. Now in tip 1 we talked about being inspired by reading
articles, reading texts other people have written based on what you'll write about in the future.
Now when you're writing in English, I don't recommend that you use whole paragraphs ,whole sentences like other English writers
What you should be doing is adding in your own
personality. Don't plagiarize and copy the works of other English writers.
But use their work as inspiration and make sure to add your own personality in your writing.
So one way you could do this to make sure that it sounds like you use your own
personality is to read your text out loud.
Really loud and think to yourself. Hey, does this sound like me or do I sound too smart?
Have I used too many words, maybe from a Thesaurus or have I used too many words, which I really don't understand, take them out.
That's not you. It's not your personality
Make sure to be using words
you know,
expressing yourself as you would also in written form. While writing an essay and e-mail and yuo have come to the end
you may feel little bit worried. You know guys, English is your second language.
You're probably thinking, maybe I didn't use a correct word there or I just misused a grammatical structure.
Maybe the person isn't going to be able to understand me and you're just simply worried because, I need to send this essay
and you send this email but... I don't know if it's correct
Maybe my boss will look at me a little bit strange, or maybe I won't pass that exam.
You'd be surprised at how much you can self correct. You can correct yourself by reading the text out loud.
So if you've written an e-mail, if you've written an essay,
Fantastic, so you actually wrote something in English.
But you can take it the next step up and by reading the text out loud and listen to yourself,
Listen to how you wrote that text. Are you able to understand everything?
Are the words a little bit too complex. Are you able to understand exactly
what you wrote down in English?
Also, make sure to check that you've answered the question.
If you've given that person the information they need.
Ask yourself all these
questions while reading out loud
and you'll see that a lot of the times you'll be able to correct your own mistakes. Self correction is something I do quite often.
As you know,
I tend to make a lot of mistakes in written form.
Many English speakers do, it's something that English speakers do in the native language,
and I'm sure you do in your own native language when you're writing anything. Self correct
and you will see that your writing skills will improve. It is also great to get some critique and
evaluation from a professional, from a teacher who is able to give you exact advice on how to improve your vocabulary,
grammar or simply plan out and structure your essay in English.
I do recommend that you find a professional English teacher to help get you feedback and support
improving your writing skills. This takes us to my third and final tip to improve your English writing skills, and that tip is
consistency.
Friends, you want to make writing a habit. If you do anything every single day you will see improvements in the long term.
Improving your English writing skills isn't something that you're going to accomplish overnight.
You're not going to improve your English writing skills in a week, in two weeks, it's a lifelong process. As a native English speaker,
I'm consistenly improving my writing skills as well.
I'm consistently writing every single day to better express myself, to better
communicate in English in written form. Now if I'm a native English speaker. I'm doing this. Why wouldn't you do the same?
Yes, we are at different levels. But if you do want to improve your English writing skills,
it is important to stay consistent and to make writing a daily habit.
Now when I say to make writing a daily habit,
I don't suggest you write for 6, 3 or an hour every single day.
Writing for 10 to 15 minutes every single day is more than enough provided that you are doing this consistently
every single day.
But how can you stay consistent?
Another way to stay consistent is to create an English writing learning goal.
Make it a goal for you the next 60 days to write every single day in English.
Now you could do this by e-mailing somebody every single day.
You could do this by keeping a diary, writing in a diary every single day.
You could do this by finding a pen pal and trying to chat with them every single day.
Be consistent, write every single day in English. Use these three tips.
So that being, be inspired,
write and be consistent and you will see that in the long term.
Your English writing skills will improve. There you have it, friends. In this video lesson
we've gone through three tips to help you be inspired,
write and stay consistent to improve your English writing skills.
Remember friends to join the discussion in the comments below this video and tell me, how often do you write in
English? Don't forget if you liked this video lesson, make sure to like it, hit subscribe and turn on notifications,
so that you get the latest lessons I post here on my YouTube channel and be a good friend
help your friends learning English by sharing this video lesson with them.
Thanks for watching. Thanks being here, and I look forward to seeing you in the comments below this video.
Bye for now