Hi everyone. In this video, I'm going to walk you through five really useful and simple
tips you can use to improve your writing and subsequently get a better score on the
production subscore of the Duolingo English Test. But before I start that, if you think
this type of video is useful, please write yes below in comments and hit that like
button. So the first tip is really easy, and it is to stop using the word very all the
time. Now I read students answers every single day on my Facebook group. And really
often I see the word very + adjective, for example, very big, very expensive, very
beautiful. Now, of course, this is not wrong. But on the Duolingo English Test scoring
criteria, it does state that they are looking for your lexical sophistication and lexical
diversity. So what does that mean? Well, lexical simply means vocabulary. So lexical
sophistication means what type of word you're using? Are you using very easy words or more
difficult and specific words? and diversity means variety, are you also using a variety
of different words. So if you are using the word very, with a simple adjective all the
time, you're going to score kind of low on the vocabulary section. So what can you do?
Well, you should use more specific vocabulary. So let's learn some more
adjectives. Well, actually, I have a task for you. I'm going to show you some different
words using the word very, like very big, very beautiful, very important, and I want
you to think of a more specific adjective to replace it. I'll give you 20 seconds to do
this. But if you need more time, just pause the video. Okay, then. So here are some of
the answers. There are of course, other answers. English has a huge vocabulary. But
these are some of the more common synonyms for each of these very examples. You can read
these by yourself, just pause the video and read it or you can download the PDF file I am
using here. When you become a member of my channel, there is a link to that below. So
here you can see that you can replace very plus the simple adjective with much more
sophisticated adjectives by doing this well and of course correctly, you will get a
better score for lexical sophistication on the Duolingo English Test. Okay, guys, just
before we go on to tip number two, I want to let you know that I do have some writing
courses available for you. Now, these are courses specifically made for the two writing
tasks on the Duolingo English test. So the write about a photo and write about a topic
question types. If you want to take those courses, the links are below in the
description. Tip number two is really similar to number one, but it's to do with verbs. Too
often, students use very simple verbs when they're writing their answers and not
necessarily incorrect for the situation. But it's a bit too casual or informal for
academic writing, just like with the adjectives I showed you in tip number one,
English has lots and lots of very specific verbs you can use for different situations.
And it's better to use those specific verbs than more general ones like to be get or
have. So let's study some of these more specific verbs. Again, I've made a little
task for you. I have written five sentences with very basic verbs, I want you to read
them and change the verbs which are in green to something a lot more specific and more
formal or more academic. For this one, I'll give you 30 seconds but if you need more
time, just pause the video.
Okay, so here are my answers. Number one, we can change it to she travelled to India for
vacation, or you can say she visited. the be verb she went to India for vacation is not
wrong. But again, remember, we want to show more sophistication and diversity in our
language. So whenever possible, we should try to use more specific words. Number two, a
good manager knows how to delegate work to employees to delegate means the same as to
give, but it's much more formal and much more appropriate for this type of situation. In a
formal way, we can say a boss or a manager, delegates work to people, whereas something
like your mother, she will give you work. So the situation you're talking about really
matters here. Okay, number three, I'm hoping to receive an offer from Cambridge. In this
sentence get is not wrong at all, but it's a bit informal receive is a much more formal
word you can use. For Nowadays, people often discuss or debate the environment. For the
same reasons, discuss or debate something is the same as talking about something, but
discuss or debate are much more academic quick notes. We don't discuss about
something. we just discussed something but we do talk about it. This is called collocation.
It's about what words go with other words, that's just a common mistake I hear a lot so
be careful with that. five cars produce more pollution than buses and trains. Of course,
produce is much more specific than make make is a very general verb. Tip number three,
don't use contractions when you're writing. What's the contraction? It's when two or more
words join together and get shortened. For example, do not becomes don't, I am, I am, he
has his when we're speaking even in academic situation, we do use these very naturally,
but when we're writing academically or formally, we don't use these types of
contractions. So just simply write the full form. I am, do not he has etc, etc. Also, one
more thing, make sure you never write gunner or whiner in academic or any type of formal
writing. It's totally okay to use that when you're speaking or when you're writing
something casual, but not in any type of formal writing and definitely not on the
Duolingo English Test. Tip number four is to be careful with your spelling. So by far one
of the most common questions I get asked is, can I use Grammarly while I'm taking the
Duolingo English Test? And unfortunately, the answer is simply no, you can't use Grammarly.
Nowadays, we all including myself, we rely very heavily on different software to help
check our spelling mistakes. But when you take the Duolingo English Test, you have to
just rely on your English spelling skills, spelling in English can be quite difficult.
And there are lots of common mistakes students make. I'm a teacher, so I see these
really often. So just quickly for this video, I've made another task for you. I have
written five sentences. Each of them include one spelling mistake, the word that's spelled
wrong is in green, your job is to read it and correct the spelling. These are five of the
most common words I see spelled wrong by English learners like yourself. So I think
this task will help you you have 20 seconds to do this. But of course, you can pause the
video
and here is the correct answer. Until only has one owl. So until has just one owl But
till has to. That's why it's confusing. But remember, if you write until always just use
one owl. Second one, you should change it to just 103 and four are very confusing. So
heavy pollution can affect people's health effect with an A and number four, the effects
of pollution on people's health is worrying. Okay, so these two are really common
mistakes, because the pronunciation is the same, but the spelling is different. And
actually they have a slightly different meaning. So effect with an A is a verb, and
it basically means change or alter. And the key point is that it is a verb. So if you're
writing a sentence and you're not sure which spelling to use, if it's the verb form, use a
effect. effect with an E is a noun. So the noun form takes the E spelling this word
normally comes after an article. So something like the effects or an effect of something
but fundamentally you just need to know that if it's a verb, it's spelled with an A
effect. And if it's a noun, it's spelled with an E effect. And five, it is important to
work hard every day to achieve your goals. In this sentence, every day should be two words.
So every day with two words by simply means each day so you should work hard every day.
You should work hard each day every day as one word is actually an adjective, and it
means something that's routine or normal. For example, I could say these are my everyday
shoes. Basically, that means these are the shoes that I wear. Normally, they are not
special at all, but simply you need to know that if you're talking about each day that
you should use a space every day. Tip number five is to be careful with uncountable nouns.
English basically has two main types of nouns, we have countable and uncountable,
countable nouns are very easy. Basically, if you can see things and you're able to count
them, then they are countable. For example, 123 I have three pens. With countable nouns
we can include a number like three, and we should include the S at the end of the noun.
However, uncountable nouns are a bit more complicated. These are nouns which cannot be
counted. So water is an easy example. You can't count water. So it's an uncountable
noun. What about the noun information? Can you count information? Well, no, you can't.
So it's also an uncountable noun. Some simple rules for uncountable nouns. We don't use a
number, we don't add s at the end. That's simple. I'm sure you all know those basic
rules. But what becomes difficult is choosing is this noun, uncountable or countable,
because sometimes it is a bit tricky, and many students make mistakes with these
countable nouns. So to help you I've prepared a list of 16 really common nouns which are
uncountable, but they are mistakes students make because many students write these nouns
in the countable form. So here's the list. Okay, all of these words are typically
uncountable. So remember, do not use a number with them, and don't write S at the end.
Okay, like I said, these are the nouns which I see my students make mistakes with a lot
because they use them in the countable form, which is wrong. These are uncountable nouns.
If you want to download the PDF I'm using here you can really become a member of my
channel. There is a link below in the description, but don't go away. If you need
to improve your writing more. I recommend you watch this video here, or this one here. I've
also made writing courses. They are linked below in the description. Okay, thank you for
watching. I'll see you soon.