- In this video, I'm gonna teach you
what a book about academic writing
can teach you about speaking
better English.
Fast.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
I'm Julian Northbrook from DoingEnglish.com
here with another quick two-minute
English learning tip.
Two minutes on the timer.
Hit.
One of the most influential books
that I have read over the years,
influential for me as a person that is,
is the book "How to Write a Lot"
by Paul Silvia.
Now, this is a book about academic writing.
It's for academics who need to do
a shit load of writing
to get ahead of the game
and publish research and,
well, keep their jobs basically
because if you're in the cutthroat world of academia,
it's basically what you've gotta be doing
to survive, it's doing good research
and getting it published.
Now, this book, however, is useful for anybody
doing any kind of writing,
or really the first couple of chapters
is useful for anybody trying
to get anything done.
Essentially the premise behind the book,
and I'm just gonna give away the key point here,
I don't think the author would mind,
is that if you're an academic,
in the world of academia,
you must publish
or perish.
Therefore, one of the most important things
that you do, day in day out,
is writing.
However, many academics will prioritise
everything else before writing.
And they will just leave the writing
and procrastinate on it
and research will pile up
and it will never get written
and never get published.
This is a huge mistake.
Because the one thing that defines
your success in this career
is the quality of your writing
and the frequency at which
you are putting it out into the world.
Therefore, you have to give that priority.
The author, Paul Silvia, says
that you have to actually
treat the writing as a part of your job,
just as important, if not more important,
than the other things you may do.
Whether it is teaching
or the actual research, or,
you get the idea.
Put it in your calendar, he says,
schedule it and keep to that schedule.
Treat your writing time as sacred,
fixed time, time that cannot be changed.
It is inflexible and nobody,
nobody has the right
to ask you to change it.
People will come along, he says,
and tell you, "But it's just your writing time.
"Can't you help me with this now?
"Can't you do this now?
"Can't we have a meeting at this time?"
But you've got to be strong and say,
"No, my writing time is my writing time."
After all, the author argues,
they wouldn't say the same thing
about, say, teaching time,
or if you had another meeting.
So why is it suddenly that writing time,
the most important task you have as an academic,
is supposed to be flexible
and easily cancelable?
It's not, he says,
and you shouldn't treat it as such.
You can probably see where I'm going with this.
But exactly the same principle
can and should be applied
to your English learning.
Look.
If you are in a position
where you use English day in day out,
whether in your work or in your business,
or because you live in an English-speaking country,
i.e. you're the kind of person
who this very channel is for,
then improving your English
should be given top priority.
Because if your English is a barrier
to you doing the things that you want to do
effectively, successfully, at a high level,
then you've got to fix that problem ASAP
because you're just wasting time
and effort and resources otherwise.
Get a calendar.
Schedule your study time in your calendar
and stick to it.
Treat it as sacred.
Don't let anybody else tell you,
"Oh, it's just your English learning time.
"Surely you can do that some other time."
No, you can't.
If it's in your calendar,
you're bloody well gonna do it.
Get your calendar, schedule your time
right here right now.
If you're not too sure how to start
and what to do first, aha,
I've got something good for you.
Head over to DoingEnglish.com/FreeTraining
and in your next schedule period
of English learning time,
sit down and consume the training.
You will learn the five key changes
that you need to make to see rapid progress
for your English speaking.
Alternatively, if you've already watched that,
or you are simply ready
to just take your English to the next level
right here right now, head over
to DoingEnglish.com/Talk
and book a free call with me
to talk about how I may be able to help you
transform your English speaking
and use it to do amazing things
in the real world.
This is me, Julian Northbrook,
signing out from another video.
If you found this useful, give it a thumbs-up.
If you hated it, give it a thumbs-up anyway.
And I'll see you, my friend, in the next video.
Buh bye!
(bright music)