hi i'm rebecca from engvid in this
lesson I'm going to share a quick and
easy technique that you can follow in
order to get higher marks on your TOEFL
or your IELTS writing okay and it's one
way to make weaker sentences into
stronger sentences so what does that
mean that means that perhaps the
sentences you're writing sometimes are
actually correct
grammatically but they're still not very
powerful so you can get lower marks
sometimes because you make a mistake but
sometimes you can also get lower marks
if you write sentences that are not very
strong because of vocabulary or because
of sentence structure so I'm going to
show you a quick and easy change that
you can make so that your sentences and
your essay can get higher marks and be
more impactful okay so here we go so
what we're going to do is to avoid using
structures that start with there is
there are there was there were or it is
and it was okay this is what we want to
avoid not because it's wrong but because
it's just not very strong it's not
powerful and what happens when you use
this is that you end up using a verb
which is actually very weak instead of
looking for a good strong verb okay so
let's look at how we can transform these
sentences and you'll see for yourself
that the second sentence in each case is
actually much more powerful okay let's
look number one there is a lot of useful
information in that book okay there's
nothing wrong with that sentence it's
just not very powerful so how can we
make it stronger we could say that book
contains a lot of useful information now
what happened instead of just using this
structure with is we are using contains
right contains is a strong verb alright
so even when we're talking about things
in
first I'm gonna give you some general
examples just to let you get the idea
and then I'll give you some more
examples which are specifically form
some TOEFL or IELTS essay topics okay so
here you see that just changing that
structure and using and introducing a
better verb is giving you a higher score
in effect okay
next there are several benefits to
online classes again nothing wrong with
that but what can we do so look for look
for the actual verb subject look for the
actual subject you want which is online
classes right so try and start with that
sometimes that strategy works so here we
said online classes offer several
benefits okay
so now we're starting with the subject
which is strong we're using a verb which
is a good verb all right and we adding
some other details all right next
it is the director who makes the final
decision okay because this strategy can
be used not only on your IELTS or TOEFL
it can also be used in your general
writing it can be used in your business
writing and your email and so on okay so
it's a good strategy to learn whether
you're appearing for an exam or even if
you are at work all right and all your
life that's such so here how could we
change it so we're talking about the
director so let's make the director the
subject of the sentence the director
makes right the director makes the final
decision okay did you get it good let's
get another example it was low sales
that force them to close so what are we
talking about here low sales so let's
start with that as the subject low sales
force them to close okay close the store
closed the factory whatever okay but
again we're starting off with the thing
which is most important we are adding a
verb which is strong and even though you
used the same verb there it was kind of
because it's hidden when we say it was
it is there is there are there was then
things get hidden and you want to put
them up front and strong so that your
sentences are more powerful so let's see
how to do that now with some examples
which are from TOEFL and IELTS kind of
topics okay let's do that next all right
so now we're going to look at five
different sentences and they are from
typical topics that you get on the TOEFL
or the IELTS exam
okay one is on students another on the
big city or small town question on
parents on success and on luck okay
these are sort of typical topics that
you often find on the IELTS or TOEFL
exam now you can do this in two
different ways if you like you can pause
the video here and then work through
them by yourself and come up with some
of the other examples or other options
that you could have for these sentences
which are more powerful than the ones
you see on the board okay and I've
actually helped you by writing some of
the verbs that you could use okay in
those options or I've underlined them
you can do that if you want or you can
just continue watching and follow along
with me coz I'm going to do them for you
okay so here we go all right number one
there are several key characteristics of
effective students so here the question
was you know something about write an
essay about what are the key
characteristics of effective students
okay or what makes a student effective
or something like that so this student
wrote there are several key
characteristics of effective students
again it's not wrong but let's make it
stronger so we can do that by taking a
strong subject first what's the subject
here this effective students and now
let's use a new verb okay let's
introduce a new verb which will make it
even stronger effective students display
several key characteristics period okay
and that sentence is a lot a lot more
impactful than saying there are okay
there is there are it's considered a
kind of a lazy way of writing so you
really don't want to do that next about
should you live it is it better to live
in a big city or a small town what do
you prefer okay so this student wrote
there are many advantages to living in a
big city again that's not wrong but
let's empower it okay so we could say
living in a big city offers many
advantages okay now there are lots of
ways to ramp up even that sentence and
in fact I'm going to I have a resource
which I wrote which you can download for
free which shows you 142 adjectives that
you can use in your TOEFL and essay and
IELTS essay writing to actually empower
those sentences even more by changing
the adjectives by giving a higher level
adjectives more advanced adjectives so
for example instead of saying there are
many advantages we could say there are
myriad advantages that's a wonderful
word that I always teach my students
because it's very impressive and it's
very useful okay so let's go on now from
there okay there are so many different
ways you can improve but now we're
focusing on how to get away from this
way of writing with there is there are
it is it you know it was and so on okay
number three a question about parents
there are important ways in which
parents influence their children so the
question was probably something like you
know how are the way how do parents
influence their children okay
or how do parents impact the lives of
their children or something like that so
the student wrote this let's see how we
can change it this time we're not going
to use a different verb we're going to
use the same verb that the student used
we're just going to change the structure
of the sentence so we could say parents
influence their children in many
important ways or in several important
ways
or in myriad important ways again myriad
means many many okay
so that's how we can improve that
sentence the next one this one is about
success what determines a person's
success what makes a person successful
in life that was probably the essay
question so this student wrote there are
myriad factors that determine a person's
success so let's solve this one by using
this verb okay so here we can just take
this out right start with the subject
and we could say myriad factors
determine a person's success okay that
will work or you could even say a
person's success is determined by what
myriad factors okay you see different
ways that you can structure it but
whatever you did here either of those
two options was better than this one
okay now here's another one this one was
about luck okay so the question asked
you know what is luck or what role does
luck play in our lives and things like
that so this student wrote it is hard to
define luck but again it's weak because
it started with it is so how can we
improve it well even if we kept that
verb is we could say it in a better way
we could say luck is hard to define okay
or luck cannot be defined easily or
something like that but again start with
the main subject which was luck and not
it is okay are you getting the hang of
it I think once you see how easy it is
you'll start looking at your own writing
much more critically and you'll start
converting it and making it more
advanced okay and that's my wish for you
all right now what are some other ways
that can help you to do that
I have two websites one is called good
luck TOEFL calm the other one is good
luck
IELTS calm there's also a good luck toy
calm and all of these will help
view to improve your writing related to
TOEFL and improve your exam score in
general they're basically guides to
these exams but specifically regarding
writing I have a section which has
sample essays which you might want to
check out if you haven't already okay so
do that that helps a lot of students and
I will add a link to the resource that I
mentioned which has 142 adjectives that
you can use in your TOEFL or your IELTS
writing to improve your score and to
raise your score okay now also don't
forget to go to our website at wwlp.com
there's no quiz this time but you will
find there hundreds and actually now
thousands of lessons but many of them
are about this exam these exams TOEFL
IELTS PT and so on okay and you might be
able to get a much higher score by just
changing a few important things okay
like this all right thanks very much for
watching and if you enjoyed this
subscribe share and let your friends
also benefit from these pieces of advice
okay
thanks very much for watching bye for
now