i sometimes write articles about myself
so i can read them later it's a
passion of mine but what if
you decide to write an article for the
b2 first
writing exam well there are some
mistakes that you definitely
do not want to make my name is toby this
is smash english and here
are the five most common mistakes that
students
make when writing an article for the
b21st exam
number one the introduction does not
grab the reader's attention
the introduction of an article must grab
the reader's attention the introduction
to an essay
is boring and general we talk
generally about the topic and we do not
address the reader the introduction to
an article
is the opposite an article must shout to
the reader
hello reader read me so how can you do
this
how can you shout to the reader how can
you grab
the reader's attention in your
introduction
well it's easy begin your introduction
with a
question personally address the reader
with this question here are some
examples how would you feel if
what would you do if have you
ever thought about have you ever wanted
to
hmm are you the sort of person that
after asking a question we should add
a sense of mystery mystery
yes mystery in the introduction we want
to
introduce the general topic but we don't
want to
reveal too much if we reveal
too much why should the reader
continue reading wow
i have an idea let's compare the
introductions
of an article and an essay
both of these introductions will be
about the same
topic whether the government should
invest
money in museums museums help to prevent
and preserve a nation's culture
and history and are a vital educational
tool
however should they receive government
funding
are you the type of person that loves
visiting museums
well imagine having to pay an arm and a
leg
just to visit one there's a big
difference
right the article begins with a question
directly addressed
to you the reader also
it is mysterious why would i
have to pay money to go to museums well
the answer is
maybe the government will stop putting
money
towards them but we have not revealed
that yet
it is a secret so the reader will
continue
reading we have also used exclamation
marks
these are cool and informal so use them
in
articles so grab the reader's attention
be personal be mysterious and be
informal in your introduction
number two there is no point to the
article
what is the point to anything soon
all of us will be dead but
even if there is no point to your
existence
your article must have a point and that
point should be in your conclusion
when you write a conclusion to an essay
you should summarize the points of the
essay
and then present your conclusion based
on those
points when you write a conclusion for
an
article you should conclude with
something the reader
can think about or something the reader
can do i call this the
take away point what do you
want the reader to do after they finish
reading your article what do you
want the reader to think about after
they finish
reading your article why did you write
this article
you wrote it because you want people to
think about something
you want people to do something
that's the point we need a point let us
look at
an example again we will compare the
conclusion of an essay
with the conclusion of an article
the topic of this essay and article
again
is should governments put money towards
museums to conclude although it could be
argued that money is needed elsewhere
museums are still an invaluable tool for
preserving
culture and educating the young i
therefore
tend to think that governments ought to
invest more in them
so next time you casually wander into a
museum near you
maybe take some time to appreciate the
money that goes into maintaining it and
on top of that why not make a donation
notice how the conclusion of the essay
simply provides a summary
and then gives the opinion of the writer
on the other hand the conclusion of the
article
actively asks the reader to think about
something
and asks them to do something
why not make a donation so remember
the conclusion of your article should
always
ask the reader to do something or
think about something that is the
takeaway point
that is the point to your article your
life has no point
but your article does
yes number three the student does not
plan
if you do not plan you might not include
all of the things that you need to
include
or you might include irrelevant
information if you do either of those
two things
you will lose marks and then
you will be sad which will make me sad
and you do not want me to be sad because
you love me
so please plan the first thing
you need to do when beginning your
article is think about
two things number one who are the target
readers
and number two what do i need to do
what information do i need to include
when you first look at your question
please
underline this information with a pen
a pen i love pens
so here the article will be published on
a university blog
so our target readers are students
i can see three things that we need to
do
the first is introduce a difficult
experience
we have had the second is to explain
what happened
and the third is to discuss what we
learned from it
after you do this please organize your
tasks
into paragraphs yes paragraphs
they are very important when you write
your article
i think we can introduce our difficult
experience
in our introduction in our first
paragraph
of course we will ask questions to the
reader
and we will add mystery this should be
about
30 words my difficult experience will be
when my internet went down for seven
days
and i was not able to watch smash
english videos seriously it was
traumatic god i just love watching my
own videos
i'm the only one that does the second
paragraph will talk about what happened
this will be
about 50 to 60 words
the third paragraph will talk about what
i
learned from the experience i learned
not to take anything in life for granted
especially smash english videos
i love them this will also be
50 to 60 words and my conclusion at the
very
end will be the take away point
what do i want the readers to think
about
or do after reading my article
and my takeaway point will be to
encourage the
readers to value the time they have with
the things that they care about
like smash english so they should all
subscribe
right now please thank you this will be
30 words or so but please do not worry
too much
about your word count do not i repeat
do not count how many words you have
written
in your exam because you do not have
time and the examiner
does not have the time either to be
counting your words
the point is if you write too little
then you probably have not included all
of the information
if you write too much then you are
probably talking about
irrelevant information and you will lose
marks
this is why you plan to avoid doing
these two things
and finally we need to write a title
my seven days of hell because
seven days without smashing english is
hell
it's terrible number four
the article is boring
an article is not an essay essays are
boring and
formal an essay is something that will
be read by
a teacher a boring teacher
like me oh see look i opened an
umbrella inside i did this inside
i'm crazy i'm not boring i'm really cool
kids love me
the target readers of an article are
usually people like
you a student someone cool
someone that reads a magazine yes
because people that read magazines are
cool
that is a fact this means you should
write your article
in an informal style use
contractions use phrasal verbs
an article is an opportunity for you to
be creative with the language
it allows you to tell a story it
allows you to ask the reader to start
thinking about
new and exciting ideas remember to use
short and long sentences to keep things
interesting remember to use ungradable
adjectives instead of saying i felt
very tired say i felt absolutely
exhausted it adds some life
and variety to your writing and if you
want to learn all about
ungradable adjectives there is a video
here
remember to use rhetorical questions to
involve
the reader use idioms like i did in my
introduction
instead of saying imagine having to pay
a lot
which is very boring i said imagine
having to pay
an arm and a leg to pay an arm
and a leg is an idiom that means to pay
a lot of money
that is so exciting what a brilliant
idiom
yes yes it is and if like me
you are very very funny try telling a
joke
in your article just do something add
some personality
don't be boring be boring in your essay
and be boring in your report
and be boring in a formal letter or
email but don't
be boring in an article no no one likes
a boring article
number five present simple present
simple
present simple okay
i don't seriously think that any of you
will try
and write your entire article in the
present simple
but you do need to use a variety of
grammar structures
this links 2.4 your article must be
interesting and you can make it
interesting by using a variety
of different grammatical forms so
let's have a look at my plan from before
about a terrible experience here is my
plan
so in my introduction i want the reader
to put themselves in my position
to imagine how terrible it was for me
so i have done this with a second
conditional interrogative
in the next paragraph i must describe
what happened
so i need to tell a little story
that means narrative tenses here i have
used the past simple
the past continuous and the past perfect
next i need to say what i learned from
the experience
well i learned to value what i have so
let's imagine how i would be now if my
internet has not come back that's a
mixed conditional
wow impressive of course if you want a
video all about
mixed conditionals it's in the top right
corner
right now yeah
and finally to leave my readers with a
takeaway point i have used a
second conditional to give advice a
modal verb to talk about
possibility and the passive
so remember you need an interesting
introduction
you need a point for the reader to think
about or something for them to do in the
conclusion
you must remember to plan your article
please do not be boring you should be
creative
when writing your article and please
please
please use a variety of grammar
structures
and if you do that you will write the
perfect
most magnificent article ever seen by
anyone
ever apart from mine mine was great
and with that we are finished
if you liked the video don't forget to
smash that like button subscribe if you
haven't already leave a comment down
below
my name is toby and this was smash
in english
you