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Hi, everybody.

Welcome back to top words.

My name is Alicia and today we're going to talk about 10 ways to improve your writing.

So let's go.

Don't use text speak.

Okay, So the first tip to improve your writing is don't use text, speak, text speak by that I mean, for example, like B r B or L O l or those kinds of words the words that you use on the Internet like S and Nasser in text messages with your friends.

Those very short like slang words T t y l or Ella Mae.

Oh, are those sorts of acronyms?

Do not use those in your formal writing.

If you are writing a letter, a business email, whatever.

Do not use those.

The only one that you can use in a business email.

So not in a letter of recommendation, not in a formal letter, but the only thing you can use.

That sort of text speak ish, eyes theocracy, M F Y I, which means for your information, you can use F Fly I in a mail to your colleagues in an email to your colleagues or your co workers.

But usually it's with somebody you have a good relationship with.

You can say F Y I In those cases, other texts speak other acronyms like that.

Don't use them.

You will sound immature.

You will sound, um, too casual.

Not a good idea.

Use proper punctuation.

The next hint is to use proper punctuation, proper punctuation, punctuation, for example.

We have commas.

We have periods semi Coghlan's Coghlan's apostrophes quotation marks, parentheses.

All of these are punctuation marks, the little points in our writing that tell readers where to stop reading or how sentences are connected.

Using proper punctuation in your writing will help your readers understand you.

And if your reader understands you well and you've used proper punctuation, you will also look.

It's smarter.

Do if you're not using proper punctuation like, for example, if you forget to use an apostrophe in a word, it's gonna look kind of bad.

Honestly, for example, if you use the word ah, your why o u apostrophe r e.

If you leave out the apostrophe if you just write y o u r e, it looks lazy.

It looks lazy, so make sure to use proper punctuation to avoid appearing lazy.

So don't forget your Little period's Kamen Semi colon is all that don't repeat the same vocabulary words.

The next tip is.

Don't repeat the same vocabulary.

Words don't repeat the same vocabulary words, she says, repeating the same sentence.

But don't repeat the same vocabulary.

Words means, if you are using, like an adjective, a specific adjective in a sentence.

Uh, don't use that same adjective in every other sentence.

Like try to use different adjectives to describe your points if you're always using exactly the same words to describe your point.

Like if, for example, I want to write about take.

If I want to write an article about cake and I just say this cake is delicious, this cake is so delicious.

I love this cake because it was delicious.

This was so delicious.

It's boring for the reader to read the same word every single sentence or and also you're not really communicating very much.

If I just used the word delicious to describe the cake.

The reader doesn't understand why the cake is delicious, so give more detail when you're sharing your opinions.

Of course, this time it's a very simple opinion about delicious cake, but use a variety of different adjectives.

Support your arguments with statements that use different vocabulary words, So don't always say the same word to describe something.

Try to use a lot of different vocabulary words and think a lot about different adjectives you can use.

If this is difficult for you, there is a tool you can use.

Ah, the English word for it is the source, the source.

So many of you know what a dictionary is a book or a resource to check the meaning of a word, But you can also use what's called a fist saurus.

With a thesaurus.

You can search for synonyms words, which have the same or similar meaning as other words.

So if I look for the word like delicious, I might get let's see, some synonyms for the word delicious might be yummy, tasty, good, um, delectable, for example.

So there are a whole range of other words that you can use if you find that you are using the same word in every sentence.

Try to find a different word.

You can use a fist saurus to help you do that.

So avoid using the same word in every sentence or avoid using this repeated vocabulary.

Words avoid use of very and really okay.

The next tip is to avoid the use of very and really by this I mean, instead of saying to go back to my kick example, the cake was very delicious.

The cake was really delicious.

Very and really are sort of lazy words.

Of course, they're very, very useful, huh?

They're very, very useful when we're speaking casually and when we're thinking quickly.

But if you're writing and you have some time to think about what you're writing, instead of using a word that's common like delicious and just attaching very like this cake is very delicious.

What's a different word?

That means very delicious.

So can I replace very and delicious with one different word, like scrumptious, for example, this cake is scrumptious.

Scrumptious means very delicious.

It's only one word, so if you can do this, if you apply a a word that means the same thing as very or really plus another word.

It's goingto level up your vocabulary, and you're going to reduce the number of words in the sentence.

So if I say this cake is very delicious, or if I say this cake is scrumptious, scrumptious has a much stronger meaning than just very delicious.

So avoiding the use of very and really can level up your speech quite significantly.

So give it a try.

Used transition words and phrases.

The next tip is to use transition.

Words and phrases use transition words and phrases, so transition words are words and well and phrases We used to move from one idea to the next idea so continuing in my cake example.

If I want to introduce my scrumptious cake and then I want to move on to a description of the store that sells that cake, I might use a transition phrase or some kind of sequence phrase to help me do that.

So if in paragraph A, I'm talking about my scrumptious cake and how much I enjoyed it in the chocolate flavors and the amazing frosting, I could use a transition phrase.

For example.

By the way, if you're interested, you can purchase this cake at ABC store, for example.

So in that case, my transition phrase was, by the way, a very casual transition phrase.

Depending on the kind of thing you're writing, you can use different transition phrases.

If you're writing an academic paper, for example, um, when you want to add information, you can say additionally, moreover, furthermore ah, you can also use Plus, if you'd like to add information, in addition, is another one that you can use.

So when you want to add information, there are some transition phrases or some ways to give MME or information.

Ah, you to describe a sequence you can say next.

Then following that, you can use your words like 1st 2nd 3rd 4th depending on the sequence, you can say subsequently or consequently as well.

So think about the relationship between the points you're introducing.

Think about all these different relationships.

How do you want to connect these ideas?

So instead of just listing your points each point, trying to think about how to connect those points naturally, Um, so depending on what you're writing, the words you use will change, which is fine.

But just think about the way you'd like your reader to understand your information and choose transition words and phrases accordingly, organize your writing intro body conclusion.

Okay, the next one is a tip about organization, so the next tip is organized.

Your paper.

Organize your writing into an introduction of body and a conclusion.

So these are the three basic elements of an academic paper or oven essay, perhaps an article.

A swell introduction is as it sounds, it's introducing the main points.

What are you going to talk about?

What is your opinion?

What is your argument?

We introduce that in the introduction, then next part is the body of the paper.

In other words, the main points, the your real arguments, everything you would like to say about the things you introduced in your introduction.

This is where you get into the details of that.

So the body of the paper is typically the longest part of the paper, the longest part of the essay.

So there's a lot of information in the body section.

Finally, the conclusion the conclusion of the paper concludes or finishes the paper in the conclusion you will summarize your points from the body of the paper, and you should connect those points to the items you introduced in the introduction of your paper.

So all of these elements, these three elements should connect together.

So if you are finding that it's difficult to organize your thoughts or you don't know how to approach your paper or this item, maybe even an email your writing, you can try to separate it into three sort of categories.

Introduction Body Conclusion.

So introduce idea, Explain idea, summarize idea.

This could be very helpful in writing.

Avoid use of second person.

Okay, The next tent is avoid use of second person, second person.

This is going to take a little explanation.

So in English writing we have three is sort of ways that we can write.

We can write in first person, which means, for example, I went to the store.

I wanted to buy something.

I met a friend.

So first person, I am the person sharing the story, sharing the information in second person, which is kind of rare, actually, except in very casual styles of writing.

Ah, the subject of the sentence is you like you go to the store, you buy some milk, you call your friend.

This is kind of rare.

We see this in Children's books and, like I say, in sort of informal articles online, third person style writing is using he, she and character names like he went to the store.

She called her mother.

They needed to see a doctor.

So there are these three types of writing in English language.

So first person, second person, third person.

Generally, when you are writing especially an academic paper, you'll use first person or third person to do that.

If you're writing something formal, you should probably not use second person.

Sometimes you'll see ah, a person describing an experiment, for example, like you should submerge the item in water, or you should bake this at 350 degrees.

Using you is fine and casual situations when you're giving instructions.

For example, if you find it in a recipe, fine.

It's kind of sounds a bit more casual, very informal.

Not so important, However, if you find that you are using you, you you in an academic paper.

It sounds a bit too casual, too informal, So please avoid use of second person so remind your second person is the subject of the sentence is you you.

So it sounds like you're kind of commanding the other person, commanding the reader or giving advice to the reader or telling the reader what to do.

It sounds very odd, so avoid use of second person in your writing.

Consider the tense you're using.

The next tip is to consider the tents you're using.

Consider the tense you're using.

So I'm just going to talk about two tenses here really presents tents and past tense so we can use the present tense on and the present continuous tends really to explain a story or to tell a story like it's actually happening.

So if I say like I go to the store, I see a friend of mine she's buying milk.

For example, if I use the present tense and I used the present continuous tense, it sounds like the listener.

Or if it's in writing, it sounds like that's actually happening.

It's easier for the listener or the reader to kind of experience the story in that moment.

So if you want to create some tension in your writing, if you want to create some excitement, you can use the present tense on its associated tenses to kind of heighten the energy level.

If you use past tense, however, you might create more of a report nuance.

So, for example, when you watch the evening news or you read the newspaper, you might find that it's written in past tense.

It's just reporting information.

What happened so simple?

Past tense is used past tense, and the other associated tenses in past tense are used.

So when you're writing, consider what do you want the reader to feel, or what do you want the reader to experience?

Are you writing a report?

Maybe you should just use presidents.

Are you writing about General Fax?

Then, if you're writing about a general fact, you should probably use present tense.

But if you want to create like a fiction story, for example, and you want your reader to experience the story and kind of feel enthusiastic or energetic about your story, present, tense and maybe continuous tense with present would be a better choice.

So just think about which tense you're using for your right consider appropriate vocabulary.

The next tip is to consider appropriate vocabulary.

Consider appropriate vocabulary.

So, depending on the type of thing you're writing, there are words that are good to use, and there are words that are not so good to use.

If you're writing an academic paper, for example, don't use casual words.

Don't use curse words in your paper.

Don't use anything that could be interpreted or could be understood as informal.

If you're writing something very casual, on the other hand, it's fine to use casual words.

It's fine to be informal to be a little bit funny, and it might sound strange if you do use informal words or extremely polite words.

So consider the appropriate kinds of vocabulary words to be using, depending on what you writing.