hi there this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English lessons with Harry where we try to help you to get a better understanding and how to use English in a better way whether it's in conversational English business English use of phrasal verbs adjectives whatever it happens to be we're here to help you and today we're going to do something a little bit different quite a few of you have been asking recently about how can you how can they improve their writing skills as I always tell students speaking and writing skills are very very different two very different skill sets all together when you're speaking it's of course important to be correct and polite but often when we speak something it's forgotten about quite quickly unfortunately when we write something it's there on record particularly if we're using email or some other form of text it's there for people to see and they can read it several times and therefore mistakes become a little bit more obvious and we have to be really really careful and we also have to be really careful how we write so we might be misinterpreted of course we can be misinterpreted when we speak but again when it's written down it's a little bit more in your line of view and people can comment and remark on it so there are different skills needed when we're speaking to people we're often speaking to our friends and colleagues and making little mistakes is not really so important to it as long as we are fluent when we're writing it can be a formal report it can be a letter for a job interview whatever it happens to be we really have to be more accurate we have to be accurate with our spelling punctuation but we also have to be uh careful with the sort of words that we use now there are lots and lots of platforms available in the apps to to help you I mean two of them would be just Google translate and grammarly lots of you use them I know that and they can be very useful at times but be really really careful okay because particularly with Google Translates it will give you a literal translation and with English there are so many different words you can use and if you've been watching and listening to my particular lessons over the last wee while you'll begin to understand that there are lots of synonyms for different words but not all of them can be used in substitution so you have to be really careful with literal translations because they can look a little bit silly a little strange and not what you perhaps intended when you use it okay with grammarly usually it's correct but I have noticed because I I use it just to check it with my students that from time to time it can actually throw up the wrong answer they may be little twists and variations that you have and unless you're a native speaker you won't know what they are so again just be careful if you use grammarly so my recommendation is not to use either of them to struggle on at the beginning to if you make mistakes okay you make mistakes but when you get corrected by somebody a professional teacher well then you're more likely to remember rather than relying on grammarly or Google Translate Okay so I've got a 10 point plan here that will improve your writing it will help you to improve your writing beyond what you would have expected it takes time but a lot of the students that I help and I have a specific course that I do with them that after a few weeks and a few exercises that I give them it you'd be surprised really really surprised how quickly their written skills and the writing they do can improve and quite dramatically so number one start with short and simple sentences I mean this sounds really really School type approach but it really does work lots of people come to me and they want to write really complex sentences or when they do send me a sentence there's no full stop there's no ending to it it goes on and on and the problem with that is if you don't have a proper control on those sentences you lose control of it you lose the point that you're trying to say and there'll be many many more grammar mistakes than you had intended so at the very beginning until you get a little bit more professional in your writing start with short and simple sentences a short simple structure okay and then you can build up and then when you build up you'll see where you can make improvements and where you can make it a little bit more complex but start with short simple and I have this k i s s keep it short and simple keep it short and simple k-i-s-s a general rule of thumb that I use if you want to State some facts give some facts then use short sentences you know if you're given data use short sentences if you want to describe something like the cow in the field or the dog in the park you can use longer sentences because you're going to use a lot more adjectives to describe what you see the long green shoots of new spring grass okay or the short legged barking dog you know whatever it might be you're going to use a lot more descriptive words and therefore with those type of descriptions you can afford to use longer sentences but when you're using facts the population of the country is 1.5 million full stop there are 50 of the population implied and 30 percent of the population under the age of 18 full stop short simple sentences facts okay move on to point number two focus on getting your sentences correct and brush up on your grammar so really really important at a very early stage to eliminate grammar mistakes If you eliminate the grammar mistakes then you can move on and start building those complex sentences that we spoke about you can start adding adjectives but if you've got a lot of grammar mistakes like the wrong preposition not using the Articles or using the wrong tense then you know no matter how far you go your English written English will always be poor so we want to eliminate those mistakes at a very early stage so focus on getting the correct grammar in all of your sentences make sure if you're going to use the present perfect that is the right tense to use if you're using the present continuous it's the right tends to you so and as I said before you get away with it when you're speaking you won't get away with it when you're writing number three reads as much and as often as you can apart from enjoyment you'll see and understand the structure of sentences you'll see and understand the difference between a sentence in the written format and a sentence in the spoken format okay you'll get to understand how people vary how you begin a sentence to change the way it's written to make it more enjoyable for the reader to make it more interesting to write and to avoid repetition so read as much and as often as you can of course books in English if you're writing in English so to see how authors do it but don't don't read classic books so much I mean they're really beautiful books by Charles Dickens or Bronte or whoever it might be that you've got an interest in by all means read them but remember that you're writing now in the 21st century so the books you should be reading if you want to improve on your written skill Fields should be those books that were also written in the 20th and 21st centuries because you know it's really show you Modern English modern conversation English how we use reported speech and other aspects and it's really really important to to read to look at and to learn okay what you can also do Point number four is to keep a diary okay now the diary is really important and this will help you to write short stories in English so if you keep a diary you get used to writing so it might be a diary just a few sentences about what you do every day or it might be a diary about what you see every day but it's a great way to practice now it might be handwritten diary or but of course you can use modern technology and you can record it as a Word document so it makes life a little bit easier but it's just something it can refer back to and something you can use when you want to write short stories so you should always try try and keep a notepad handy when you're reading a book or you're looking at the internet because you might want to write down or to capture really interesting sentences in a book that you hadn't heard of or a group of words or a collocation that you've seen that the author has used that might be quite interesting for you so you can record that write it down and you can use it later on okay and this is called sentence mining okay so to sentence mining is defined interesting collocations find interesting groups of words find interesting combinations and sentences that you could use to your advantage later on let's say sentence mining keep that in your diary and keep a notepad where you can keep a record number five avoid translating from your native or mother tongue into English this always causes problems what it causes is a hesitation it also causes you to use incorrect words and then you stop and you start and you get no fluency so try to think in English okay it might take you a little bit longer okay often when we're doing written exercises with my students I ask them how long did it take you to write that and you know if I've given them a short story to write or an essay of a couple hundred words it shouldn't really take more than 25 to 30 minutes but often it will take the early Learners 40 45 50 minutes 60 minutes that's okay don't worry about the time it takes you at the beginning it's much more important to get it accurate okay but the more you practice to think in English than the less time you will take to write it so you'll start thinking and using the words you start thinking and using the collocations you'll start thinking and putting the correct structure on your sentences so try to avoid thinking in your native tongue try to think in English write in English speak in English think in English Okay number six now here's an important point when you're writing particularly from a business perspective if you're writing a proposal or if you're writing a memo or you're writing a position paper whatever it happens to be be aware of the audience who's going to read it when I was a bit younger and I was writing I was always having mind that I'd expect the most senior person in my office my boss or his boss to read and they may not of course but I always imagined that they would be reading it and therefore I'd want to write the best I could possibly write not just to scribble down something not just to throw a few words together but to write something as clearly and as specific as I could be okay so I would focus on the grammar I would focus on making sure that I had the correct structure in my sentence I would focus on avoiding repetition because I I'm and also puncture in my old boss really really really didn't like bad punctuation so to make sure that you focus on those things to expect that the person the most important person that's in your office you expect them to read it and that will help you to focus and produce better written papers better written documents better written emails okay number seven this is important particularly in writing we have to be really really careful about the language that we use now I don't mean here about good and bad language and swear words of course you shouldn't use them particularly in a written format but the register okay whether we're talking about formal or informal really really important okay if we're writing a business proposal a business paper we should always write it in a formal way if we're replying to a client unless the client has asked us to be informal then we should be more formal than informal if we're writing emails to a colleague in the next floor well then of course we can be informal in that way we don't have to write everything so formal so be aware and focused on the level or lack of formality in your written papers in your written emails in your written letters whatever it might be just be really really conscious of that be conscious of how you address somebody you know if it's somebody you don't know and you don't know the name Dear Sir if it's somebody that you're if you're writing a letter of complaint then it's going to be Yours Faithfully at the end not you know not best wishes or anything like that so really be conscious of who you're writing to be conscious of why you're writing to them and be conscious of whether it's going to be formal or informal and get that right and correct structure when we're talking about structure Point number eight is to make sure that you do actually have a structure in mind you know often when people start to write they just start writing and they have no idea who they're going to write to why they're writing to them and more importantly how they're going to structure it so have a think about it before you're right before you put pen to paper for before you type anything think about the reasons why you're writing this email is it a letter of complaints so what should be the the sense of it okay that the temperature of your of your letter or you're writing a letter to congratulate somebody so how should you write that if you're writing an invitation how should you write that okay so really think about it and then when you're thinking about that what should be the tone is it formal informal is it Pleasant is it complaining are you going to be really strong or they're going to be soft words how are you going to write that so when you get that in your mind then you can start writing and you'll find that there'll be a much better flow of words because you'll have given it some thought so so have in mind that you're going to have an introduction for example if we're going to write a letter of complaint we want to tell the person at the very beginning why we are writing to them we are writing to you to complain about something okay then tell them what you're complaining about tell them why you're complaining it didn't work when you bought it you took it back to the shop they wouldn't replace it etc etc so set out particularly and specifically what your complaints are and then when you come to the end tell them specifically what you want to happen I want this product to be replaced I want it to be replaced immediately I want my money back I want whatever you want you have to set it out and tell them okay and then you just sign it and you may give them instruction I would expect to get a reply within two days within three days by next week tell them exactly when you expect to get a response so when you have that in your mind and you can picture the in your mind it's much easier for you to set it out on paper because you can see it okay so don't go into something blindly think about it think about the words think about the tone think about the the tense and then committed to paper okay and then you're out in a much better shape now when you've written something like that particularly if it's a letter of complaint well I would suggest is that you write it and then you walk away from it for 30 minutes go back to it and read it and see are you happy with the way you've written it because you might have written it much too formal or you might have written it in a much more hurtful tone I intended or you might it might be too harsh okay so what you don't want is to write something press the button and send it without checking it because there are bound to be mistakes in it particularly if it's not your native language okay so you should really give yourself a little bit of time to check it to read it and then to send it particularly if you're talking about job offers if you're writing a covering letter for a job interview or a covering letter for a position or a place in University don't please don't write it and expect that they would be happy if it's full of mistakes I wouldn't have I got it and I doubt that the university will be happy because you know they're going to assess you on your English ability and if you're Written Letter going into them is badly written but it's not going to reflect so well on you okay now Point number nine then is to perhaps take an English class if you need one to work on some of these points that I've mentioned indeed you could do with a second pair of eyes to look at your written work somebody that can help you somebody can set you assignments what I do with the the students I have I start them off as I said with some simple English I get them to write sentences that will enable me to identify and point out mistakes and then I'm able to structure how the future written lessons should go okay so then when I've gone on from these simple examples I might give them just four words for example there was a bird sitting on the wall then I asked them just to write a little story around that 80 words 100 Words and you'd be surprised the mistakes people make you'd be surprised how they lack adjectives to describe what the bird looked like but then we can build up so we correct the first six or seven sentences increase or improve the adjectives we use and then after several attempts we have a really good descriptive passage or short story to describe the birds sitting on the wall of the man standing beside the Lamppost outside the house yeah so just simple situations but enables you to write in a professional way after a while in a structured way after a while you've avoided repetition this is a really really key problem with writing is how much repetition there is and the reason why there is a need for repetition is the fact that the vocabulary is limited if you don't have more adjectives or more verbs or nouns well of course there's going to be repetition and it's not your fault it's just you need a teacher that's going to help you not to use change change change think think persuade persuade persuade you have to use other words to change to alter to amend to adjust to think to contemplate to mull over you need other words other Expressions that will help you to write in a much better clearer and informed way so that's number nine take an English class with a recognized teacher and have another person review that work particularly if it's a job application if it's an application for University course these are really the critical times when you want your written English to be as good as it possibly can and the final Point feel free in the lessons to make mistakes if you don't make mistakes you don't make anything I'm absolutely guaranteed everybody who started off certainly with me in their in their written English I allow them the flexibility to just write and write don't worry about mistakes mistakes can be corrected the problem is if you don't have any thoughts any ideas to start with all the issues about repetition all the issues about unknown words all the issues about wrong prepositions don't worry about it put them down see how you feel and then the teacher will help you to improve that how to squeeze out those little mistakes that you make and you'll you'll begin to enjoy your writing you'll begin to see for yourself where you have repetition you'll begin to self-correct and those are the really key critical steps that you'll have to take when you want to improve your writing okay so that's my 10 point plan how you can improve your basic writing skills the nuts and it isn't rocket science a lot of it is common sense but unless you know it you can't do it okay so you have to apply it so have a look at the 10 points that I've made if you need any help but if you want any suggestions please come back to me really really important as I said is to read as much as you can and it's great to read they don't have to be huge books but just to read on a frequent and regular basis it will really help you okay so I hope that this particular lesson my 10 point plan will help you I look forward to reading your good English in the future if you need anything else please ask me you can contact me on www.englishlesson via Skype very happy to help you and very happy to hear from you and as always join me for the next lesson