Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com and this is
episode 16 of the To Fluency Podcast.
And like the title says, we are going to talk about writing
today and more specifically 6 tips to help you improve your
writing. Now, before we go into those
tips, it's important to know that writing is one of the four
skills of English where we have reading, writing, listening, and
speaking. So reading and listening are
both input skills, whereas speaking and writing are output
skills. And obviously when you're having
a conversation with somebody, you're speaking and listening at
the same time. And this is a difficult thing to
do. So when you think I can't speak
in English, it's difficult to have conversations in English.
No, that is normal because what you're having to do is to think
about the grammar, the vocabulary, your, the way you
speak, the sounds of English. And you also have to listen and
understand what the other person is saying.
Whereas when you're reading, you can take your time to understand
something and look up new words and phrases.
And if you want to learn about my reading method, then listen
to episode, I'll put it in the description too.
I'm just looking it up now, Episode 10 of the To Fluency
podcast. If you're listening on iTunes or
elsewhere. Now with writing, I think it's a
great skill to practice for a few reasons, because when it
comes to writing, it's an output skill, but you can take your
time where when you're speaking, if you're having a conversation,
then you're you're obviously having to speak to people in a
spontaneous way to adapt, to think about what you're saying
and to, to speak more quickly. Whereas when it comes to
writing, think about just sitting in your office or in
your bedroom or at school, wherever it is at your kitchen
table with a computer or a pencil and pen and just taking
your time to create sentences, to write paragraphs, to keep a
diary if that's something you want to do, where you can go
into Google, look up new words and phrases, type in a phrase
into Google to see if it works, and also use different apps,
which we're going to talk about later.
So I see writing as a great skill to help you formalize,
which means create your own sentences without feeling
rushed, without having to do this quickly within a
conversation. So think about how you can
implement more writing into your daily schedule and enjoy it.
Don't feel pressure, feel like what you can do is take what you
have learned recently and try to create your own sentences from
it. So let's go into the six tips
now, and like I say, be sure to check out the description for
some of the links I'm going to mention.
Now, the first tip is going to be quite specific, especially if
you're studying for the iOS exam or if you're using English in a
very specific way, for example, for your job.
And this is to focus on the writing style need.
So focus on the writing style you need.
So think about the way you're going to write in English if you
need to do this for a specific reason.
So if it's for the iOS exam, focus on that.
If you have to write speeches for work, focus on that.
If you need to write emails at work, focus on that.
But also, if you want to learn conversational English, then you
can write like you're having a conversation.
OK, so just some ideas for you. You can make a story, You can
create a story if it's a conversation English.
You can also write in like a diary to write your thoughts
about your day. And I think this is a great
thing to do for any learner. I do this on a daily basis just
just as a great exercise where I talk about my day, what I did
yesterday. I talk about my write about my
goals. I write about what I want to do.
For example, yesterday I row let's write some reels or shorts
for the next week, which are the mini videos for Instagram and
YouTube. And I'm saying do 3 to 4 this
week and get another podcast done, one that focuses on how to
learn English, which is what I'm doing right now.
So this is something I wrote yesterday.
And just doing that on a daily basis will help you just get
into the habit of writing for English.
So tip 1 is to focus on the writing style you need if you
are going to write specifically for something.
But then if you're just wanting to improve your English in a
general sense, I highly recommend doing a daily diary.
So it makes you do it on a daily basis and then also thinking
about ways to write something conversational.
And another thing to do is then to, if you watch a YouTube video
of one of mine, for example, like one of our conversations,
then you can write some thoughts about that YouTube video.
Now tip 2 is to find examples of text and copy them.
Now what I've been talking about so far with writing is more of a
creative role where you're writing in your diary, you're
putting your thoughts across, you're creating a story, that
type of thing. But another way to improve your
writing is to imitate other writers.
Now, if you've followed me for a while, you'll know about my
method that will help you with your general English and
especially your speaking, where you listen to an audio phrase,
you repeat that phrase, you record it, so then you can
listen back to it, and then you compare your version to the
original and think about making changes.
That's the speaking method that I've been teaching for a long
time. But we can do this for writing
to where what you do is you just find any kind of text and you
copy it down. I like to do this, or I think a
good idea if you're thinking about the text to find is, for
example, IELTS exams, get the IELTS model answers.
If you're doing it for like emails, find e-mail templates
and just copy them down. And what I'm saying here is not
to copy them for an exam or copy them for your specific e-mail.
But the way I like to see is you put on some relaxing music, you
get a cup of tea or your favorite type of drink, and then
you simply read a sentence, copy the sentence, read a sentence,
copy the sentence. And you don't focus too much on
the language here. You're not trying to memorize
anything. Instead, you're just writing
things down and copying things. And I think this is a great
method to try because you're going to naturally internalise
sentence structures and writing styles.
And if you do this again for specific purposes, that's going
to be great. But you can also just do this
with any sentences that you find online.
For example, let's say I do a video on 10 key phrases.
You can take those phrases, write them down, copy them down
in a notebook, and then if you want to then expand on this and
create your own sentences, then use the app that we're going to
talk about later. But this is a great way to
internalise sentence structures, word order, and also a powerful
way to learn grammar. 2 Now, another way to this is the tip 3
is basically about how you can improve your writing.
OK. And it's it's using a different
skill and the tip is this to read a lot.
So to read a lot because this is will be one of the most vital
ways for you to help become familiar with the way that
English is written. And it's also going to help you
spot the mistakes you're making in the moment.
And if you copy passages from what you're reading, it can also
help you overcome mistakes that you're making.
And I think graded readers is a great place to start.
And again, go to episode 10 to learn more about reading.
And I'm not going to talk much about this because, you know, as
a learner, you'll probably know the power of reading and how it
can help you. But it's going to help your
writing too, because it's going to give you the input you need
to then create something. But like I say, also just
copier. So when whenever you read
something, think about copying a few paragraphs, especially ones
that interest you or paragraphs that contain the type of
language that you think is relevant.
Tip 4 is about practice and getting feedback.
So it's important to get feedback on your writing so that
you can overcome mistakes. Now Tip 5 is going to give you
an app that will help you with this.
But here what I want to get across in Tip 4 is just to feel
like practicing is a good thing to do and to implement this into
your daily routine or your learning routine.
So after trying the copying tactic where you copy text and
you start to feel a little bit more confident, do some writing
exercises and try to find a teacher or somebody who can
correct you. Now, there are ways to do this
for free. There are different apps you can
use for this and I'll leave some of them in the description
below, but also join the group Learn English with Jack on
Facebook. So search for Learn English with
Jack on Facebook and copy your writing text into there and ask
the people to give you feedback. You can do this on different
forums as well, but there are apps you can use for this, or
you can pay a teacher who's going to just give you that
extra attention and go through the writing tasks that you do.
And this is especially important if you're doing the IOPS exam
and you need to get that feedback for your exam or if
you're given a speech or if you're writing an important
proposal for your work or writing a project for your work
where you can get somebody who really goes in there and
corrects things for you. Now tip 5 is to use apps that
are not just going to correct your spelling, but they're also
going to correct your grammar. Now I'll leave a link in the
description for my favorite 1 here and it's an affiliate link.
It's free to use, but if you decide to get the paid version,
then I will get a little Commission if you use my link.
So feel free to use that link. But this is a an app with a web
browser extension and also an app and it also integrates into
your e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, different apps that
you use so that when you're writing, let's say you write
something like he has. Well, let's think of a mistake
that is quite common. I enjoy to go to the beach.
It will say no, not to go, but I enjoy going to the beach.
So it's going to help you with verb patterns, grammar,
prepositions. If you use the incorrect
preposition, it will tell you. So it's going to help you
improve your grammar as you're writing, but it's also going to
give you tips and advice and more examples so that you can
just remember these rules in the future.
I think this is an app that everybody needs.
So definitely check out the description under tip 5 and use
the link that I leave there. Now tip number six is to take
your time and search for new sentences to learn and practice.
OK, So take your time when you're when you're writing,
enjoy it and also search for the sentences and phrases that you
want to use. And a way to search for a phrase
is to use things like dictionary apps and things like that.
But also you can just type things into Google.
You can either do this in a general sense, or you can put
the quotation marks over it. So it's an exact phrase.
So if you're unsure about something like I just done a
lesson on everyday versus everyday, and I'm just going to
do this. You can hear me typing.
If I type in I learn English every day is 2 words then I get
or if I just say I learn English everyday, sorry, yeah, I get
94,000 results. And then if I type in I learn
English everyday one word, it's 28,000.
And in those cases it it shows you that the one with the more
results generally means it's the correct one.
But also the app in tip 5 will help you with that anyway.
And what you can do here is what when you type phrases into
Google, a lot of the time you can put ESL on the end and it's
going to give you articles or forum posts that will talk about
that phrase and it will give you that phrase and it will say
write it like this or write it like that.
And this is what I mean by taking your time so you can look
for the correct phrase and websites that are going to help
you with that so that when you're writing, you are making
sure it's correct as you write and then obviously getting
feedback or using an app to help you with that.
So those are the six tips. What I recommend you do again is
I think one of the best things you can do is to keep a daily
diary or a journal where you just put down your thoughts
about anything. What you did yesterday, what you
want to do today, what you're grateful for, what you're happy
about, your goals, etcetera. And that just gets you into the
habit, right, of using everyday English in a way that you might
talk about to other people. So you can even just write about
what you enjoyed about the TV show you watched last night.
Just anything, your thoughts on anything, but especially things
that you like to talk about in daily conversations because
that's the type of English you're going to use.
And then use the copy method where you can just absorb
English and learn it in a natural way, especially if you
want to learn it for a specific reason.
And then use the app that I mentioned in tip 5 so that it
gives you instant feedback on the way you're writing and if
you're writing in the correct way.
And then get feedback from a teacher if you really want to
get that specialised feedback. So I hope you found that useful
if you are listening on one of the podcast platforms and please
leave a review and also share it with your friend.
If you're watching on YouTube, welcome to you as well.
I'll leave some links in the description and especially the
links I've mentioned and then feel free to watch another video
after this one. OK, well, thanks for being here
today and I will speak to you soon.
Bye bye.