There are some things you can't learn quickly. Spelling, grammer, word choice and sentence construction take years of practice before you feel comfortable expressing your ideas. However, there are a few simple things you can do to improve your writing today. In this tutorial we'll give you the tips to write a successful essay, even if English is not your native language.
The main focus of this tutorial will be organization. If the word "organization" makes you uncomfortable, you're not alone. Everybody hates the idea of structuring our sentences into some cookie-cutter format. When I was a kid I refused to cooperate with my teachers as they tried to teach us any kind of method for writing. I was creative, had a flare with words, and got straight A's anyway. Why should I have to do the 5-part process which included brainstorming, prewriting, a first rough draft, a second rough draft and finally a finished paper?
Now that I'm older and wiser (and spend a great deal of my time writing and editing academic essays) I've learned that organization is a necessary tool to make writing easy, quick and great. Unless you're trying to write the next post-modern novel, any kind of writing can benefit from proper organization.
Step One - The Outline
Never, ever start writing an essay without knowing what you want to say. An outline is a simple way to organize your ideas into manageable content. It will not only let you write your essay much faster, but also much better.
Many people will want to skip past this step to learn "more important things". You probably know all about outlines and don't think they can help you - you want to learn to write better. Take my word for it, making outlines a writing habit will make a huge difference in your writing.
Why? Because it will also help follow these rules:
An essay should have only one subject
Each paragraph should have one topic which supports the subject
Each topic should give at least three specific examples as evidence
Each sentence should be organized and linked with transitions
Most people start by writing the essay, and then go back and try to organize it later. I tried this process when I wrote my first book, and 5 years later it's still not as organized or clear as I want it to be. The problem is, after you have a bunch of great sentences, it is really difficult to move them around or have the ideas link together logically. You'll spend a lot of time moving things around, which can actually make the paper more complicated and difficult to read.
Even if your writing is excellent, bad organization can kill a paper. And its such an easy thing to do! So, at the risk of repeating myself: always make a detailed outline before you start writing.
Step Two - The Content:
Now that you're ready to start with an outline, you've got to figure out what to put inside. In other words, what kind of content should be in your paper. Here is a basic plan for a typical five-paragraph essay:
INTRODUCTION: The introduction is your chance to make a good first impression on your reader - you have to capture their interest. Also - you need to say exactly what you're essay will be about.
Background information. Get the reader's attention using one or more of the following:
Anecdotes
Quotations
Questions
Facts and Statistics
Thesis Statement. Your thesis statement should have two aims - to provide the topic and the approach of your essay. The topic is what you will talk about, the subject, and the approach is what is interesting about the topic, or the focus.
For example, the thesis statement "I will talk about the rain forest" is too broad. What about the rain forest? If you think the US consumption of beef is a major factor in rain forest depletion, then say so in your thesis statement. It should be clear: "The US consumption of beef is a major factor in rain forest depletion." If this is your thesis, you can catch the reader's attention immediately with some fancy data, like "89% of the world's oxygen supply comes from South American rainforests - forests which are being cut down at an alarming rate."
BODY: The body is where you can provide evidence to support your thesis. A typical essay will have about 3 paragraphs in the body. Each paragraph will begin with a Topic Sentence which states the main supporting point of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph will be filled with supporting details, examples and facts.
CONCLUSION:The conclusion makes final comments by doing one or more of the following:
Restating Main Points
Asking a Question
Suggesting a Solution
Making a Recommendation
Making a Prediction Step Three - The Writing:
Once you have your outline, you can start filling in blocks of text with sentences. As long as your paper has one clear focus and you write topic sentences for each paragraph, your essay will be pretty clear.
Try to write in a smooth, conversational voice as if you were talking to someone on the phone. Use transitional words to introduce ideas (also, another reason, besides, finally, first of all, furthermore, in addition, moreover, most importantly, one reason, the third reason) and to give examples (especially, for example, for instance, specifically, such as).
Generally, you want to avoid complicated or flowery language for an academic paper. Focus on clear, smooth writing. Let the facts and data speak for themselves. However brave students and writers can use stylistic techniques to write a stronger paper. It is risky when you're just learning, but great writers - even academic writers, make their writing stand out with by adding style.
HOW TO WRITE BEAUTIFULLY: Style is the hardest thing to learn, and to teach. Read magazines like National Geographic to get a feel for stylistic writing. They use run-on sentences, began sentences with 'And', and drop little-used-gems like "Moniker". They can get away with it because they are aiming for an intelligent consumer base who enjoys beautiful and intelligent writing.
In general, you can improve your writing style with these tips:
Use a lot of adjectives and adverbs
Describe each thought as fully as possible
Link ideas together in longer sentences
Try to create mental images by using metaphors and similes
Choose your words carefully - pick words that carry emotion
Instead of saying, "the man rode a horse to school", you can say, "The strong man rode his horse roughly towards the school," or "The elegant man and his horse moved as one, racing across the plains like a gust of wind towards the school."
Step Four - Editing:
Read your paper again. Sentences that have more than one main idea need to be broken up. Sentences that do not support a paragraph's topic sentence, or do not directly support the Thesis Statement, should be removed. Flowery language, big words, and artistic writing should usually be cut out. You want your writing clean, simple and easy to read. (At least for an essay - you are writing to inform or persuade, not to entertain.)
Take another look at your title - make it sharp and engaging.
Now that you've finished your essay, check your Thesis Statement again and make sure it covers exactly what your essay is talking about. Sometimes your essay will evolve, and cover a more interesting, but slightly different topic. That's fine, but change your Thesis Statement to agree with it.
Step Five - Proofreading:
The last step to writing an essay is proofreading. Check your essay for punctuation, capitalization, and indentation. Make sure the format is consistent, the line spacing and page numbers are right, and the references are formatted correctly. Check your "Its" and It's", and your "There" and "Theirs". Little things are the hardest things to catch, especially editing your own paper.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Great Essay Writing Website
It's a funny thing about websites - the oldest sites usually come up first in search results because they've been around for a long time. A lot of these sites are cluttered and ugly, poorly designed with flashing pastel colors and awful graphics. Even worse, since they get so many visitors, they throw on as many Google Adwords as they can fit in the page, and sell links for extra cash.
The Champion of the ESL Websites, incidentally is Dave's ESL cafe - which now charges several hundred dollars a month for a link placement (man is that guy rich) - but thankfully has redecorated its pages so that it is finally easy on the eyes.
But that's not what I want to write about. The point of this post is to introduce EssayInfo, one of the best essay writing tutorial/tips pages on the web. It's new, it's easy to navigate, and it has tons of very well written articles covering all kinds of paper and essay writing. Check it out.
Why? You may think improving your English writing just takes hard work and practice, and that learning the basics over and over won't help you. Wrong. Even seasoned writers have trouble with the exact same issues...organization most of all. Yes it's easy - the problem is it is so easy and basic, most writers forget about it until after they've written their essay. You can't organize an essay after it's written! Do it the easy way. Follow a step-by-step plan, build it from the ground up, start from the foundations, and so on. You'll thank me for it later.
The Champion of the ESL Websites, incidentally is Dave's ESL cafe - which now charges several hundred dollars a month for a link placement (man is that guy rich) - but thankfully has redecorated its pages so that it is finally easy on the eyes.
But that's not what I want to write about. The point of this post is to introduce EssayInfo, one of the best essay writing tutorial/tips pages on the web. It's new, it's easy to navigate, and it has tons of very well written articles covering all kinds of paper and essay writing. Check it out.
Why? You may think improving your English writing just takes hard work and practice, and that learning the basics over and over won't help you. Wrong. Even seasoned writers have trouble with the exact same issues...organization most of all. Yes it's easy - the problem is it is so easy and basic, most writers forget about it until after they've written their essay. You can't organize an essay after it's written! Do it the easy way. Follow a step-by-step plan, build it from the ground up, start from the foundations, and so on. You'll thank me for it later.
Friday, October 12, 2007
How to Give a Great Speech
Giving a great speech is a lot like writing a great paper - you need to know what you're going to say, have a purpose for every sentence, stay on task and don't get distracted, and remember who your audience is.
People who love to talk are usually over-confident about speech giving. The first 5 minutes are often excellent, very charming, confident and funny. But then, these speakers are unsure of how to conclude, they haven't been keeping track of their time, they aren't sure if the audience is responding to them, and they began to wander between random topics, searching for something funny to say.
In desperation they turn to the audience and ask, "Does anyone have anything to ask me, or something they'd like me to talk about?"
Don't let this be you! Follow this simple guide to speech giving:
1) Your audience wants to learn new things without being bored. If you're giving a speech, it's probably because you know or have done something interesting and have been invited to share experiences. Personal anecdotes, or funny stories, can be used liberally. However, make sure your story stays on topic and illustrates a point. If the story is only for entertainment purposes, after about 5 stories the speech will seem trivial and people will be bored.
Also - don't make the stories about yourself. Don't brag, or talk too much about your feelings or opinions.
This may seem obvious, but many researchers are proud of how they did the research, and want to share this with their audience. Unless the method is the aim of the presentation, nobody will care about the how, all they want to know is the what - what does your research discover, how is it useful, why does it matter, and what implications it may have.
2) Don't WHINE. I've seen a lot of speeches recently where people complain about how they've been treated, or how they didn't like such-and-such...
Always keep your message positive. If you have a criticism, make sure it's connected to a plan of action that you are enthusiastic about - a way to change the negative into a positive. Otherwise, don't bring it up. You will not "bond" with your audience by complaining about things you hope they also don't like.
3) Engage your Audience. For every 3 minutes you speak, you need to interact with your audience in some way. The best way to invite opinion is right after you introduce a subject, but before you say anything about it. "I'm going to talk about ice cream. Raise your hand if you like ice cream. How many of you like vanilla ice cream? Which country do you think eats the most ice cream?" Illicit questions to get them involved in the speech. Have them guess the answers you want to present, rather than just giving information. This will generate authentic interest, and they will remember more if they are participating.
3) Make An Outline
Having a clear plan for your speech will help you stay on track, keep you aware of the time, and make sure your speech progresses naturally. Start with an introduction - add in several main points that you want to discuss - end with a conclusion. Thank the audience and leave.
An outline is better than a written speech. Reading a written paper is the worst way to give a presentation. Just make notes of the main topics and ideas, but express is naturally, in your own words. Use lots of examples.
4) Watch Your Timing!
I've been to several conferences where every single speaker went over their allotted time by as much as 30 minutes. Taking a long time to say what you have to say does not make you seem more important. It is rude to the speakers who come after you, and to the audience. If you go over your time limit, they will stop listening to you anyway.
Time management is a critical skill, especially in making a speech or presentation, and you won't be taken seriously as a professional if you can't manage to deliver a powerful yet concise speech. Include an estimate of how long each segment of your speech will take. Stick to the schedule, say what you need to say, get off stage with dignity.
5) Include Visuals
The attention span of the average adult is 8 seconds. Unless you are a master at giving speeches, vivacious, funny, with the facial expressions of a Shakespearean actor and the voice of a bard, you can be sure that your audience will be bored of you after only a few minutes. Your audience is trying to be polite and listen carefully - make it easy for them.
The easiest way to do this is by using a PowerPoint presentation or slide show, but effective speeches (like effective teaching) will also use props and demonstrations to illustrate key points.
6) PowerPoint Presentation
Make a simple outline and put the main points in it. Do not fill the slide with a long passage, keep it short. Do not read your presentation from the screen. Make sure your PowerPoint looks good, has lots of pictures or animations that illustrate points.
Start from Slide 1, and go through to the last slide. Don't jump around between different slides - this shows lack of foresight and planning.
Most importantly, make sure that your PowerPoint is error-free! Having typos and spelling errors on a presentation (especially coming from a Ph.D. in Literature) is embarrassing. If you don't have time to proofread, send it to us! We'll make sure it's perfect.
People who love to talk are usually over-confident about speech giving. The first 5 minutes are often excellent, very charming, confident and funny. But then, these speakers are unsure of how to conclude, they haven't been keeping track of their time, they aren't sure if the audience is responding to them, and they began to wander between random topics, searching for something funny to say.
In desperation they turn to the audience and ask, "Does anyone have anything to ask me, or something they'd like me to talk about?"
Don't let this be you! Follow this simple guide to speech giving:
1) Your audience wants to learn new things without being bored. If you're giving a speech, it's probably because you know or have done something interesting and have been invited to share experiences. Personal anecdotes, or funny stories, can be used liberally. However, make sure your story stays on topic and illustrates a point. If the story is only for entertainment purposes, after about 5 stories the speech will seem trivial and people will be bored.
Also - don't make the stories about yourself. Don't brag, or talk too much about your feelings or opinions.
This may seem obvious, but many researchers are proud of how they did the research, and want to share this with their audience. Unless the method is the aim of the presentation, nobody will care about the how, all they want to know is the what - what does your research discover, how is it useful, why does it matter, and what implications it may have.
2) Don't WHINE. I've seen a lot of speeches recently where people complain about how they've been treated, or how they didn't like such-and-such...
Always keep your message positive. If you have a criticism, make sure it's connected to a plan of action that you are enthusiastic about - a way to change the negative into a positive. Otherwise, don't bring it up. You will not "bond" with your audience by complaining about things you hope they also don't like.
3) Engage your Audience. For every 3 minutes you speak, you need to interact with your audience in some way. The best way to invite opinion is right after you introduce a subject, but before you say anything about it. "I'm going to talk about ice cream. Raise your hand if you like ice cream. How many of you like vanilla ice cream? Which country do you think eats the most ice cream?" Illicit questions to get them involved in the speech. Have them guess the answers you want to present, rather than just giving information. This will generate authentic interest, and they will remember more if they are participating.
3) Make An Outline
Having a clear plan for your speech will help you stay on track, keep you aware of the time, and make sure your speech progresses naturally. Start with an introduction - add in several main points that you want to discuss - end with a conclusion. Thank the audience and leave.
An outline is better than a written speech. Reading a written paper is the worst way to give a presentation. Just make notes of the main topics and ideas, but express is naturally, in your own words. Use lots of examples.
4) Watch Your Timing!
I've been to several conferences where every single speaker went over their allotted time by as much as 30 minutes. Taking a long time to say what you have to say does not make you seem more important. It is rude to the speakers who come after you, and to the audience. If you go over your time limit, they will stop listening to you anyway.
Time management is a critical skill, especially in making a speech or presentation, and you won't be taken seriously as a professional if you can't manage to deliver a powerful yet concise speech. Include an estimate of how long each segment of your speech will take. Stick to the schedule, say what you need to say, get off stage with dignity.
5) Include Visuals
The attention span of the average adult is 8 seconds. Unless you are a master at giving speeches, vivacious, funny, with the facial expressions of a Shakespearean actor and the voice of a bard, you can be sure that your audience will be bored of you after only a few minutes. Your audience is trying to be polite and listen carefully - make it easy for them.
The easiest way to do this is by using a PowerPoint presentation or slide show, but effective speeches (like effective teaching) will also use props and demonstrations to illustrate key points.
6) PowerPoint Presentation
Make a simple outline and put the main points in it. Do not fill the slide with a long passage, keep it short. Do not read your presentation from the screen. Make sure your PowerPoint looks good, has lots of pictures or animations that illustrate points.
Start from Slide 1, and go through to the last slide. Don't jump around between different slides - this shows lack of foresight and planning.
Most importantly, make sure that your PowerPoint is error-free! Having typos and spelling errors on a presentation (especially coming from a Ph.D. in Literature) is embarrassing. If you don't have time to proofread, send it to us! We'll make sure it's perfect.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
English Editing Software
There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal this week about English Editing Software. If you've had a chance to use Microsoft Office 2007, you know the spellchecker and grammarchecker have been updated to catch more mistakes. That's nice, but Microsoft's grammarchecker doesn't really do enough to catch errors.
A much nicer program is called StyleWriter. (http://www.stylewriter-usa.com/)
StyleWriter is great for reminding you when to use "its" or "it's" and other commonly confused words. It warns you when your sentences are too long, scolds you when you use big words instead of simple ones, and hates it when you use redundancies. If you follow its suggestions, you can trim you writing down and make it very concise. However, because academic writing is often supposed to be obtuse, difficult, and well. . . academic, if you make it too clear and simple it will read like a newspaper article rather than a journal submission.
WhiteSmoke is another editing software. What's best about WhiteSmoke is they have a free webpage to try it out. WhiteSmoke will find weak words and offer to substitute it with better ones through its thesaurus. It also offers "enrichment" words, modifying adverbs or adjectives, which can further enhance your meaning. This may be effective in helping native speakers improve their vocabulary and word choice, but I don't think its helpful for non-native English speakers. Try it out here!
In fact, ESL students often have a much better vocabulary than the average native speaker. The trouble is when they try to use all those big words at the same time, stringing academic jargon together into run-on sentences. This kind of writing is often technically correct: free from errors or mistakes. However, it can take a native speaker a lot of time to figure out just what is being said, what the point is, and how it connects to the other information being presented in the paper. A great solution for non-native graduate students in particular is called BullFighter. A free microsoft plugin that looks for unnecessarily obtuse language and fancy words. Bullfighter will let you know if your writing is too complex, relying more on catchwords, rhetoric and gibberish than real content. Download it for Free!
I'm also a huge fan of translation software like Babelfish or Google's Language Tools. Maybe some day, we won't need editors at all. We won't even need translation. We'll just speak into a tiny microphone and our words will automatically be converted to any language, and typed out perfectly for us. Until then, come visit us at www.mypaperperfect.com
A much nicer program is called StyleWriter. (http://www.stylewriter-usa.com/)
StyleWriter is great for reminding you when to use "its" or "it's" and other commonly confused words. It warns you when your sentences are too long, scolds you when you use big words instead of simple ones, and hates it when you use redundancies. If you follow its suggestions, you can trim you writing down and make it very concise. However, because academic writing is often supposed to be obtuse, difficult, and well. . . academic, if you make it too clear and simple it will read like a newspaper article rather than a journal submission.
WhiteSmoke is another editing software. What's best about WhiteSmoke is they have a free webpage to try it out. WhiteSmoke will find weak words and offer to substitute it with better ones through its thesaurus. It also offers "enrichment" words, modifying adverbs or adjectives, which can further enhance your meaning. This may be effective in helping native speakers improve their vocabulary and word choice, but I don't think its helpful for non-native English speakers. Try it out here!
In fact, ESL students often have a much better vocabulary than the average native speaker. The trouble is when they try to use all those big words at the same time, stringing academic jargon together into run-on sentences. This kind of writing is often technically correct: free from errors or mistakes. However, it can take a native speaker a lot of time to figure out just what is being said, what the point is, and how it connects to the other information being presented in the paper. A great solution for non-native graduate students in particular is called BullFighter. A free microsoft plugin that looks for unnecessarily obtuse language and fancy words. Bullfighter will let you know if your writing is too complex, relying more on catchwords, rhetoric and gibberish than real content. Download it for Free!
I'm also a huge fan of translation software like Babelfish or Google's Language Tools. Maybe some day, we won't need editors at all. We won't even need translation. We'll just speak into a tiny microphone and our words will automatically be converted to any language, and typed out perfectly for us. Until then, come visit us at www.mypaperperfect.com
Monday, October 8, 2007
English is getting worser...
I'm being followed by typos.
I'm not talking about the miss-spellings of crayon wielding kindergartners or lazy ESL students: famous newspapers, popular magazines, freshly printed best-selling books, and most of all websites are failing to carefully proofread their material.
Even proofreading and copyediting websites are not immune to spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and bad writing in general.
Modern society is leaping from one hot topic to the next, and everybody wants to put in their two cents before their opinion becomes outdated. The need for speed has led to a lack of concern about errors - after all, a mistake in print will only be seen until tomorrow's paper or next month's issue.
And besides, people care about the meaning, not the accuracy. With the rise of blogging, sloppy, careless and unedited stream of thought writing has become the norm rather than the exception. People are just getting used to it.
Add to this the fact that an enormous percent of the people using English these days are not native speakers - rather than just clumsy fingers, writers are using hybrid meta-languages based on loose translations from their native tongue. Although this globalizing trend is fascinating and is certainly increasing communication and the viral spread of information, it can't help but lead to a breakdown of English in general.
Good English and Good Writing will always be recognized as such. Sloppy writing, while acceptable on MSN, blogs and emails, won't cut it on a TOEFL test or College Application Essay. The good news is, if you can learn to write well, even just marginally well, you'll stand out. Great writing will give you instant credibility. The trick is to proofread your work carefully - or, hire someone to do it for you.
I'm not talking about the miss-spellings of crayon wielding kindergartners or lazy ESL students: famous newspapers, popular magazines, freshly printed best-selling books, and most of all websites are failing to carefully proofread their material.
Even proofreading and copyediting websites are not immune to spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and bad writing in general.
Modern society is leaping from one hot topic to the next, and everybody wants to put in their two cents before their opinion becomes outdated. The need for speed has led to a lack of concern about errors - after all, a mistake in print will only be seen until tomorrow's paper or next month's issue.
And besides, people care about the meaning, not the accuracy. With the rise of blogging, sloppy, careless and unedited stream of thought writing has become the norm rather than the exception. People are just getting used to it.
Add to this the fact that an enormous percent of the people using English these days are not native speakers - rather than just clumsy fingers, writers are using hybrid meta-languages based on loose translations from their native tongue. Although this globalizing trend is fascinating and is certainly increasing communication and the viral spread of information, it can't help but lead to a breakdown of English in general.
Good English and Good Writing will always be recognized as such. Sloppy writing, while acceptable on MSN, blogs and emails, won't cut it on a TOEFL test or College Application Essay. The good news is, if you can learn to write well, even just marginally well, you'll stand out. Great writing will give you instant credibility. The trick is to proofread your work carefully - or, hire someone to do it for you.
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