and in today's video

We are going to look at, five ways to improve academic essay writing

Okay? Or TOEFL writing, IELTS writing.

This doesn't have to do with when you write a letter to your friends.

Okay? We're talking specifically about formal writing, maybe business writing, or academic writing.

Okay, so let's get started.

My first tip on how to improve writing is do not use contractions.

Okay? And again this is for academic writing.

So what is the contraction?

"don't," "can't," "shouldn't," "couldn't,"

"wouldn't," "isn't," "haven't," "hasn't."

Okay, so it's the short form of,

for example, "don't" is the contraction of "do not." Okay?

So, it's better to actually write out the word in full in academic and formal business writing.

So, instead of "don't," use "do not." Instead of "can't," use "cannot."

And notice how with "do not," it's actually two words.

"Cannot" is just one word.

"Shouldn't" becomes "should not."

"Couldn't" becomes "could not."

"Wouldn't" — "would not."

"Isn't" — "is not."

"Haven't" — "have not"

"Hasn't" — "has not." Okay.

So, don't use these, use these.

Okay. So now let's look at Tip #2.

So Tip #2 is avoid "there is" or "there are." Okay?

So why do we avoid "there is" or "there are"?

Well one of the reasons is

when we write, we want to write our ideas clear and concise, meaning we don't want these long sentences,

We want our sentences to be to the point.

"There are" adds extra words that are not needed.

So, let's look at some examples.

a) There are many issues that students face at university.

So, that's an okay sentence, but if I wanted to make it a better sentence,

that is more appropriate for academic writing,

I would change it. I'd get rid of "there are"

and I would say instead "Students face many issues at university."

So, you don't need "there is" or "there are."

A second example

"There are many development projects that the UN supports." Okay?

Again, we don't need "there are."

We can just change it to "The UN supports many development projects."

By getting rid of "there is" and "there are"

your sentences become stronger, and to the point.

So, tip number three, is

Avoid words

So don't use words in academic writing such as "really, very, a lot,"

I'm gunna add another one, "so." Okay?

This weakens your writing.

Your writing isn't as strong if you use these types of words.

So let's look at some examples.

"Many students think university is very hard."

Ok, so now, we have "very."

How could I improve the sentence?

Well, instead of using "very hard,"

Just use a stronger word in the first place. say, "Many students think university is difficult." Okay

Um...There are many cars...

Well, there, I just broke a rule. Sorry

Many cars speed very fast, you get rid of the "very" in that sentence,

Come up with a stronger word for it.

So, let's look at number B sentence B.

Bill 399 is very...oh sorry is really controversial.

So, again an academic writing avoid the usage of "really".

We get to say bill 399 is controversial.

The sentence sounds better it sounds more formal.

Here, C. a lot of the students...

I didn't finish the sentence, I could say "a lot of the students live on campus."

Instead of using "a lot,"

we could use the word "many students" so we use "many" if we can count the noun,

if it's countable.

Instead of using "a lot" use "many" or if our noun is not countable if it's a non-count noun.

We can use "much," get rid of "a lot." So instead of "a lot" of the students now we have "many" students.

Many students face problems in their first year of University.

Much time is wasted because of procrastination. OK

So, many and much are both words that are better to use than a lot and

again the rule is avoid the usage of really, very, a lot, and so.

So, our fourth tip when it comes to academic writing is unless, so, if you are in the sciences

It's ok to use the passive don't use it too much but it's it's okay and normal to use the passive voice and

I'll explain what that is in a second.

But, if you are studying the humanities, social science, history, psychology,

these types of subjects do not use the passive voice, use the active voice,

So for most university writing, we use the active voice,

So, what is the passive voice and what is the active voice,

So, here is an example of the passive voice.

Ｈealth care reforms were implemented by Obama.

Ok, so notice first we have a form of the verb "to be," and then we have the past participle of implement

in this case implemented so you see an ed

and then oftentimes we have the word by someone. So, this is

an example of a passive voice sentence.

Health care reforms were implemented by Obama.

So, what is the problem with using the passive voice.

Well, it takes away the fact that Obama is the one who implemented the reforms.

the sentence is sort of weak a little bit awkward.

It would be much better if we had the actor who is Obama's, so the person, the verb, and the object.

Obama implemented health care reforms.

So, this is the active voice. OK

So, if you can have the subject and the verb, then the object instead of the passive voice.

So, here is another example of this. If I wrote in the passive voice.

I would write, the war was over, here we have the form of the be verb.

Won, here's the past participle of win, by another keyword, the French.

The war was won by the French.

So, this is again a passive voice sentence. It's a passive sentence

But, it's still a little bit weak. In academic writing, we want strong sentences and

a strong sentence has the actor or the person performing the action at the beginning of the sentence.

So, instead a better sentence would be the French won the war

So, the final tip in this video is when you write academically use strong verbs.

OK, so what is the strong verb and what is a weak verb?

So, I'm going to give you an example I could say he gave assistance to my friend.

Ok, this is a very weak way of saying he gave assistance to my friend, and a

stronger way I could instead just say he assisted my friend

So, what is the difference between these two sentences.

Well, in this sentence assistance is a noun.

So, a better way to write this sentence.

Anytime you have a verb a noun and you look at the noun and

it could be its own verb. Use this in a verbal form instead.

So, for example he gave assistance should become he assisted

Ok, so this is stronger.

Let's look at another example.

So, here I have a weak verb made an objection.

He made an objection. OK, so again we have a verb and then

a noun objection, but objection can be its own verb.

So, to make it stronger we get rid of made and

we turn objection into its verbal form objected. He objected.

So, he objected is better than he made an objection.

Hey, another example here we have our example of the weak verb.

She conducted an investigation.

She conducted an investigation. But, when I look here I see the word investigation.

And, I think does investigation does this noun have a verb form.

Well, yes it does, investigate.

So, instead of saying conduct an investigation.

She investigated something, a lot better, it's stronger

OK, finally, for the fourth example the weak verb, is did an audit.

They did an audit on Wesley Snipes. I don't know, for a joke maybe

They did an audit on someone.

So, again, I see the word audit

So, here's a verb and here's a noun.

but look at this noun, and I think audit, is there a verb form of the word audit?

Yes, there is Wesley Snipes was audited.

But again, I told you not to use the passive, so i could say

the government audited Wesley Snipes

Ok, so there you have it, five tips that will quickly improve your academic writing

So, if you would like to practice some of these tips

come visit us at our website at www.engvid.com. Until next time.