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TIPS FOR SUCESSFUL WRITINGwith 2 commentsThere are numerous kinds of English writing. Among them,  academic English is probably the easiest  one. Its focus is to communicate your ideas so that readers can understand them. As a result, writers can use the most simple words, the most simple sentence structures and the most simple writing styles to express their ideas. The most important thing that writers ought to remember is to ensure the idea organization and the cohesion among ideas which are the same in all languages including your mother-tongue language. Thus, if you are a master writer in your language, you will save a lot of time. However, it is not the situation of most Vietnamese students. We have been learning the wrong writing. To Vietnamese students, we need to renew our brain and clear all the stupid and humble ways of thinking before learning how to organize ideas and then, how to write English. The process is almost 3 times longer than others’, but it is the reality that every Vietnamese has to accept.

This writing is a tutorial about how to improve academic writing. It only works if its learners pass the first step of learning writing English that I have mentioned: Clear all wrong knowledge of writing and eliminate all prejudice about writing that have been burdening you so far.

My writing will be organized into 4 parts.

–        Part 1: Identifying tasks.

–        Part 2: Writing with high speed.

–        Part 3: Writing with paralel patern.

–        Part 4: Revising your writing with critical thinking.

Part 1: Indentifying tasks.Let’s take the following Toefl topic as an example:

“Some items (such as clothes or furniture) can be made by hand or by machine. Which do you prefer – items made by hand or items made by machine? Use reasons and specific examples to explain your choice.”I have underlined the important key words of the topics. To understand a topic, you need to identify its key words. In the above examples, the most essential word is “prefer” because it clearly shows you the main task, namely expressing, comparing and choosing one of the 2 ideas that you like most. It is different from “agree or disagree” or “make an argument” because you must not only mention both sides but also compare them and explain why you prefer one of them to the other. The word “such as” and the phrase “can be made by hand or by machine” clarify that you need to focus on only the good things that are possibly made by both hand and machine, don’t buzz readers by things that mandate to be made by hand or by machine. “reasons and specific examples” are important, but as it repeats day by day, you may be familiar with it and as a result, make no mistake.

Part 2: Writing with high speedThis is the method that I have learned from the book “Quantum Learning: Unleashing the Genius in You” by Bobby Deporter and Mike Hernaki. Last Tet holiday, this was also the writing methods that was shared by Aj Hoge who is very famous for Effortless English. So what is the power behind this weird method?This method is based on a reality of human beings: The heaviest burden of each person is himself/herself. When we are trying to do some things, inside us, there are always monsters screaming to resist on our creativeness and worsen, take us far from concentration. In this case, we need high speed to think less but more creative, to reduce carefulness but increase concentration. After such a fast process of writing, we may take a rest and then start to revise our writing. The number of revisions can be 5, 6 or even 10 but do believe me, your quality of writing is much better with the time almost the same to traditional methods’.

Part 3: Writing with parallel patternsTo write naturally and clearly, there are some useful rules that will help you. One of them is to organize your sentences, your phrases and your words in parallel models. It makes your writing not only more transparently but also more grammatical standard. I will give you 3 examples:

–        I love ice-cream and eating dog meat.

→ I love ice-cream and dog meat.–        She is careful in work and always go to the office on time.

→ She is careful and on time at work.–        She usually behaves gently and with serious attitude.

→ She usually behaves gently and seriously.You see, the rephrased sentences are less cumbersome than the original ones. Besides the parallel  there are a few other useful rules such as reducing the number  sentences, balancing paragraphs or diversifying the ways of using words. Both  are nice and relatively easy to apply (do not use “is not too difficult to apply” to reduce the number of negative sentence ^^ )

Part 4: Revising your writing with critical thinkingAs I have mentioned in part 2, revising is an important part of writing process. That is the reason why we need to take a considerable time to do it. There are a couple of ways that you can do in revising session:

–        Check for grammatical mistakes. At home, you may have the support of writing-aid computer software such as Open Office, Ms Office and especially White Smoke. However, in test time, you need to do it on your own. Since we are not natives, grammatical errors are seemingly inevitable. Thus, it is essential to check grammars for our writing.

–        Diversify vocabulary. After fast writing, it is likely that there are coincident words in our writing. In this case, we need to use other words with the same meaning. Sometimes,  if you cannot choose more suitable words, it’d better to keep it rather than make readers confused. To bear in mind that poor style is always not able to compared to using-word problems.

–        Refactor your sentences. You may need to reduce the number of negative sentence or parallelize phrases in your writing. With a few changes, the result could be remarkably better. Your writing might be less cumbersome and then more understandable. You also need to use your critical thinking to test any poor cohesion in your writing. You know, cohesion perhaps the most important criterion to judge a Toefl essay.

All in all, what I have stated above are the 4 tips that could make your writing better. You may need to try them for a couple of times to understand their importance. I also would like to warn you that all the tips work only for simple style of writing. In more complex one, it is better to use a little cumbersome, a little unbalances and a little complex because they accompany with a clever organization can make the writer’s style of writing special and individual. However, it is not the focus of this writing. Finally, I recommend you to read more writing books such as Barron’s ones. They both have numerus tips that  may benefit you a lot.

Long Tuan PhamTIPS FOR SUCESSFUL WRITING

There are numerous kinds of English writing. Among them,  academic English is probably the easiest  one. Its requirement focuses on how easy people may understand writer’s ideas. As a result, the writer can use the most simple words, the most simple sentences and the most simple writing styles to express his/her ideas. Only one important thing that writers have to remember is to ensure the idea organization and the cohesion among ideas that are the same in all languages.

So the most difficult thing is included in learners’ mother-tongue language. It means that all people don’t have to take much time to learn to write some things academically. However, it is perhaps true in somewhere in the world but Vietnam. Vietnamese student is not good at Vietnamese, let alone foreign language. To Vietnamese students, we need to renew our brain and clear all the stupid and humble ways of thinking before learning how to organize ideas and then, how to write English. The process is almost 3 times longer than others’, but it is the reality that every Vietnamese has to accept.

This writing is a tutorial about how to improve academic writing. It only works if the learner pass over the first step of learning writing English that I have mentioned: Clear all wrong knowledge of writing and eliminate all prejudice about writing that have been burdening you so far.

My writing will be organized into 4 parts.

Part 1: Indentifying tasks.Part 2: Writing with high speed.Part 3: Writing with paralel patern.Part 4: Revising your writing with critical thinking.

Part 1: Indentifying tasks.

Let’s take the following Toefl topic as an example:

“Some items (such asclothes or furniture)can be made by hand or by machine. Which do youprefer– items made by hand or items made by machine? Usereasons and specificexamplesto explain your choice.”I have underlined the important key words of the topics. To understand a topic, you need to identify its key words. In the above examples, the most essential word is “prefer” because it clearly shows you the main task, namely expressing, comparing and choosing one of the 2 ideas that you like most. It is different from “agree or disagree” or “make an argument” because you must not only mention both sides but also compare them and explain why you prefer one of them to the other. The word “such as” and the phrase “can be made by hand or by machine” clarify that you need to focus on only the goods that are possibly made by both hand and machine, don’t buzz readers by things that mandate to be made by hand or by machine. “reasons and specific examples” are important, but as it repeats day by day, you may be familiar with it and as a result, make no mistake.

Part 2: Writing with high speedThis is the method that I have learned from the book “Quantum Learning: Unleashing the Genius in You” by Bobby Deporter and Mike Hernaki.Last Tet holiday, this is also the writing methods that is shared by Aj Hoge who is very famous for Effortless English. So what is the power behind this weird method?This method is based on a reality of human beings: The heaviest burden of each person is himself/herself. When we are trying to do some things, inside us, there are always monsters screaming to resist on our creativeness and worsen, take us far from concentration. In this case, we need to high speed to think less but more creative, to reduce carefulness but increase concentration. After such a fast process of writing, we may take a rest and then start to revise our

writing. The number of revisions can be 5, 6 or even 10 but do believe me, your quality of writing is much better with the time almost the same to traditional methods’.

Part 3: Writing with parallel patterns

To write naturally and clearly, there are some useful rules that will help you. One of them is to organize your sentences, your phrases and your words in parallel models. It makes your writing not only more transparently but also more grammatical standard. I will give you 3 examples:

I love ice-cream and eating dog meat.→ I loveice-creamanddog meat.

She is careful in work and always go to the office→ She iscarefulandon timein work.

She usually behaves gently and with serious attitude.→ She usually behavesgentlyandseriously.You see, the rephrased sentences are less cumbersome than the original ones. Besides the parallel  there are a few other useful rules such as reducing the number  sentences, balancing paragraphs or diversifying the ways of using words. Both  are nice andrelatively easy to apply(do not use “is not too difficult to apply” to reduce the number of negative sentence ^^ )

Part 4: Revising your writing with critical thinkingAs I have mentioned in part 2, revising is an important part of writing process. That is the reason why we need to take a considerable time to do it. There are a couple of ways that you can do in revising session:

Check for grammatical mistakes. At home, you may have the support of writing-aid computer software such as Open Office, Ms Office and especially White Smoke. However, in test time, you need to do it on your own. Since we are not natives, grammatical errors are seemingly inevitable. Thus, it is essential to check grammars for our writing.

Diversify vocabulary. After fast writing, it is likely that we sometimes use coincident words. In this case, we need to use other words that do not change the meanings. Sometimes,  if you cannot choose more suitable words, it’d better to keep it rather than make readers confused. To bear in mind that poor style is always not able to compared to using-word problems.

Refactor your sentences. You may need to reduce the number of negative sentence or parallelize phrases in your writing. With a few changes, the result could be remarkably better. Your writing might be less cumbersome and then more understandable. You also need to use your critical thinking to test any poor cohesion in your writing. You know, cohesion perhaps the most important criterion to judge a Toefl essay.

All in all, what I have stated above are the 4 tips that could make your writing better. You may need to try them for a couple of times to understand their importance. I also would like to warn you that all the tips work only for simple style of writing. In more complex one, it is better to use a little cumbersome, a little unbalances and a little complex because they accompany with a clever organization can make the writer’s style of writing special and individual. However, it is not the focus of this writing. Finally, I recommend you to read more writing books such as Barron’s ones. They both have numerus tips that  may benefit you a lot.

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Written by Long Tuan PhamJune 16, 2010 at 3:24 pmPosted in Tutorial

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