How to Write an Essay | Academic English for IELTS | TOEFL | FCE | CAE

Hello Love Englishers! Welcome back! Now, if you didn't already know we don't just teach normal English language. No! Yes, we have other talents! We are also academic English teachers, which means we help students pass their IELTS CAE FCE but actually mainly these days, we focus on preparing students to go to University. So, that really is as academic as it gets...going to university! and actually to be hones,t when it comes to university English, compared to IELTS, I actually think it's a stage up. It is a stage up, definitely. So, today if you are a student who is studying at a university and you have to write your assignments in English or maybe you're actually at an English University or an American University but English is not your first language and you're like 'oh' having lots of problems with writing in English and the academic style, this lesson is for you! It really is! And to be honest, I think not just people that are learning English as a second language for everybody. You need to know this to write academic essays in English! That's right, this is our guide to academic style! right guys number one something you must include in academic writing linking words now what are linking words examples so however although in spite of despite all of those lovely connecting sometimes phrases all words which make your writing through over they really do help and the important thing is it's not basic like and and but these are really basic and you want to avoid them and you want to make sure that you use a variety of linking words yeah so if you've used however in the previous sentence use on the other hand although in the next sentence yes it's true also guys they help to organize your right to actually help the reader to understand the flow because we have some linking words which I have to say more and we have others which is to say something different I'm gonna say something negative or the opposite we call those contrast linking words and we have others don't you later we've got linking words for reason so why something happened why something happens and the result as well so we've got therefore as basically instead of saying so because we have consequently subsequently all of those really help the reader to be able to follow what you're saying your train of thought so these linking words adds to the style the tone and register of your essay it needs to sound for all there is nothing more for more than an academic essay yeah absolutely guys so add them in to I say to my students if you're not using at least five per paragraph this yablon actually yes so really start to learn them and actually we've got some great links to linking word lists and things like that we'll put in the description box number two I'm afraid that at this level you can't write sentences like the cat sat on the mat anymore you need to use sentences with two clauses so D or or more even and these are called complex sentences now a complex sentence is several clauses linked together saying different things or adding extra information now if you use a complex sentence immediately your academic style and the academic standard goes up in IELTS using complex sentences is very important any IELTS writing marker with C a complex sentence and even if it's not totally correct they will be impressed that you tried that structure so Laila what is a complex sentence what are the kind of things you can use well the main ones of course are relative clauses we've got basic relative clauses so when you have which and where and who who so for example video of the country where they eat lots of chili good perfect thing I'm saying okay we do that exactly so relative clauses but there's a lots more besides you can have participle clauses the list is endless conditional sentence yes I always say isn't an add a conditional sentence especially in conclusions where you are hypothesizing the result of something or the inaction of something could they work really well in conclusions they really do if you can use the second conditional or a third conditional in your IELTS huh your examiner is going to be impressed so complex sentences guys try to have several clauses now this can't be a little bit difficult - again we're going to give you some examples with some links in the description box the other thing I just want to add is don't be scared of making mistakes you will actually score higher for attempting these complex sentences and making a few mistakes yeah then sticking with the present simple yeah definitely present simple come on say well you seem a bit tired today I'm a little bit tired yeah quite sure why okay it might be because I stayed up late last night working could be the reason could be yeah so this is tentative language or hedging language or cautious language there's lots of different ways to describe it but it basically means you're being careful why do we need to be careful right well just before I was saying oh it could be tired because I stayed up late that could be the reason why I'm tired now here this was just an example but if you make too strong statements in academic writing you have to be very careful because can you prove it who are you do you have a PhD so students will often do things like write very strong sentences like smoking is bad for you it is bad for you and lots of people know that however in academic writing we have to prove things we have to argue our case so we would have to say something like many people have argued that smoking is a bad habit or is considered to be a bad habit or could be considered to be a bad habit so we make it more gentle it also means that you're anticipating a counter-argument so you're acknowledging that your opinion is not the only one otherwise you do sound well really arrogant yes that's very good point actually Laila yeah so Laila tell us some more expressions we can used in tentative like well the speculative speculative line goals the other one is yeah yeah yeah oh yeah so I think the easiest probably using modal verbs so it could be it might be I maybe these work really well we've also got more advanced ones like tend to so used to be seems to be so women tend to enjoy shopping yeah uh women do you know Marie Claire for some women hate shopping yeah labor hates it but the point is you are acknowledging that you cannot generalize you cannot say all people are like this absolutely yes so tentative language hedging language against some links in the description books number four guys you need to use verbs of reference so this is when we were firing often to the work of another writer or the argument of someone else so for example we could say imagine we're arguing about let's see chocolate being bad for you and we could say that Walters Lena Walters has suggested that chocolate in small doses is in fact maybe not as bad for you as some people think mm-hmm so that we were using heading language but also I was referring to her opinion it's a verb of reference to refer to somebody else's opinion this is really important when you are using academic references so you probably wouldn't reference me but it's a good example but it's a great way to use it when we are talking about pieces of work so talking about research that's been done yeah the other thing I think that's really important if we don't necessarily have a researcher that we want to refer to it's a way of avoiding I think or the people here so many have argued many people have argued instead of saying they argued or they said yeah it doesn't sound academic and there's lots of these guys that is for example suggested claim now sorry two of us pointed out yeah claimed yeah our lemon straighter does a bit stronger good one asserted yes asserted great yeah avoid shown it's a bit too simple lots of students say oh this has shown that and it is okay in IELTS but if you're going to the next level I would say yes don't don't you shake yeah tell and said of noetic yeah right now we mentioned before that using I we these personal pronouns please don't do it I also do say that you can say in my opinion I'm of the opinion however at university level we do really avoid this yeah and CAE as well exactly and what we often use our passive forms to avoid this so instead of saying she said we could say it has been said yes exactly this makes it neutral actually we know that it's your opinion yeah the reader understands that it's your opinion but it doesn't sound personal that way it doesn't sound like oh I think that oh in my opinion this sounds as Leila was saying before arrogant and also who are you you know you are just a student trying to argue a point so you have to be very careful about saying too much of your own opinion you have to argue it properly so of course as sabra mentioned earlier having more complex sentences well this takes that booklet - oh absolutely you're using passive structures immediately when I'm marking a paper when IELTS examiner is marking your paper they see a passive structure brilliant you are going to score much higher on your language range even if you make one or two minor errors ting the passives is a huge thing it's great yes it could be argued that it could be suggested that here are two example sentences of the passive and also reference referring let us know if you would like more lessons on the passive structure how confident are you with these tenses it quite complex and they do take a bit of practice that's right what happened there active or passive I have been a new layer with hit my favorite what is that in the active comment below guys let's test your grammar right guys we're giving you lots of things you need to do but these are some things you must try and avoid yeah okay so these are the Jencks guys right guys number one is my personal hate I've always said to my students don't do this because it's really annoying for teachers actually and this is using the big time phrases say for example nowadays I can't stand it when I see an essay that starts with nowadays it is just used overused by students and what does nowadays even mean you know in academic writing we must be specific about things what academics you really need to say when you're talking about so do you mean in the last decade do you mean in the last couple of years things like in recent times are not even acceptable you know you really need to be much more specific absolutely and I think you also need to distinguish between an exam essay and a essay that you research and write because an exam is say you can have in the last decade yeah at but if it's a research paper you need specific dates guy as you do you need to say from 2005 this has been happening yeah exactly so don't use big time phrases be specific as much as you can see Layla hmm do you think all men love football cuz my boyfriend loves football I mean he's crazy about football what see my boyfriend likes basketball ah so to say all men love football I think it's the same saintil women love shopping that's true actually yes we love shopping but there's some girls out there that don't some ladies a hunt on you this brings us to our second point generalizations we talked about hedging language and that's a great way to avoid generalizations don't assume that what you think is true is what everybody else thinks to be true you could say instead many men like football or a significant number of women may enjoy shopping yes but again seeming too arrogant and thinking that you know what everybody likes what everybody does is just not how we write or tribe is more specific than that famous like in particular countries in particular regions it could be argued that many women like this or many men play football I know in some parts of the world you know football isn't the most popular sports if you were writing about sports you would have to be more specific for example so yes avoiding generalizations and assumptions we call them they really just open the essay up to the examiner being like well how do you know this they open you up for criticism right guys if there is one way to lose points in an academic essay it is to say III my my my she or something like that personal pronouns are a big no-no an academic essay should be neutral in its style as we've said it should seem formal it should seem quite cold in the style yeah so even if it's your opinion as we've said before you have to kind of seem like it's something you're arguing based on your research so using I is a big no-no also using adverbs like really and very these are very informal and very very informal they really are yeah so for example I've seen some students writing things like oh it's really popular you know that's just not the way to write in an academic style you would say if you're talking about popularity you could say something like chocolate is a sweet treat that is enjoyed by many girls so many a girls not all girls yes instead of saying it's really popular so really very those kind of adverbs can you think of any more Layla so adverbs of opinion as well amazingly surprisingly these are really again similar to I it's saying what you think but it's not necessarily what others think you can use significant that's a great one yeah to say that there's a lot number but you don't want to say that it's brilliant when you say not yet far too kind of strong an adverb yeah right now we've been teaching you when you speak English to use contractions I've been to the shops she's gone out I may I'll go here I'll go okay forget that you do not use contractions at all in academic English the first thing I see is a contraction and I get a big red pen and make a big circle around it she really does I do sometimes with a sad face so contractions are for spoken English academic new no that's before my actually formal work emails you avoid contracts solutely and letters of course yeah so it's a good kind of thing to understand that contractions are something for spoken whereas generally they're not used in the written form if it's any kind of formal writing so yeah it's a great language English isn't it big events a year but don't do that there sorry guys point number five is a quick one and it is don't use abbreviations ET c asp p LOL tell me i know you don't do that OMG I have actually seen lol in an essay no I really have what did you do I hope you hit them not going to do that however teachers not going to name the student or the country but yes I did see lol which is very bad so no call these abbreviations no abbreviated forms not even i.e IE is used to talk about examples no soon none of those they are not academic form on the same note slang okay lots of you love slang in English but absolutely not slang like kids has even loads of loads of knackered yeah they were significant I reckon I've seen a mercy before then it's very easy notes is chatty English it's not for writing and that's why the difficulty comes it's getting that correct tone and register for you even if you speak brilliantly in English if you haven't learned the formal style you're gonna lose marks in your essay yeah okay last point guys is don't use phrasal verbs again this is something we love to teach you a phrasal verbs phrasal verb understand them love them learn them we're always saying this to you aren't we well in essays we don't like them so yes it's a great old language isn't it so can I give some example yeah so an example like find out we wouldn't say find out we would say discover yeah also yes get well that's a colloquial yeah this an area that's similar I'm kind of it's a very relaxed verb really isn't it yeah it has too many meanings so you know I've got a degree I gain change yeah quiet so we would we would change their base think of another Fraserburgh what's another one which they would change um work out yes black out down worked out the formula she understood she calculated yes although very good well I on fire um I think it's really important to recognize that with every face verb there is an academic equivalent and the same with a lot of the more colloquial verbs yeah look in the description below we will put a link to the academic word lists actually guys there are many words that are high frequency in academic English so check them out and learn them and there's some exercises there as well brilliant okay guys well I think that's it from us so your academic guide to writing your essays and also to help you with IELTS FC and CAE we really hope you found this useful remember knows no slang no informal and use hedging language all of that great stuff make sure to let us know in the comments box below are you studying for any exams in English because we could probably help you out yeah let us know guys what lessons you would like us to make if you've enjoyed this lesson of course we could do more on hedging language on passive structures linking words there's so much but we thought we would leave it to you to decide yeah even on IELTS guys we've both been IELTS teachers so let us know don't forget guys you can subscribe to our channel so you don't miss a lesson and we'll see you next time we've got other lessons on grammar so we're going to leave you with a playlist for grammar we'll see you guys bye I know yeah

Channel: Love English with Leila & Sabrah

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Id: F_k8uL-3nSU

Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 11 2018