Quick & Easy Writing Tip for IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, PTE

163,850 views ・ 2019-05-04

Learn English with Rebecca


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi.
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I'm Rebecca from engVid.
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In this lesson I'm going to share a quick and easy technique that you can follow in
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order to get higher marks on your TOEFL or your IELTS writing.
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Okay?
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And it's one way to make weaker sentences into stronger sentences.
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So, what does that mean?
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That means that perhaps the sentences you're writing sometimes are actually correct grammatically,
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but they're still not very powerful.
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So, you can get lower marks sometimes because you make a mistake, but sometimes you can
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also get lower marks if you write sentences that are not very strong, because of vocabulary
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or because of sentence structure.
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So I'm going to show you a quick and easy change that you can make so that your sentences
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and your essay can get higher marks and be more impactful.
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Okay?
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So, here we go.
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So, what we're going to do is to avoid using structures that start with: "There is", "There
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are", "There was", "There were", or: "It is" and "It was".
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Okay?
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This is what we want to avoid; not because it's wrong, but because it's just not very strong.
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It's not powerful.
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And what happens when you use this is that you end up using a verb which is actually
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very weak, instead of looking for a good, strong verb.
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Okay?
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So let's look at how we can transform these sentences, and you'll see for yourself that
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the second sentence in each case is actually much more powerful.
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Okay?
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Let's look.
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Number one: "There is a lot of useful information in that book."
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Okay.
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There's nothing wrong with that sentence; it's just not very powerful.
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So, how can we make it stronger?
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We could say: "That book contains a lot of useful information."
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Now what happened, instead of just using this structure with "is", we're using "contains".
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Right?
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"contains" is a strong verb.
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All right?
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So, even when we're talking about things in general...
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First I'm going to give you some general examples just so that you get the idea, and then I'll
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give you some more examples which are specifically from some TOEFL or IELTS essay topics.
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Okay?
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So, here you see that just changing that structure and using and introducing a better verb is
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giving you a higher score, in effect.
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Okay.
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Next: "There are several benefits to online classes."
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Again, nothing wrong with that, but what can we do?
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So, look for...
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Look for the actual subject.
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Look for the actual subject you want, which is "online classes", right?
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So, try and start with that; sometimes that strategy works.
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So, here, we said: "Online classes offer several benefits."
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Okay?
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So, now we're starting with the subject, which is strong, we're using a verb which is a good
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verb-all right?-and we adding some other details.
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All right?
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Next: "It is the director who makes the final decision."
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Okay?
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Because this strategy can be used not only on your IELTS or TOEFL; it can also be used
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in your general writing, it can be used in your business writing, in your email, and
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so on.
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Okay?
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So it's a good strategy to learn whether you're appearing for an exam or even if you're at
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work.
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All right?
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Or in all your life, as such.
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So, here, how can we change it?
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So we're talking about the director, so let's make the director the subject of the sentence.
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"The director makes", right?
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"The director makes the final decision."
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Okay?
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Did you get it?
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Good.
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Let's get another example.
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"It was low sales that forced them to close."
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So, what are we talking about here?
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"Low sales", so let's start with that as the subject.
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"Low sales forced them to close."
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Okay?
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Close the store, close the factory, whatever.
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Okay?
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But, again, we're starting off with the thing which is most important, we're adding a verb
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which is strong, and even though you used the same verb there, it was kind of hidden
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because it's hidden when we say: "It was", "It is", "There is", "There are", "There was"
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- then things get hidden, and you want to put them upfront and strong so that your sentences
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are more powerful.
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So, let's see how to do that now with some examples which are from TOEFL and IELTS kind
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of topics.
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Okay?
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Let's do that next.
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All right.
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So, now we're going to look at five different sentences, and they are from typical topics
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that you get on the TOEFL or the IELTS exam.
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Okay?
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One is on students, another on the big city or small town question, on parents, on success,
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and on luck.
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Okay?
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These are sort of typical topics that you often find on the IELTS or TOEFL exam.
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Now, you can do this in two different ways.
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If you like, you can pause the video here and then work through them by yourself and
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come up with some of the other examples or other options that you could have for these
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sentences, which are more powerful than the ones you see on the board.
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Okay?
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And I've actually helped you by writing some of the verbs that you could use-okay?-in those
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options, or I've underlined them.
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You can do that if you want, or you can just continue watching and follow along with me,
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because I'm going to do them for you.
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Okay?
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So, here we go.
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All right.
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Number one: "There are several key characteristics of effective students."
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So, here, the question was, you know, something about: "Write an essay about: What are the
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key characteristics of effective students?"
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Okay?
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Or: "What makes a student effective?" or something like that.
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So, this student wrote: "There are several key characteristics of effective students."
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Again, it's not wrong, but let's make it stronger.
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So, we can do that by taking a strong subject.
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First, what's the subject, here?
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This: "effective students", and now let's use a new verb.
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Okay?
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Let's introduce a new verb, which will make it even stronger.
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"Effective students display several key characteristics."
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Okay?
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And that sentence is lot...
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A lot more impactful than saying: "There are".
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Okay?
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"There is", "There are" - it's considered kind of a lazy way of writing, so you really
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don't want to do that.
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Next, about: Should you live in...?
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Is it better to live in a big city or a small town?
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What do you prefer?
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Okay?
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So, this student wrote: "There are many advantages to living in a big city."
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Again, that's not wrong, but let's empower it.
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Okay.
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So, we could say: "Living in a big city offers many advantages."
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Okay?
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Now, there are lots of ways to ramp up even that sentence.
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And, in fact, I have a resource which I wrote which you can download for free, which shows
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you 142 adjectives that you can use in your TOEFL and essay, and IELTS essay writing to
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actually empower those sentences even more by changing the adjectives, by giving a higher-level
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adjective, a more advanced adjective.
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So, for example, instead of saying: "There are many advantages", we could say: "There
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are myriad advantages."
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That's a wonderful word that I always teach my students because it's very impressive and
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it's very useful.
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Okay?
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So, let's go on now from there.
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Okay?
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There are so many different ways you can improve, but now we're focusing on how to get away
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from this way of writing, with: "There is", "There are", "It is", you know, "It was",
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and so on.
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Okay.
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Number three: A question about parents.
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"There are important ways in which parents influence their children."
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So the question was probably something, like, you know: "How are the way...?
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How do parents influence their children?"
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Okay?
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Or: "How do parents impact the lives of their children?" or something like that.
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So, the student wrote this.
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Let's see how we can change it.
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This time we're not going to use a different verb; we're going to use the same verb that
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the student used.
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We're just going to change the structure of the sentence.
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So, we could say: "Parents influence their children in many important ways", or "in several
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important ways", or "in myriad important ways".
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Again, "myriad" means many, many.
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Okay?
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So, that's how we can improve that sentence.
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The next one.
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This one is about success; what determines a person's success, what makes a person successful
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in life.
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That was probably the essay question.
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So, this student wrote: "There are myriad factors that determine a person's success."
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So, let's solve this one by using this verb.
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Okay?
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So, here, we can just take this out.
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Right?
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Start with the subject, and we could say: "Myriad factors determine a person's success."
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Okay?
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That will work.
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Or you could even say: "A person's success is determined by"-what?-"myriad factors".
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Okay?
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You see different ways that you can structure it?
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But whatever you did here, either of those two options was better than this one.
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Okay?
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Now here's another one.
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This one was about luck.
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Okay?
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So, the question asked, you know: "What is luck?" or "What role does luck play in our
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lives?" and things like that.
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So, this student wrote: "It is hard to define luck."
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But, again, it's weak because it started with: "It is".
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So, how can we improve it?
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Well, even if we kept that verb "is", we could say it in a better way.
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We could say: "Luck is hard to define."
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Okay?
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Or: "Luck cannot be defined easily", or something like that.
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But, again, start with the main subject, which was "Luck" and not "It is".
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Okay?
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Are you getting the hang of it?
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I think once you see how easy it is, you'll start looking at your own writing much more
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critically, and you'll start converting it and making it more advanced.
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Okay?
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And that's my wish for you.
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All right.
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Now, what are some other ways that can help you to do that?
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I have two websites; one is called www.goodlucktoefl.com, the other one is www.goodluckielts.com, there's
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also a www.goodlucktoeic.com - and all of these will help you to improve your writing
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related to TOEFL and to improve your exam score in general; they're basically guides
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to these exams.
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But, specifically regarding writing, I have a section which has sample essays which you
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might want to check out if you haven't already.
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Okay?
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So, do that.
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That helps a lot of students.
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And I will add a link to the resource that I mentioned which has 142 adjectives that
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you can use in your TOEFL or your IELTS writing to improve your score and to raise your score.
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Okay?
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Now, also don't forget to go to our website at www.engvid.com.
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There's no quiz this time, but you will find there hundreds...
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Actually, now thousands of lessons.
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But many of them are about this exam.
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These exams; TOEFL, IELTS, PTE, and so on.
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Okay?
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And you might be able to get a much higher score by just changing a few important things-okay?-like
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this.
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All right?
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Thanks very much for watching.
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And if you enjoyed this, subscribe, share, and let your friends also benefit from these
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pieces of advice.
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Okay?
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Thanks very much for watching.
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Bye for now.
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