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Improve English Writing | Simplify
Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world's number 1 English Teacher AJ Hoge. Where AJ
has more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all, without the boring
textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills. Here's AJ with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent
English, effortlessly.
Hi, I'm AJ Hoge, the author of Effortless English: Learn to Speak English Like a Native. Go to
effortlessenglish.com enter your email for a free copy of my audio book. Writing. Writing is important.
You're looking for a job, a new job, you need to write a cover letter or an email to the company. In that
letter, you need to look great, the writing needs to be perfect no mistakes. The writing needs to be
powerful, in that short letter you must sell yourself, you must convince them to call you for an interview.
Now, once you get a job, if you're working in an international company, if you're working with
international team members you may need to write in English at the job, you may need to write
proposals, you may need to write summaries, certainly you'll write emails, you might have to write large
reports.
And again, your writing needs to be great if your writing is bad you will look back, you will not look
professional. And of course, there are the tests, the TOEFL and the IELTS and they writing sections, and
you have to write essays. And again, you know, they're looking for every little mistake. So it can be a bit
stressful writing. The reason writing can be stressful is that it needs to be perfect in some situations. If
you don't succeed, if you write badly in those situations, the failure can be quite bad. You can fail to get
a job that you really want simply because your writing is bad, you'll never get an interview, if your first
email, your first letter is terrible. They'll look at it, they'll see mistakes, and they'll immediately throw it
away. You never called for an interview. It's no fun. It's stressful.
I mean you might have to take a worst job simply because your writing is not good. It's no fun to get a
low score on the TOEFL test or the IELTS because your writing is bad, and it's no fun to be in the job, to
write a report, and then have your boss come back and tell you that the writing is terrible and you need
to do it again, it's embarrassing. On the other hand, the rewards are big, if your writing is great then you
have a big advantage when you're job searching, because you can write those great cover letters, you
can write those great emails, you can get the attention of good companies, you can get a lot of calls for
interviews because of your writing ability.
Same thing on the job when your writing ability is good, when you have great professional writing you
just ... you look more professional, you look more skilled, you look better, you get better respect, you
get more respect. And it helps you get higher scores of course on test and things like that. Now, I
remember I was teaching in San Francisco and it was one of my first classes in San Francisco, and in this
class we're supposed to do some writing so I gave an, a, an easy assignment to my class and I said, "Uh,
okay, please write an essay just one page, one page essay, really simple, just tell me you know,
something about yourself, where you're from and you know, why did you come to America to study
English?" That's all.
This was a high intermediate class that's what they told me, high intermediate and so everybody, they
all started writing their essays, "Chu-chu-chu-chu." And I gave them, I don't know, I remember 30
minutes something like that to write the essays, so everybody, "Huuuuu, writing the essays, writing the
essays, writing the essays, ahhhh," worried faces everybody look so serious. I tell them, "Just relax,
relax. You know, this is not a serious academic paper, just, yeah, just tell me about yourself and tell me
why you came to America. That's all. Really simple."
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This should have been a very easy assignment for their level, it should have been very, very easy. But I
was shocked so they all handed me the essays, I told them to do some reading while I read you the
essays. And I could not believe how fucking terrible they were, they were horrible. And when I say
horrible, I mean, I could not understand them. I'm not exaggerating, I would pick one up and start
reading and I read about 4, 5 sentences and the sentences were so confusing, that really I, I just didn't
even know what the main idea was. I didn't understand what they were trying to say.
The sentences were super long. And they used the, the most difficult vocabulary they could remember.
And I thought, maybe it's just one, I put that one to the side, picked up the next one, same exact thing.
Super, super, super complicated long, long running sentences. And they all these very academic
vocabulary words which were not used correctly. And it was just confusing, confusing that I could not
understand their ideas at all. Uh, it, it, it should have been so simple. Just tell me why you came to
America. It's really simple. If I had asked them, if I just, if we were just chatted, no writing, right? If I just
we're sitting at the table and I kinda said one by one, "Hey tell me, speaking, just tell me, you know, why
did you come to America where you from?" Everyone in that class easily could have done it. They would
have spoken in nice clear short sentences, their ideas would have been clear, yes, maybe they would
have made some mistakes, maybe a few grammar mistakes, a few vocabulary mistakes, something like
that.
But their meaning would have been clear, no problem, they could speak, they could communicate very,
very clearly with speaking. But something what happened in their brain as soon as they picked up the
pen to write, it's like their whole brain just stopped working. Where actually, it's quite the opposite, it's
like their brain started working too much. And that's what really happened, he's talking over thinking
everything, trying to make everything so complicated, so advanced, like they were trying to write the
PhD thesis or something. And it was incomprehensible, incomprehensible. Here's the new word for you.
Comprehensible means understandable, can be understood, easy to understand. It's comprehensible.
Now, the opposite of that word is incomprehensible. The "in" at the beginning it makes it negative.
Incomprehensible, not understandable, cannot be understood, that was their writing. We are really
weird strange. So what happened? Why? Oh I just, you know, it took me a while, they, they, they went,
they left and you know, class ended and I went home and I just, I just kept thinking about it really
bothered me. I said, "Why? What happened? You know I couldn't figure out for a while," like, "What
happened? How can they speak so well but their writing is so terrible? I mean, what, why don't they just
write the same way they talk? And then it would have been fine. It would have been clear. Perfectly
fine."
Well, the problem is the school system, uh, our all, our old friend, our old enemy I should say, the school
system, right? Because here's what I found out, because I started talking to them, I started asking them
questions, because the next day I said, "Guys, you know, I'm nice, I, I, I don't yell at people from
mistakes or anything like that, mistakes are fine in life. That's how we learn." But I just told them I said,
"Guys, you know what, your, your essay is really suck. (laughs) I'm sorry but they are horrible. I can't
even understand what you're trying to say, I can't even understand the main ideas that they're so
horrible." And then I told them I, I just told them my problem and I said, "But I don't understand because
when I talk to you, you easily communicate and you communicate clearly. But then when you start
writing, what happens? Why, why are these-, why are they so different? They actually should be quite
close."
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And then I started to listen to them and they, they all told me basically the same thing and that is in
school, in the school systems. Right, they're taught a style of writing that is super, super, super complex
the opposite of simple, complex. Complex or complicated similar meanings. Not simple. They have this
idea that teachers do that, you know, good writing must be difficult and advanced. Meaning, lots and
lots of big words, and really long sentences, and complicated sentences. That's good writing. That's what
they were taught, all my students in their schools they were from many different countries, they were
from Asia, South America, and Europe. And yet, all of them wrote the same style, that same over
complicated style to so, so, so bad.
Just, I know, I've since found out this is a common problem all over the world. This is why most English
learners even if they speak very, very well are, are just terrible writers. I mean, quite honestly horrible
writers. But as, because they all have this academic idea, academic means related to school, right? So
they all learn this very academic style of writing trying to write like a PhD, uh, someone with the PhD,
someone with the doctorate degree. But, well, I've said this before I'll say it again, I'll say it many times
in the future. Most, uh, academics, most professors are terrible writers they suck, suck means to be
really bad at something. They suck, they're terrible, terrible, terrible writers you do not want to write
like a professor. Don't copy their writing, don't listen to their advice, they're horrible writers.
Who are good writers? Well, I mean, we all have our different opinions who the best writers are, but at
a basic level good writers are people who get paid for their writing. People who write books for example
and sell books. They're generally pretty good writers. Right? J. K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books,
she's a good writer now you may like Harry Potter, you may hated, but in general her writing is quite
good. It's good enough to make millions of dollar. So, that's a pretty good example. Uh, so we're like,
Ernest Hemingway, who, whose writing has been popular for decades, and decades, and decades, even
after he's, he has died still people talk about how great his writing, he's in love his writing.
So, you know, professional authors are good writers, and you can find some very good professional
writers that write in a very, very simple way and I always use the Hemingway example. Those of you
who watch my show know that he's one of my favorite examples because in general he's famous for
having a very simple style compared to, uh, other writers. Tends to, tended because he's dead now,
(laughs) he tended to use short sentences, simple, direct sentences whenever possible. Even better
example for you because you probably you're not trying to write a, a, a great artistic novel in English.
Right? I'm guessing you need more just practical writing like for business, for gen-general
communication and for, for that is you know, non-fiction books. Non-fiction books. Business books, you
know, like and even my book right? This is just, this, this book is written in a very simple style, right? I
tried to use short direct sentences. Simple, common vocabulary.
And a lot of great writers who write books about business, uh, even books about history or science.
Good non-fiction writers tend to use a very simple direct style. Why? Because it's the most clear, it's the
best for communication information in a clear and powerful way. That's what you want to do. That's
what good writing is. It's not using a bunch of huge vocabulary words. It's not necessary. In fact, usually,
it's a bad idea. Usually, the simplest word is the best. So, I'm going to do a few shows about writing
because a lot of you have asked me about writing and it's a big topic that you want me to talk about. So
in this show I'm going to give you just one little bit of advice for your writing, how to improve your
writing. And then in some future shows I'll give you other tips. Today's show is just simplify, simplify,
simplify, simplify as another great writer said. And American writer named Henry David Thoreau.
Simplify, simplify, simplify.
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Use the shortest possible sentence instead of writing a paragraph this long right one, this long. Try to
put your ideas in the shortest possible sentence, sentences and the shortest possible paragraphs. Short.
Short. Short. If you have a long sentence break it into two or three sentences. I mean, the most basic,
basic, basic sentence in English subject, verb, object. "I hit him." Right? It's a three-word sentence. It's
super clear. It's very clear. "I hit him." There's no confusion. That's a great sentence. That's a good
example of clear writing. "I hit him." Not, "I reared back my arm and then I swallow and connected with
his face in a forceful way." Now, that might be more artistic that second one, and if you're trying to win
the novel price for literature. If you're trying to write a, a big artistic novel you can try that second style.
But for business communication, for most written communication in life, "I hit him" is a much more
powerful direct clear sentence. It's much better writing. So that's the first thing I want you to do, you
already writing. First of all, practice everyday, you can practice on Twiiter. One of the good things about
Twitter it forces you to be short, you cannot be long on Twitter, you have a 140 characters. On Gab you,
you only have 300. It's GAB.ai. 300 characters. That limits what you can write, it forces you to be short
and direct. So every day write on Twitter, send me some messages on Twitter, send other Effortless
English members messages on Twitter. Write your opinion about something it doesn't matter. Short
direct sentences. Twitter can actually train you to write good sentences. Now, a lot of people on Twitter
they don't write full sentences because you know, they're trying to communicate quickly and they use a
texting style. That's okay, but if you're trying to improve your writing I recommend use full sentences on
Twitter. Use full sentences but make them short.
This is a good way to train and improve your writing just doing tweaks every day. In fact, I would say this
is the first thing to do. So short, short, short. Every time you write something, go back and look at it and
think, "How can I make this short? How can I say the same thing but shorter? How many words can I
cut?" Your job is to always try to cut more words, cut more words, cut, cut, cut, don't add words, cut
words. A great writer can say something in one or two sentences. A bad writer needs 20 sentences to
say the same thing. That's what professor usually are bad writers. They'll write for five pages to say
something that usually could be said directly with one sentence. So, short, direct, short direct. Practice
on Twitter. Practice with me. You can send me tweets every day, but use a full sentence if you're
improving your writing you need to use a full sentence very, very, very short. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
For free text, for every one of my shows, go to my blog at EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Free text guides at
EffortlessEnglishClub.com. See you next time. Bye for now.
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