Easy steps to write in a foreign language (Brian Sullivan)
East steps to write in a foreign language
Brian Sullivan
Senior Training Consultant
English for Education Systems (EES)
British Council in Korea
Why write? Is it easy to do? This is not really the case for most people. Writing in a foreign language can become a task, or worse more like a chore for many learning to use the language. I hear English language learners complain all the time about writing. They say it is too difficult and how much they do not enjoy it. I understand that. I feel your pain. Yet, as much as it hurts, as learners you have to do it as it is truly an important skill. Speaking is much easier for lots of people. It is often spontaneous and usually involves at least one other person. Writing however is more of an individual thing, a solo act. Nevertheless both are necessary to master in your language learning. It is important to make an impression on the reader somehow. Here are 3 easy tips to help improve your writing with little pain or effort on your part.
Use better words
What do words like ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘like’ and ‘want’ all have in common? Not much, except for the fact that they are considered to be high frequency words and used all the time in writing and speaking. As a result, this means that they are considered low value when it comes to creativity. How many synonyms do you know for the word ‘good’? ‘Excellent’, ‘wonderful’, ‘great’ and ‘fantastic’ are just a few I am sure you know. Instead of using easy, low value and frequent words try substituting them for higher value, bigger impact words. Not only will your writing be more exciting and colourful, but your reading audience and teachers will be much happier.
Build better sentences
‘I enjoy watching films.’ versus ‘I really enjoy watching exciting films which have stories about strong heroes winning over evil people.’ That is the same sentence in meaning, but not in detail or in the number of words used. Here is an easy technique to write more and be more creative while doing it. After almost every word you write ask yourself ‘who?’, ‘what?’, ‘when?’, ‘why?’, ‘where?’ and ‘how?’. If you keep answering those questions, building on those sentences, you will never run out of things to write. Let’s look at the sentence ‘He writes with a pen and paper.’ This is a grammatically correct sentence which is missing a lot of possible detail. How about building on this sentence? :
The handsome and smart gentleman (who?) writes beautifully (how?) in his room (where?) with a gold pen (what?) and some old paper (what?) because he is very talented. (why?)
Suddenly you have expanded your writing to include many more details, making it a very nice and creative sentence. Be careful, there is a danger to this by adding too much detail. Do not go crazy adding lots of detail because your writing will lose its sense and confuse your audience. one or two words in front of key words or adding only a few details or you might end up something like:
The pretty young hardworking new student suddenly sat down quietly at the big old square wooden desk in the cold classroom and looked at the frightening mean-looking teacher.
As creative as this sentence is, and it does paint a good image, it is just silly because there is too much detail and few people want to read something like that.
Proofread and edit
This is often one of the most promoted, yet also one of the most neglected techniques in writing. Teachers may tell their students to do this when they write, but students rarely follow up their writing with this stage willingly. It could be lack of time, or maybe energy, or simply a student’s desire to have nothing more to do with the experience they had just had and be done with it. In any case it is often undone and leaves what a person wrote as technically an unfinished product. Consider people who write for a living. They either edit or proofread their documents themselves or they pay someone to do it as it is a crucial part of the process. Next time you need to produce some writing, look it over once or twice before handing it in. This is especially true if you are taking an exam. You might catch something you have missed. Try reading it out loud if possible. Sometimes you ‘catch’ errors that you would normally miss while just reading your writing, such as articles or auxiliary verbs. Editing is also a great opportunity to add quality language to your writing by using the first 2 tips.
Good
luck and write on!
23호2018년4월30일(인쇄본).pdf http://cafe.daum.net/weeklymonday/iSZz