Full video

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hello everyone thank you for joining me

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again and welcome to any new viewers

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this is to the point english with ben

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i'm ben and in this video i'm going to

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give you five tips that will really help

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to level up your writing skills now

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whether you're preparing for the

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cambridge english exams the b2 first c1

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advanced or c2 proficiency or maybe

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another exam like ielts or maybe you're

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not preparing for any exam

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this video will be useful because

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writing has become a little bit of a

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lost art in modern society because

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people don't really practice writing as

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much as they used to perhaps i mean

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people are chatting all day typing and

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texting but but not really sitting down

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and writing a complete composition and i

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noticed that a lot of my students really

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struggle with this part of the cambridge

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english exams and the biggest problem

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they have really is that their

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their compositions are a little bit too

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basic a little bit too simple

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the examiners are looking for complex

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sentences and these five tips that i'm

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going to give you today will help you to

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do just that

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and it's not as complicated as you may

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think

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the first tip is very quite simple but

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very important

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as i said a lot of my students tend to

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form quite basic sentences in their

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writings it could be a paragraph with

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five six or even seven short basic

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sentences

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and what you need to be able to do is to

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link those sentences

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by forming compound sentences so that's

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my first tip use more compound sentences

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a compound sentence is simply a sentence

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with two or more subjects

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so basically it's two independent

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clauses which you link together or you

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connect

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with a linking word of some kind and you

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can use one of these seven linking words

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so and but

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so

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yet

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nor

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or and for so a very simple example the

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first text discusses issues of

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technology in modern society

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it doesn't mention social media

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okay so those are two

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simple basic sentences

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very simply you can link them by using

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but the first text discusses the issue

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of technology in modern society but it

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doesn't mention social media you think

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that's too simple well maybe substitute

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but for yet so yet it doesn't mention

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social media yet in this context is a

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synonym of but if you think the sentence

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is too basic with but use yeah but

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sometimes it's okay to use words like

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and but because so

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for or

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these are words that we use they're very

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common and they're common because

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they're very useful

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so that's my first tip try to use more

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compound sentences tip number two today

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is to use more relative clauses in your

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sentences

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now they could be defining or

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non-defining clauses or both in

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different sentences of course the

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examiners in the cambridge english exams

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are looking for

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a range a wide range of grammatical

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structures so this is a very simple way

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of forming more complex sentences

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and using another grammatical structure

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so with relative clauses you'd use one

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of these words who who's that which

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where

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and when those are your options now as i

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said they could be defining the relative

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clauses or non-defining relative clauses

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now don't worry too much about the the

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terminology and the grammar

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when you see the examples i'm sure

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you'll understand better and you'll see

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that it's not so complicated and quite

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simple to add to your essays or your

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reports or your articles

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to to make it more advanced and more

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sophisticated so an example of a

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non-defining relative clause is climate

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change which has been an issue for many

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decades will continue to be a problem

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so here we have

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climate change will continue to be a

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problem

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that's a sentence on its own but if you

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put a non-defining relative clause in

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the middle between the commas

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then you're adding extra non-essential

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information it's not defining the

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subject

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it's just extra information so climate

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change which has been an issue for many

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decades will continue to be a problem a

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quick look at a defining relative clause

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the issue which concerns most people

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nowadays is climate change so here

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the clause that relative clause

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is not between commas because it's a

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defining relative clause it's defining

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issue so which issue is it because there

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are many issues but you need to define

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which issue with the clause so in this

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case the issue which most people are

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worried about that particular issue

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is climate change so it's it's essential

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information it's necessary for the

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sentence to make sense

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so let's look at number three now

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inversion

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now inversion is a grammar area that we

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don't really use that much in spoken

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english

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definitely not colloquial day-to-day

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english but it's very useful for your

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writings especially more formal writing

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i made a video on inversion a few months

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ago which i'll share in the description

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and i'll go into the detail of the

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grammar and the structure but for this

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video i'll just give you an example

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sentence so the normal sentence would be

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we can reduce our carbon footprint by

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taking public transport and eating less

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meat

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you'll have noticed that i use a lot of

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examples about the climate change and

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environment because it's very common in

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the exams

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but yet we can reduce our carbon

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footprint

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by taking public transport and eating

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less meat so that's just a normal

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sentence but in the in with the

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inversion structure it would be

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not only can we reduce our carbon

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footprint by

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taking public transport but also by

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eating less meat

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so not only can we so remember with

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inversion

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the verb and the subject

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change places they invert again check

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out my video for much more detailed

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explanation than that but

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if you can use one example of inversion

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in your essay for example

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you will get more points because it's

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what examiners are looking for a range

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of grammatical structures and the fourth

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tip is to use more cleft sentences

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now cleft sentences are also examples of

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complex sentences so they contain more

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than one clause and the idea of a cleft

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sentence is to change the order of the

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information in the sentence

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to add emphasis or to focus

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on one particular piece of information

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in the sentence over another

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so again similar to inversion but a

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slightly different structure and with

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different clauses so again the best way

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to explain is with an example so the

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normal sentence would be more investment

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needs to be made in education

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but as a cleft sentence you could say

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it is education that needs more

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investment okay so it is an education

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that needs more investment so you're

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starting with it is education it's an

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extra clause and although it contains

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the same information it's expressed in a

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different way so again the examiners are

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looking for that type of thing something

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which can

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demonstrate to them that you understand

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and can use these more complex grammar

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grammatical structures

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and form complex sentences again this is

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not the video to go into detail about

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all the grammar but just be aware that

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using a cleft sentence can really get

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you some extra marks in in your writing

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and my final tip tip number five is to

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use the passive voice

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now that may seem quite simple quite a

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simple tip but i've noticed with my

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students they don't use the passive

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voice enough

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uh it's a very simple technique to

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to make

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a text more formal

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the essay for example the report the

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proposal

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some some articles depending on the

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target reader remember you you should

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always keep in mind the target reader

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when you're writing your compositions so

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an example

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scientists believe that the earth is

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getting warmer

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so scientists believe that the earth is

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getting warmer that's a normal active

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sentence but if you change it to passive

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it is believed that the earth is getting

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warmer

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in this case it's not really necessary

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to specify that it's scientists who

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believe this

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you imagine if you're writing an essay

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or a report or whatever

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that

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you know it's some an expert so

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scientists are probably the the ones

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that believe this so you don't need to

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mention the agent the the people who

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believe this you just say it is believed

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that's a much more appropriate structure

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for a formal writing composition

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again you should know

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how to construct the passive voice

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um it's just about thinking about it and

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while you're writing or in your planning

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stages of writing just thinking about

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how you're going to include it in your

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your essay or whatever composition

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you're writing

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one bonus tip for you today i've

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mentioned this before in other videos

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but you really should be using a wide

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range of cohesive devices

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or linkers or connectors whatever you

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want to call them but cohesive devices

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are very important to help with the flow

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of the the composition the writing

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composition

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so they could be very basic ones as i

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said like and but because so

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or they could be more advanced

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sophisticated like furthermore moreover

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nevertheless because you need to think

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about how it flows how the reader is

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going to read it i correct

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dozens and dozens of these

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uh compositions of my students every

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month and some

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just are nice to read they're pleasant

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to read because they flow in a natural

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way and some

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i have to force myself to get through

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them because

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it's stopping and starting and these

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cohesive devices

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are not used effectively or maybe not

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used at all

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um and you can use these cohesive

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devices to link sentences to link ideas

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to present ideas to contrast ideas

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and if you use them effectively it

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really will improve your your

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compositions

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okay those are my tips for today i hope

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they help you start practicing them the

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more you practice the

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the more you will understand

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how to use this grammar and these

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techniques and over time it will just

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become natural to include them in your

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compositions okay thank you for joining

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me and i'll see you very soon for

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another video take care bye

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