When you write an essay, the first thing is to get
lots of ideas.
Then the second thing is to decide which ideas you're going
to include and in what order.
But then comes the difficult part.
Now you have to express the ideas in correct English.
And that's hard.
Well now I'm going to show you a technique that I've used myself
for years. And which lots of my students have adopted with
excellent results. It's a simple technique which you can try
yourself. It takes a bit of practice.
But after a while it gets easier and easier and soon
it becomes second nature.
And by that stage you've taken a quantum leap forward
as a language learner.
First I want to show you a few lines from a story by Sachi.
Saki is one of England's most famous short story writers.
A wonderful writer. And of course, her professional writer.
The story is called a holiday task. It starts like this.
Kenelm Gertan entered the dining Hall of the Golden Galleon
Hotel. In the full crush of the
luncheon hour. Nearly every seat was occupied and small
additional tables had been brought in where floor space
permitted to accommodate
latecomers. With the result that many of the tables were
almost touching each other.
Churton was beckoned by a waiter to the only vacant table that
was discernible and took his seat with the uncomfortable and
wholly groundless idea that nearly everyone in the room was
staring at him.
He was a young ish man of ordinary appearance, quiet of
dress and unobtrusive manner.
And he could never wholly rid himself of the idea that a
fierce light of public scrutiny beat on him, as though he'd been
a notability or a super nut.
Now that's a professional writer at work in his mother
tongue, English.
He uses sophisticated vocabulary and complicated
sentence structures.
Perhaps you can write like that in your own language.
But you're not expected to be able to write like a
professional story writer in English.
So what could you do if you wanted to describe that scene?
Well, here's my version in simple English.
Kenelm Gertan entered the restaurant of the
Golden Galleon Hotel.
He was nearly full. And there was very little space
between the tables.
A way to show jerden to the only
free table. Jordan thought wrongly that everyone was
watching him.
He was young and he looked
normal. His clothes were normal, but he always thought
that people were looking at him as if he was famous.
Well, that does not have the sophistication and elegance.
No, the complexity in the subtlety of sack is original.
But it is a very decent paraphrase.
If you were asked to write a description of a person entering
a restaurant in an exam, and you
wrote that. You've been doing fine.
You aren't expected to write like sake.
Especially in a foreign language.
And please notice how very simple the English in which
it is written is.
Except for waiter.
All the words are amongst the 2000 most frequently
used words in English.
And look how simple the grammar is.
Look at the phrase. Everyone was watching him.
That is one of the very simplest grammatical structures in
English. Subject. Plus verb
plus object. The man saw the dog.
And that structure is repeated several times.
Kenelm Jerden entered the restaurant.
People were looking at him.
A very simple grammatical
structure, which I know is correct.
A very simple grammatical structure which you know
is correct.
In fact, it would be better if you could make the passage
linguistically richer.
You probably good enough English to write something
that starts like this.
As Jordan into the restaurant, he notice that
it was very crowded indeed.
Almost all the seats had been
taken. An extra tables have been carried in so that even more
people could fit in.
Unsolder
but you must only write English, which you are sure is correct.
The better your English.
The more linguistically rich you can make your writing.
But don't overreach.
It's much better to keep it simple and avoid mistakes.
Than to try to be clever and to end up making mistakes.
And that is my point.
Write English which you know is correct.
When you express your thoughts in your language, you can use
sophisticated vocabulary and complicated grammar because you
know they're correct.
Well, when you express your
thoughts in English. You should use only words and structures
that you know are correct.
And that probably means using simple words and structures.
Then you using your mother tongue.
You can do this exercise yourself.
Take a passage from a novel or a story or a newspaper or
magazine. Written in your
language. And write a simple
paraphrase. Not a translation.
But a simple paraphrase of it in
English. Something that expresses the general ideas
in correct English.
Make sure that you can
guarantee. To the English is correct.
Imagine there is a prize, say a million euros. If there are no
mistakes at all in English.
You want to be able to justify every word.
There are sentences in English which you know are correct.
And their sentence is in
English. Which you hope are correct.
In your paraphrase, you will only use sentences in English,
which you know are correct.
Practice a technique with different kinds of writing.
Fiction and nonfiction.
Descriptions and narratives and arguments and discussions.
And you'll soon find that you can express almost any idea in
simple English. Which you know is correct.
And that's when you get the top mark for your essays.
Remember. The more you practice.
The better you will get.