Writing Tricks for College Essays and beyond

Learn how to create the perfect sentence. Visualize it as a story. Follow the main pattern: subject + verb + object + space + time + manner + reason/purpose + others...

1. Introduction: A review of the five main sentence structures discussed in previous episodes (episode 3).

2. How to introduce adverbials in sentences: Subject + verb + object(s) + adverbials => I | like | my job | very much

   - How to introduce adverbials of place in a sentence: Subject + verb + object(s) + (adverbial of) place => You | meet | a friend | in the street

   - How to introduce adverbials of time in a sentence: Subject + verb + object(s) +  (adverbial of) place + (adverbial of) time => Ben | walks | to work | every morning

   - How to introduce adverbials of manner in a sentence: Subject + verb + object(s) +  (adverbial of) place + (adverbial of) time + (adverbial of) manner => I | have | cereal | in my kitchen | every morning | in a slow way 

   - How to introduce adverbials of reason in a sentence: Subject + verb + object(s) +  (adverbial of) place + by(adverbial of) time + (adverbial of) manner + (adverbial of) reason => I | have | cereal | in my kitchen | every morning | in a slow way | because I love it

3. Guided practice: How to identify and correct faulty adverbial positions within some sentences

4. Visualising the sentence structure as a story

KEYWORDS:

Subject verb object, adverbial of place, adverbial of time, adverbial of manner, adverbial of reason, syntax, position of adverbials within a sentence, sentence structure

Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that it helped you discovering something about writing that you did not know,  or that it helped you looking at things from a different perspective. If you enjoyed it, you might consider leaving a positive review wherever you are listening. It might seem simple, but it really helps.  

If you know someone who is struggling with writing in English,  you could also think about sharing this episode (or the whole podcast) with them. It might help them in their journey of becoming a better writer. Likewise, if you – or any of your friends  – are taking official external exams, you will find valuable info and tricks for the writing part of your exams. You will find this especially relevant if you are taking the Cambridge Exams.

How many sentence structures are there? Is it just one, a couple of them, or almost infinite? Does it really matter? Well, listen to this episode to find out...

EPISODE OUTLINE: 

1. Introduction: Setting the scene: “Five guys are moving a piano.”

2. What are the main parts of a sentence?

   - Subject

   - Verb

   - Object

   - Complement

   - Adverbial

3. What are the main sentence structures?

   - Structure 1: Subject + (intransitive) verb => My arms | are aching

   - Structure 2: Subject + (transitive) verb + object => I | need | a rest

   - Structure 3: Subject + (state) verb + complement => This piano | is | heavy

   - Structure 4: Subject + verb + Adverbial => It | is | on my foot

   - Structure 5: Subject + (transitive) verb + object 1 + object 2=> It | is giving | me | backache

4. Common mistakes related to sentence structure in English

   - Forgetting the subject

   - Separaring a verb and its object

KEYWORDS: 

Subject, verb, object, complement, adverbial, sentence structure, transitive verb, intransitive verb, copular/state verb, direct object, indirect object, syntax

Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that it helped you discovering something about writing that you did not know,  or that it helped you looking at things from a different perspective. If you enjoyed it, you might consider leaving a positive review wherever you are listening. It might seem simple, but it really helps.  

If you know someone who is struggling with writing in English,  you could also think about sharing this episode (or the whole podcast) with them. It might help them in their journey of becoming a better writer. Likewise, if you – or any of your friends  – are taking official external exams, you will find valuable info and tricks for the writing part of your exams. You will find this especially relevant if you are taking the Cambridge Exams.

Let's begin our journey into our tricks by having a look at words. They are the building blocks that we're going to use to create meaning in English. In today's episode, we will look at "word classes" or "parts of speech". 

EPISODE OUTLINE: 

1. A "metaphorical" café full of words 

2. Identifying parts of speech in a sentence 

3. What are the eight different parts of speech? 

4. Can the same word belong to two different parts of speech? 

5. Guided practice: how to identify word classes in a sentence. 

KEYWORDS: 

word, word class, parts of speech, noun, pronoun, determiner, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction

Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that it helped you discovering something about writing that you did not know,  or that it helped you looking at things from a different perspective. If you enjoyed it, you might consider leaving a positive review wherever you are listening. It might seem simple, but it really helps.  

If you know someone who is struggling with writing in English,  you could also think about sharing this episode (or the whole podcast) with them. It might help them in their journey of becoming a better writer. Likewise, if you – or any of your friends  – are taking official external exams, you will find valuable info and tricks for the writing part of your exams. You will find this especially relevant if you are taking the Cambridge Exams.

Welcome to "writing tricks" podcast, the place where syntax, punctuation and meaning react with one another! Join me, and we will explore how to improve your English by experimenting with these things.  

EPISODE OUTLINE:  1. Presentation and scope of the podcast  2. Contents that will be covered in future episodes

kEYWORDS:  introduction, syntax, grammar, words, phrases, clauses, punctuation, sentences, linkers, paragraphs, whole texts, genres, meaning, linguistics, semantics.

Thank you for listening to this episode. I hope that it helped you discovering something about writing that you did not know,  or that it helped you looking at things from a different perspective. If you enjoyed it, you might consider leaving a positive review wherever you are listening. It might seem simple, but it really helps.  

If you know someone who is struggling with writing in English,  you could also think about sharing this episode (or the whole podcast) with them. It might help them in their journey of becoming a better writer. Likewise, if you – or any of your friends  – are taking official external exams, you will find valuable info and tricks for the writing part of your exams. You will find this especially relevant if you are taking the Cambridge Exams.

"WRITING TRICKS": MISSION, VISION AND STATEMENT

I am a born teacher. I have spent over a decade teaching English as a Foreing Language to teenagers in my native Spain. The most difficult part for them is writing. 

The problem is not that writing is hard; the problem is that it is a completely different skill from speaking. One thing is speaking, and another thing is writing.

Most of the people I know jump directly into transcribing their oral thoughts into writing; therefore, they end up producing run-on sentences and imposible-to-digest, seventy-words statements.

There is an underlying assumption that needs to disappear, once and for all: speaking and writing are not the same thing. The tool to go from "written texts" into "spoken utterances" is called "reading". You need to learn how to read. You learn this at school. The tool to go from "spoken utterances" into "written texts" is called "the writing process". You need to learn how to go about this writing process. Chances are, you were never taught about this at school. That is why I have started this podcast, so that I can (hopefully) help people to communicate in written form.

My dream would be to help you understand that there is an inner logic and harmony between punctuation, syntax and meaning in English. Once you visualise and understand that, you'll be able to organise your thoughts and present them to others in a coherent and cohesive way.