Fancy Words for Essay Writing: How NOT to Screw Up
Your FREE Gift: How to Add 300 Words to Any Essay in 15 Minutes:
https://www.tutorphil.com/free-stuff/
--------
Fancy Words for Essay Writing: How NOT to Screw Up
If you are looking for fancy words for your essay, in this video I’ll show you how NOT to use fancy words in essay writing. Here’s an example from a college level essay: “The author’s argument exemplifies his claim and support to increase ‘meritocracy’ and ‘nepotism.’
It sure sounds fancy, but will your professor really be impressed with it? Let’s analyze this sentence and see where this student might have gone wrong.
First, I like that the sentence begins with the subject - “the author’s argument.” That’s the good part.
Now, let’s look at the VERB in the sentence: “exemplifies.” To exemplify means “to be an example.” Is there a problem with that? Well, remember, an argument is usually supported with examples. Which means that the main argument itself is not an example. So, the use of the word “exemplifies” really doesn’t work here.
The Object is “his claim,” meaning the author’s claim. Can this be right? What is the difference between an argument and a claim? If you look up these words, you’ll find that they are synonymous: an argument is almost the same thing as a claim.
So, if you try to translate this part of the sentence into plain English, you’ll get something like “the author’s main point is an example of his point.”
Now, what is another Object here - it is the word “support.” Add that to the sentence, and here’s what you get: “the author’s main point is an example of his point and his support.” Do you see how easy it is to completely obscure the meaning of what you’re trying to say?
This sentence really makes no sense. I won’t go into the rest of it about "meritocracy" and "nepotism." I’ll just say that they are opposites of each other, and you can’t increase both at the same time.
So, what is your big takeaway from this so far? The lesson is - in your writing only use the words that you know, words that are a part of your working vocabulary.
So let’s rewrite this sentence assuming that we know what this student really meant. Here’s the original again: “The author’s argument exemplifies his claim and support to increase "meritocracy" and "nepotism." And now let’s rewrite it so that it would actually make sense: “The author presents an argument in favor of ‘meritocracy’ and against ‘nepotism.’”
Now, what do you think about this new sentence? Is it more clear? Is it easier to understand? Yes. And why is that? Because we rewrote this sentence without trying to be fancy.
Remember - stop looking for fancy words for your essay and just say what you want to say in plain English. If you do, you’ll make much more sense to your professor and get higher grades.
The best way to impress your professor is not to try to do so with fancy words.
Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel.
--------
Facebook: / tutorphilpage
Смотрите видео Fancy Words for Essay Writing: How NOT to Screw Up онлайн без регистрации, длительностью часов минут секунд в хорошем качестве. Это видео добавил пользователь Tutor Phil 02 Май 2016, не забудьте поделиться им ссылкой с друзьями и знакомыми, на нашем сайте его посмотрели 43,14 раз и оно понравилось 51 людям.