[MUSIC] Welcome to the final module in your capstone course. In this module you'll learn more methods to build your English writing and speaking skills so that you can Maximize Your English Communication Skills for today. But also have the tools to continue working on your English in the future. In Lesson 1: Edit for Success, we'll focus on strategies you can use to create and check writing that will communicate what you want it to. And in Lesson 2: Polish your speaking skills, you'll practice techniques to help you understand English more easily and to make your English even more understandable. Let's begin. Throughout this specialization, you have created different types of writing. Emails, presentations, and online communication. As a professional working in English, you'll continue to write those and more. Including memos, letters, reports, proposals, or web posts. And while the thought of writing all of those different types of communications might sound scary, it doesn't have to be. What's important to remember is that every professional communication needs to feature just one thing, clear and active writing. How can you be sure that whatever you write is clear and active? I'm going to review some basic writing guidelines and editing strategies you can use to ensure your written communications are successful. In English, we organize most types of writing into paragraphs. And all paragraphs, whatever the context, include the same components. A topic or main idea, supporting details, and a conclusion. As you develop your written communication skills, you'll be successful if you remember and include those three components. Depending on your purpose, paragraphs will be anywhere from 3 sentences, or even up to 13 sentences. But they will all include those components. How can you include those components in your writing tasks? First, write a topic sentence to tell your readers what you are writing about. You should already be familiar with topic sentences in this course. It's the first sentence in an email that states the purpose of the email. Or the sentence in a sales pitch that states what your product or service is, and how it is right for the audience. Both are examples of topic sentences. Next, include your supporting sentences. These all relate to the main idea that you have stated in your topic sentence. Examples of supporting sentences include the what, where, when information in an announcement e mail, in the examples, numbers, facts, and the presentation that give the audience all the information they need to understand your product and how it satisfies their needs. Finally end your paragraph with a conclusion sentence that restates your topic sentence or summarizes your main idea. In an email, this would be the sentence that states your appreciation or the part of a presentation that recaps or summarizes your main points and then asks the audience to do something. Like buy your product or hire you for the job. So whenever you start a writing task, remember those three components. Topic, Supporting Details, and Conclusion. And when you review what you have written, those are the first items you need to check. They deliver your content and if you don't have them, you probably have not clearly communicated your content. Once you have completed the writing task, whether it's an email or letter, a memo or anything else, you must review it and make sure that it's clear and active. As I just mentioned,the first step is to check the content. Is the main idea clearly stated in the topic sentence? Is there supporting information that gives you readers all the information they need? Is there a conclusion? Next check your style. This includes collect grammar, spelling and readability. First let's talk about grammar. Why you have not focused a lot on learning grammar in this course, there have been several important structures taught throughout the various courses. And I'm sure you already have some English grammar knowledge. When you are checking a piece of writing for accuracy, I think it's easiest to review one point at a time. So ask yourself, does every sentence have a subject? Does every sentence have a verb? Remember, without a subject and verb, you don't have a sentence. Are the verb tenses correct? Look for time words like now, every week, or last week, to help decide if you need the present progressive, present, or past tense. Do the subjects and verbs agree? This is often a problem for many new English users, so check carefully to be sure you are using the right version of the verb for your subject. Is there an article, the, a, an, for the singular count nouns? Do you have correct capitalization at the start of every sentence and correct punctuation? Commas, periods, and question marks? Next, speling. Sorry. Spelling. Fortunately, technology has made it a lot easier to check your spelling, but you want to check it too. You especially want to look at these problem words in English. So, definitely take advantage of your device's grammar and spelling functions, but also check yourself. Never send out anything with red or blue underlines. Finally, check for readability. Readability refers to how easy your writing is to read and understand. I think the best way to check this is to read it out loud. This will help you hear when you use the same kind of sentence over and over, or if your structure's not parallel. You'll hear when words don't make sense. Phrases that are too long, or sentences that are too complicated. Clear and active writing must be easy to understand but it should never be boring. Use of variety of sentence types. Choose strong action verbs. And include transition words to move from one idea to the next. And most importantly of all, Remember Your Audience. Will they know what they are reading, why are they reading it and what you want them to do? Will your writing give them a good impression of you? After reading what you have written, will they want to have a conversation with you? It's very important to do this with every piece of writing. It's now time for a quick review. In this lesson, we have looked at how to write and edit to communicate your message in a clear and active way by reviewing basic organization and style rules. As you write more and more in English, on paper and online, you will find it easier to develop your content and ensure its readability. Good luck. We look forward to reading what you write. [MUSIC]
