Practicing English Abroad - Without Having to Pay!

Whenever the advantages of earning an advanced degree in an English-speaking country are mentioned, "improving my English skills" and "practicing my English" always rank high among them. But, as the experience of many a foreign student has shown, practicing - let alone improving - your English is, as the English saying goes, "easier said than done."
Understandably, many students studying abroad gravitate toward students from their own country or region, both for greater ease of conversation as well as to be with others who understand their cultural perspective. Valuable as such friendships are, they often get in the way of using English and refining the skills, speaking and listening in particular.
Furthermore, a lack of confidence inhibits many foreign students from putting themselves forward in English. Even when they have the confidence and willingness, students from other countries often do not know how - and where - to create situations outside the classroom in which they're likely to learn English by using it. All of them agree that making as many native English-speaking friends as possible is the most helpful thing of all. That doesn't necessarily mean living with native speakers, but if you can - in a dormitory or shared house, apartment or flat situation - you're sure to get your English up to comfortable speaking, listening and general comprehension standards at the fastest rate, having the most fun in the process.
English-speaking students are as interested in making friends with people from other countries as you are in getting to know them. A good thing to avoid in making native-speaker friends is not to propose spending time together so that you can practice your English. It sounds like there is work or effort involved on the part of the native speaker.

In fact, the people you approach with the idea of "practicing your English" are less like to decline your invitation because they are unwilling to be helpful than they are to feel that they are not "qualified" to teach and might have a negative rather than a positive influence on your English. The reality is that no matter how they speak English, they have something to teach you, since, as native speakers, they are examples of the kinds of English speakers you can expect to encounter in your later, professional or personal life.

Beyond making English-speaking friends and living with native speakers, here are some ways to consider expanding your English speaking and comprehension skills that take you into more formal, adult parts of the English-speaking world. In some of them, you may even learn vocabulary that will be useful for your academic discipline:
1. Go to the bank with a mission that involves fact-finding in English. As one example, it would be good for you to learn how have money wired from a foreign country - yours - into a bank account you establish in your host country. If the branch of the bank near your university is a small one, you may just want to walk in and talk to an officer. If it is a larger bank, you may want to call ahead for an appointment to speak with someone. You could even say that you are gathering the information for an article you are writing for your school's foreign-student bulletin. Then you could actually write up what you learn and present the information to your fellow foreign students - even if there is no official foreign-student bulletin.
2. Go to the post office to find out how best to ship an item home. This will probably be a walk-in task, but you are likely to find postal clerks helpful if you look earnest about your need to know.
3. Go to a fitness center or other facility that offers nonacademic activities you enjoy and ask about membership and privileges. Universities often have many of the facilities you need on campus. Still, you could also go off campus to investigate other kinds of activity centers - which could range from a stable that gives horse-riding lessons to an art studio. Even if you do not actually join - and do not feel pressured to; you are just investing possibilities (and expanding your English without saying so) - you are sure to enlarge your vocabulary and increase your sense of ease talking with strangers in English.
4. Go to a travel agent and plan a trip. The trip could be anything from an excursion in your host country - of which there are sure to be many - to a more adventurous trip to a neighboring country. Travel agents are, for obvious reasons, accustomed to dealing with people who do not speak English as a first language. Again, try to sustain the conversation as long as possible within reason. Ask about the full range of transportation and accommodation options, and see how many different recommendations the agent can make that fit with you time availability and budget. It is normal for customers to leave a travel agent's office with a variety of options to consider.
5. Apply for a part-time job. Even if you do not need to work part-time or cannot under the terms of your acceptance at your host university, check out nearby jobs. Interviewing is a highly valuable skill in countless situations, including academic ones, and getting all the experience you can with it will be invaluable. If you are so successful that you are actually offered the job, give yourself credit for a job already well done (fact-finding; interviewing) - and then accept the job if it actually appeals to you or politely decline it if you do not want or need it. If you were skillful enough to get one job offer, it is plausible that you got others, too. Thank the employer for the opportunity and reply that, regrettably, you have accepted another offer elsewhere.

The suggestions above are offered to give you ideas about how to use your imagination to create situations for you to expand and practice your English - without ever having to say, "Could you please help me practice my English?"

Nine Reasons Why I Love to Teach English as a Second Language - and Why That Should Matter to You
Why do I love to teach English as a Second Language?
One: I love to teach.
Two: I love English.
Three: I love language in general; discovering the connections between English and other languages is a bonus.
Four: I love to hear other people speak their native languages fluently, easily, and beautifully.
Five: I love to travel—no, that’s wrong. I don’t travel. But spending time with people from other cultures enables me to imagine that I travel.
Six: I love to feel like an ambassador to…whatever country my student is from.
Seven: I love learning about history, and most other countries on the planet have more history than mine.
Eight: I’m a writer; writing is my primary source of income, and I love to write. But writing is a solitary activity; teaching allows me to interact with people and adds another layer of richness to my life.
Nine: It gives me something wonderful to dream about. Please continue reading….

Why should you care that I love to teach ESL?
Here, in ten brief paragraphs, is my answer.
I tell my students, rather apologetically, that Americans generally don’t respect people who don’t speak English. True, the world is quickly becoming a global society, and English is becoming “the” international language. And perhaps someday soon every educated person in the world will have a working knowledge of English.

Even if your ancestors came here on the Mayflower—as mine did—or even if they are Native Americans, your people originally spoke some other language. Modern English has been around only a few hundred years.

And what a tragedy it would be if those other languages disappeared, or became ancient relics of lost civilizations, to be studied only by academicians and never used in everyday life. Think of living in a world where everyone had the same favorite color, or the same hobby…where every radio station played the same music…or every restaurant served the same food. How boring! Here’s an easy (and fun) way for each of us to do our small part for international relations: be patient with someone who is learning English, and while we’re at it, show an interest in their native language. We’re guaranteed to learn something fascinating.

Wherever we live, wherever our ancestors came from, our language is intimately intertwined with our history, our culture, our sociology…even our biology. Consider that whatever sounds are absent from our native language, unless we somehow learn them as young children, will be lost to us forever. We lose a big piece of our cultural identity if we pretend that Modern English is the only language that counts.

Now, my dream…for many years, I’ve wanted to travel to England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales—the lands of my ancestors. A few years ago, I began to study Italian, and became enamored of not only the language, but the food, the art, the architecture, and of course the history. More recently, as I worked with a student from Switzerland, I was soon awed by what I learned of the rich cultural history, the variety of natural scenery…the castles and cathedrals and trains…the large number of language groups for so small a country…and now I want to go to Switzerland. I hope all my fellow Americans will find it in themselves to appreciate the languages of the world and the people who speak them. If you do travel, please make an effort to say a few words in your host country’s language. You probably won’t have to say much, for the people you meet will probably want to take the opportunity to practice English. If you don’t travel, just look at the people around you and notice the diversity of backgrounds.

The Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel describes God’s punishment of mankind for their pride in thinking they could reach heaven by building and climbing upon this great tower. Suddenly speaking many different languages, they could no longer communicate and were unable to finish the project. Go out of your way to spend some time with someone who doesn’t speak fluent English. The joy of communication that transcends language barriers will be yours.

How To Write Powerful Presentations, Speeches, And Talks

Most of us get nervous about making a speech, whether it's to 2000 convention delegates or a PTA meeting at our child's school. Often, though, people find that's the worst part of the whole process - the anticipation. The reality is often a lot easier to handle and can even be quite enjoyable, provided that you take the necessary precaution of doing your homework beforehand - preparation.

There are very, very few people who can get up at a moment's notice and give a good speech totally impromptu and on the spur of the moment.
1.Define exactly not so much what you want to say, as what you want your speech or talk to achieve - ask yourself, "what do I want the audience to be thinking as I come to the end of my speech?"
2.Find out as much as you can about your audience and ensure your content is very, very relevant to them and their needs.
3.Use language and tone of voice that the audience will understand and identify with - and blend that in with your own natural style of speaking.
4.By all means use a bit of jargon and a few "in" phrases as long as you're certain the audience understands them, but never use jargon others may not know.
The only extra point I would make here is, remember that people can't rewind/replay or re-read you. For that reason you can't expect them to absorb as much detailed information as they would if you were to write it in a document or CD-ROM, which allow them to refer back to details as often as they want.

Knowing your audience is also unusually important here - you'll find out very quickly if you've got it wrong, because you'll see it in their faces and their body language.

Cut the clutter
Depending on the nature of the presentation you're making, sometimes you will be giving out delegate packs or some other form of permanent record of your material, so details, expansions, etc can go in there. With live speeches, your success is almost entirely dependent on what your audience remembers of what you say. People have very bad memories, and if a speech has been boring or complicated or both, they will remember even less of its content and only recall how terrible it was.

Often senior managers are called upon to give speeches - usually to internal audiences - which cover a wide range of topics, for example a review of the company's performance over the past year, announcements about new developments, etc. These presentations sometimes last for nearly an hour and attempt to cover more topics than a fat Sunday newspaper. At the end of it the audiences have absorbed very little, having been mesmerized by the drone of the boss's voice and an increasingly urgent desire to leave the meeting and go to the washroom.

The answer? Split a one-hour speech down into four fifteen-minuters, interspersed with the other presentations throughout the day or half-day session. (Or if you can't do that, split the one-hour presentation across four different speakers.) Fifteen minutes is much more comfortable for the audience's attention span. And the fact that there are more, shorter presentations creates variety which, to totally misquote an old saying is the spice of live communication.

Start by writing yourself a list of points - a structure. This should cover the usual story-telling technique of a beginning, a middle and an end, although the old soap-box principle of "tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, then tell 'em what you just said" is a bit repetitive. Try if you can to keep the main issues in your presentation to fewer than five, no matter how long your speech is. If you can't actually put it together as a traditional story, what you must do is ensure that one topic leads logically on to the next using some good, workable links.

The right order
It is possible to change direction abruptly in a presentation, but you need to be a practised speaker to pull it off and know how to use your stage body language as well as that other wonderful presenter's tool, silence. Nothing gets an audience's attention faster than a few seconds of total silence when they're expecting a stream of words. All of this carried out by a novice speaker who can't quite get the nuances right, however, can be a disaster.

Links are actually quite useful even if they are a little abrupt, because they act as punctuation to your material.

Openers and closers
Many people will tell you that a powerful opening and close of a speech are terribly important and in fact as long as those are good you can say pretty well what you like in between. I've seen (and written for) many speakers who have agonized during several sleepless nights over how to start their speech with a big bang at the company sales conference, when all the time a simple, sometimes gently humorous opening is far easier - and more effective.

It helps here if we re-examine just why openers and closers are important in the first place. To put it politely, they help to locate the audience, to act as a signal that you're about to start talking to them about something interesting or that you've just finished telling them something interesting.

To put it crudely, sometimes the opener at least has to act as an alarm clock - waking the audience up after a narcolepsy-inducing previous speaker - or as air-raid siren, warning the audience to settle down, shut up and pay attention.

But even if the speaker prior to you has been intensely boring and has had the whole audience shifting from one numb seatbone to the other for 45 minutes, you don't necessarily have to go out there in a top hat and false nose riding a unicycle and playing a trombone at the same time. Say something amusing, heart-warming, witty, whatever, as long as it's something you would say in "real life." You probably don't want to say something rude about the previous speaker, although it will be tempting, but an in-company joke if it's an in-company audience, or even a relevant quote by a famous person (there are numerous books and websites where you can find quotes) will instantly signal a major change and have the audience looking forward to what you have to say.

The opener and closer don't have to be earth-shattering, but they do have to be part of you and your material. If you're naturally a quiet, private sort of person there's no way you should struggle with a passionate, emotive ending to your speech, even if others think you should be able to carry it off. One very important rule about giving speeches is if you don't think something will work for you on the night, you're right - it won't. Don't be talked into retaining anything you're not comfortable with, because something that's a small hiccup in rehearsals will become a major stumbling block on show day.

On-stage nervousness greatly magnifies any little glitch. If a few, self-effacing words of "thanks for listening" are all you think you will feel comfortable with at the end of your speech then that's what you say, even if you use a speechwriter who tells you otherwise (and some of my colleagues would.)

Spoken speech
Once you have created your structure and decided how best to open and close your speech, the best way to ensure it sounds natural is to switch on an audio recorder, talk through the structure to yourself, and transcribe the recording. (It's a terrible job, but worth it.) Long sentences in speeches can leave you gasping for breath and losing the plot. Spoken speech is simply, only, what it says it is. It is monologue or dialogue as you would speak, not as you would write the same information or thoughts down on paper or screen. Then commit those words to paper or screen, a few at a time or in short phrases and sentences.

If it sounds right, it is right, and if it sounds wrong it is wrong even though it may look right on paper or screen.

Even great playwrights interpret spoken speech in exactly the same, uncomplicated way. Think Molière, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Jack Rosenthal, Alan Bennett and many more. Their characters' dialogue may seem unnatural to us when we hear it but that's because the character is surreal and extraordinary - and the dialogue is, in fact, perfectly natural for that character.

I've lost count of the number of speeches I've listened to (not written by me I hasten to add) that came over as completely different from the personality of the speaker. This happens because many people believe that giving business presentations is a serious artform where the grander the verbiage and more ostentatious and self-important the oratory the more points they'll score with their audience. It also happens because people write bad speeches so they are virtually indistinguishable from bad brochure copy or website text or any other manifestation of overstuffed corporate-babble.

Okay, you shouldn't give a speech in the same ribald style you might use to tell a joke to your friends in the changing rooms at the gym or the 19th hole at the Golf Club. Unless you're a trained actor, the only way you're going to come over well is if you are as at ease as possible with your material. This won't happen if you write words and phrases that may look very eloquent on paper, but which are lumpy mouthfuls to say.

The right style is always conversational. The best speakers always talk to audiences as if they were talking to a friend over a cup of coffee - a natural, friendly, personal style. Gone are the days when being in a business environment meant that you should never use a short word where a long one would do.

Why a full script?
You notice that I say you must write your speech, even though I know you may deliver it from bullet points or entirely from memory. Highly experienced public speakers often do not write their speeches but work only from a memorized opening and close. This is fine if you're a very experienced public speaker. If you're not, don't risk it.

A full script offers a number of advantages:
¨It provides a detailed framework if you're an inexperienced speaker
¨It allows you to develop and balance your content more easily
¨It means you don't have to make anything up as you go along
¨It acts as a safety net if you do speak from memory then forget something
¨It keeps you to your allotted time (most speakers present at an average of 120 words per minute, so divide the total wordcount of your written speech by 120 to get its rough presentation length in minutes.) ¨It allows others to cue your visual support accurately (if relevant)

The downside of creating a full script is that other people in your organization can tinker with it, if they know it exists. However this is a small price to pay for the reassurance and confidence a full script can give you. As you get more practised at speaking you will probably find that you become less dependent on the script and may work off bullet points or notes, but I still think it's worth writing the whole thing out initially.

Anecdotes and humor
Unless your presentation is an information-heavy financial report or other totally factual speech, a few anecdotes (preferably personal ones) are highly effective in helping to illustrate the points you make. Especially in England where self-deprecation and extreme modesty are the required penances to be paid by the successful, audiences warm to speakers who tell stories against themselves. It's also because audiences are naturally voyeuristic and love to feel they're getting an inside glimpse of the real you. Whatever the reason, though, anecdotes work, as long as they're short, to the point, and totally relevant to your other material.

Humor is something to be approached with caution, although used wisely it works superbly well. There is a big difference between being witty and telling jokes, and unless you are a first-class raconteur you must avoid the latter in your speeches, even if they're for "after-dinner" or other social purposes.

If you're not a naturally "funny" person you won't suddenly transform yourself into one just because you're standing up in front of a group of people. If anything that tends to make you less, not more funny. So whatever happens don't be persuaded to tell a few jokes if that's something you would never dream of doing informally at a social gathering.

If you do feel comfortable telling jokes, then use them sparingly, as punctuation - unless you're to be "best man" at a wedding or the entertainment after a social dinner, wall-to-wall jokes are usually inappropriate. Jokes in a speech should always be tailored to the audience and material. Gag writing is a specialized writing technique and there are quite a few good books around on comedy writing, if you're interested in learning how to do it.

If you're looking for jokes to adapt there are some good joke books available in bookstores (including one or two written by yours truly...) and of course you can find them online via the usual big sites - try keying in +JOKES+(YOUR SUBJECT). If you key the same thing into a search engine you'll also come across jokes archived on websites devoted to the subject concerned.

If you're at all concerned about the copyright implications of using jokes in your speeches you should ask your legal advisers for guidance.

Rehearse, rehearse
I don't want to be depressing, but once you've finished all the hard work of preparing your material, writing your speech and (if relevant) organising your visual support, you then get down to the really hard work - rehearsing. You've got to practise, practise, practise.

Not too soon before the event, or you'll be so stale and fed up with the speech you'll lose interest. Memorize the speech as well as you can, but don't worry if you forget the odd "and" or "but." If you say "er" and hesitate slightly now and again, it will make your speech sound more natural. If you're giving your presentation in a large conference environment you may find yourself working with a show crew and a very sophisticated set and equipment. Novice speakers can feel daunted by all this stuff but what you must always remember is that it's there to make your job easier, not harder.

Oh yes, cue cards.
Keep them in separate places - e.g. one in your pocket and one in your car - so if one set gets lost you know you've got another handy.
And two, ensure that both sets are irrevocably tied together in correct order via a securing device looped through a hole in the corner of each card. The securing device does not have to be sophisticated, as long as it's strong.

I once confounded the CEO of a major European telecomms company who, fortunately for me, was an engineer by trade, when I showed him the high-tech fasteners I'd used on his cue cards. "Good stuff," he said, "they work well.

Persuasive Writing Strategies That Grab the Readers Attention and Get You Results
As a writer, you have the challenge of communicating without feedback and without the benefit of voice characteristics, facial expressions or body language. Wow! You need to make your words come alive in the readers mind to compensate for their inability to hear your voice or see your body. It's like the author just sat down and threw up on the paper. Bottom line, determine what you want to accomplish. Are you trying to convey an idea, influence decisions, convey information or move people to action? How will this influence your message? You need to decide on your desired outcome right up front.

What I mean is, you need to ask these questions: "What are my reader’s wants, desires, needs, characteristics, concerns, problems? What do I need to know to help influence them?" If you are writing to an individual then understand that person, if writing to a group then understand the general characteristics for that group. If part of influence is to appeal to desires (and it is) then knowing your reader(s) is part of the desire equation.

One step people often fail to consider is the impact of the writing media. Is your communication electronic or is it on paper? Is it an e-mail, forum posting, newsletter, paper mail, printed book, magazine article or something else? How will it be distributed, will it be e-mail, website, postal service, flyer, in a package, etc. Consider how each of these will influence the perceptions of the reader. Is your writing just one of many messages being received all at the same time or will the reader just receive yours? Well, if you really want to be persuasive, these steps are important and the effort will pay off.

At this point, you know what you want to accomplish, you know a little or a lot about the background of the reader, and you know the media you'll be using for the written communication. Now it's time to determine what your messages are. If you don't think of your message in terms that are acceptable to your reader, you're efforts will sink faster than a heavy rock in a pond of water.

1. A common copywriting formula is AIDA (attention - like a grabbing headline), interest (capture and keep the readers interest), desire (build desire), and action (move the reader to action).
2. Another formula used in selling is Neil Rackham's SPIN Model. That is S (understand the Situation - as a writer you might describe the situation in a way that gets the reader to relate to your persuasion perspective perhaps by appealing to desires - especially unmet ones), P (identify the problem), I (show the implication of the problem), and N (lead the reader to realize he or she needs what you are persuading towards).
3. Case studies can be very effective for influencing. The simple model works well. Problem - Actions - Results: state the problem (and implications), provide the actions taken to resolve the problem, and then describe the results achieved (and relate these to the reader).
4. Break your writing up into key topic areas (this may mean messages or information) and then have several bullets to support each. Make sure your material has a logical flow (typically, this would be either chronologically, along the lines of your arguments logic, or in a series of steps).
5. Use metaphor/stories where the characters and situation mirror people and situations you are trying to influence. This is a great way to let the reader come to the "right" conclusion on his or her own.

At this point, it is time to start writing, so...
STOP! NOW! Okay, keep reading. You want to get the readers attention quickly right up front. It could be a bold claim, something bizarre, a big promise, a statement creating curiosity or a statement highlighting a major problem. All of these tied to the reader in some way.

A great example of a starting sentence that really captures the imagination is at the beginning of Charles Dickens book A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times. What does that conjure up in your mind? Here is a fantastic e-mail subject line from Jason Potash (a true internet marketing genious): "Top Marketer Gets Mauled In Public Bathroom..." I sure did and opened it right away and had a great read.

You also want to immediately establish upfront that what you are writing about is relevant to the reader. If you have any doubts, just take a quick look at your newspaper and read the first paragraph of a couple of articles, or take a look at the first sentence of a good novel.

Your challenge is to make the what, why, when, how, where, and who pertain to the readers interests. Build credibility, early on if possible. You can use social proof by mentioning endorsements, alliances with people who are respected, and testimonials. You can use the power of authority by mentioning your professional designations, licenses, certifications and other credentials. If appropriate, list designations next to your name under the title (for example "by John Doe, PhD, MD"). Be careful not to go overboard in tooting your own horn. For example, I might mention something like "while doing research in persuasion for my doctoral thesis, I discovered ..." This tells you several things, I am either a PhD or working toward my doctorate (the latter is true in my case), and I am an expert in persuasion.

Citing facts and statistics with references to back them up can all help credibility. If quoting numbers, the more specific you are the more credible. For example, if discussing non-verbal communications as a key factor in communications you could say "according to a research study done at UCLA, 93% of communication is non-verbal."
Research has shown us that case studies are even more effective than facts at building credibility and persuading. As noted earlier, a great case study method is Problem - Actions to resolve problem - result achieved.

Do you really want your readers to finish reading what you worked so hard to write? THEN KEEP THEM INTERESTED. How? Well, I already mentioned one key technique and that is to establish relevancy early on.

Would you like to learn one of the biggest secrets to persuasive writing? Brace yourself. ASK QUESTIONS. Asking questions forces the reader to think about answers. Questions open up "mental file cabinets" in the readers mind. You can lead the reader with questions. You can get the reader to consider key issues. You can tap into emotions. You can ask the reader simple questions that require a small mental commitment related to what you are trying to influence and then tap the desire to remain consistent to previous commitments when asking the reader to consider something bigger.

Next tap into the readers emotions. You can do this with a story or metaphor that is likely to touch someone’s heart or trigger remembrances of similar reader experiences. See the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books for great story ideas.

Another way to trigger emotions is to ask the reader to remember a past experience. STOP for second. Can you remember a time when you accomplished something really significant, really important? The excitement? The sense of achievement? Now imagine using these written persuasion strategies successfully for the first time and realize that this is how you will feel now.
What I just gave you was an example of tapping into the readers emotions (hopefully I tapped into yours - this stuff really is incredible and you will feel an incredible sense of pride and accomplishment when you learn it).

Paint vivid mental representations for the reader that make the senses come alive. This will help your reader remember what was said and will bring your message to life in the readers mind. If you were selling beachfront property you might say something like "imagine stepping out your back door onto the warm sand and looking out to a brilliant orange sunset, feeling a warm breeze on your face as gulls fly overhead, and then walking along the beach, taking in that special smell of the salt air, watching the deep blue water well up into giant frothy waves breaking along the coast for as far as the eye can see ..."

Remember how I promised to share with you one of the biggest secrets of successful writing? I was listening to an audio program by the great marketer Joe Vitale. I kept listening to audio after audio for that second great headline. Create curiosity with questions and statements that leave the reader wondering what the answers are or wondering what happened.
Use linguistic patterns of influence in your writing. These are things like presuppositions. Here, either you question your ability to use the techniques and find they are effective or you feel they are effective up front. Kind of weird, huh? You can learn more about language patterns by studying any decent NLP course.

Forget perfect grammar and punctuation, communicate with your readers the same way you would talk to them, the same way you would talk to someone standing right in front of you. There may be hundreds of other people reading this article, maybe even thousands, but as you read this, I want you to know I am talking to you.

If you get creative with your punctuation, you can do amazing things to direct the rhythm of your writing, to create pauses, to emphasize key points and much more. You can use capitalization, bolding, italics and color to emphasize key points. You can use a coma, a colon, a semi colon, a dash, or a "..." to create pauses. You can use parenthesis to place sub-ideas or explanations within a sentence and so much more. Take advantage of punctuation. It's a great way to give the reader a sense of how your writing would be spoken.

Appeal to the reader’s universal core desires. You may or may not know your individual readers. If you don't, it can be difficult to write to their desires. But, you can appeal to universal core desires (these are desires everyone has). Universal desires include reproduction/sex, food, and power. You can learn more by studying Kevin Hogan's great course "Covert Hypnosis" were he discusses in detail each of the 16 basic desires identified by Dr. Steven Reiss.

Build up the value of the information you are sharing. For example, if an idea you provided could earn the reader an extra $20,000 in sales in the coming 12 months, say so. If you had to spend thousands of hours doing research, invest thousands of dollars buying courses and reference material, if you had to walk six miles up hill each way barefoot in the snow to get to the library to do that research (OK just having fun with you) tell the reader what it took to provide the information. This creates value.

Let me share with you one of the most powerful secrets of successful writing (remember, the one I promised you earlier). It may surprise you. It might disappoint you if you take it too lightly. Perhaps the greatest barrier to persuasive writing is that most people quit before they start or once they get started, they keep stopping and trying to make each word and sentence perfect ... and never finish. Don't worry about the details, don't worry about missing facts (you can find them later), don't worry about references (you can find these later also) and don't worry about grammar.

Well friends, that about wraps up this overly verbose writing session. Obviously, there is much, much more to persuasive writing, but hopefully, I've given you a basic framework to make your writing task easier and your written work more effective.

If you want to learn more about persuasion and influence strategies that can really give your writing more impact, I would highly recommend two course by Kevin Hogan. The first is "Covert Hypnosis." It goes into great detail on how to persuade at an almost unconscious level through story and appealing to core desires. The other course is "The Science of Influence" series which provides the latest research and cutting edge persuasion tools. You can learn more about both courses along with many other persuasion resources at http://www.PersuasionToolbox.com.

A Few Bugs in English Writing

I plainly replied "A". My friend cynically responded, "Don't ask me about that. It's lame. I'm poor at grammar while the lecturer, you know, gets crazy about it."
This situation typically happens in academic settings when students are expected to be able to write standard and legible English essays in order to pass a particular course or even degree. Students oftentimes feel stuck with writing because they are terrible with grammar. They think of English grammar as 'a bug'. They often claim that grammar always ruins their fluency. They further argue that what is apparently needed in real-life communication is not grammar. Well, irrespective of whether or not grammar is a necessity in communication, what strikes the students when writing or speaking in English is a few (not to mention some or in fact many) seemingly unavoidable errors. Like an earthquake in Jogjakarta or Tsunami in Aceh (Indonesia), those errors can be typified as 'a national emergency' because they seem to have been fossilized or ingrained by most English students in Indonesia. Let's suppose so truthfully. What's more, a linguist in Indonesia once reveals that the errors are becoming typical characteristics of a possibly new emerging English variety i.e. IndoEnglish. A variety that is characterized by 'commonly accepted errors'. Erroneous, right?

Anyhow, the concept of error is a fuzzy one. It most probably necessitates a more technical explanation from linguistics point of view. Too delicate. Forget it. What concerns me at present is any deviations from the internationally accepted standard use of English particularly in English writing. Let me list a few identifiable errors that frequently bug my students especially when they write a research paper.

1. Combining singular and plural forms in the same sentence.
Right: Each respondent was asked about his and her opinions.

2. Using an unnecessary comma.
e.g. The data are collected, and then analyzed.
Right: The data are collected and then analyzed.'

3. Writing fragmented sentence.
e.g. For days interviewed the subjects.
Right: For days I interviewed the subjects.

4. Confusing the use of "its" and "it's".
e.g. It's aim is to describe the classroom interaction.
Right: Its aim is to describe the classroom interaction.

5. Using an apostrophe to indicate a plural form of a word.
e.g. The subject's of the research were observed for several days.
Right: The subjects of the research were observed for several days.

6. Using "he" or "she" when referring to both sexes (men and women)
Right: Before interviewing the subject, the researcher asked him or her to complete a questionnaire.
Right: Before interviewing the subject, the researcher administered a questionnaire.
Ups. I hope that's not exhaustive. Though I have yet to conduct particular research on this matter, the above list of errors is worth considering. Beware of the bugs!

Writing and Speaking English Can Be Confusing
If you are learning English as a foreign language you are almost certain to have come across the problem of finding an answer to a straightforward grammar question. Is it 'it's', or 'its'? The first way to deal with this is to keep an English grammar notebook and record every new rule you learn so that you can find it quickly. It will save lots of time.

Where spelling is concerned, it is very difficult to use a dictionary if you can't spell a word to start with. Record the rules of spelling and the meanings of words that are new to you, or that you find particularly difficult.

Don't be put off learning English by all the exceptions to the rules you have already learnt, or by words that seem to have two alternative spellings, like 'mediaeval' and 'medieval', or even three options like 'yogurt', 'yoghurt', or 'yoghourt'.

Words that sound the same but are spelt differently are confusing too. Take for example, 'bear' and 'bare', or 'their', 'there', and 'they're'.
You will also find that some of these words actually have slightly different sounds when you hear a native English speaker using them. You can't learn that from a self study course.
Self study will help you to learn the basics of English grammar and you should be able to teach yourself to form simple phrases and sentences but if you want to speak English fluently you will certainly need some conversation training. Ideally you should use English in conversation every day and if you have no one to practise with the services of a tutor will help immensely.
Don't practise with a tutor for too long or you will get tired and stop learning. If you can find a tutor who will allow you to buy blocks of time and then use them as you wish for short conversation classes, or longer more intensive learning sessions, that's the best way to do it.

If you have fun learning it will be much easier and you will come to love the English language as much as your lessons.