Fancy Words for Essay Writing: How NOT to Screw Up

if you are looking for fancy words for your essay then watch this video to find out how some students do it the wrong way and what to do instead I am tutor Phil and 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 now it sounds fancy but does it really make sense meaning will your professor be impressed with it let’s analyze the sentence and see where the student might have gone wrong first I like that the sentence begins with a subject the author’s argument that’s the good part so we know that we’re talking about the author’s argument we’re obviously writing about another piece of writing an article a book or a piece of research that’s good now let’s look at the verb in the sentence exemplifies now this word means that this is an example 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 it is supported by examples but it’s not an example so the use of the word exemplifies really doesn’t work here but let’s continue what about the object in the sentence well the object is his claim meaning the author’s claim can this be right let me ask you a question what is the difference between an argument and a claim if you look up these words you’ll find that they are synonymous meaning 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 that’s pretty much what you get so far 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 how easy it is to confuse the heck out of your reader 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’re opposites of each other and you can’t increase both at the same time when one goes up the other goes down so what is your big takeaway from this so far lessons in your writing only use the words that you know words that are a part of your working vocabulary so let’s rewrite the sentence assuming that we know what the student really meant let’s try it 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 samples is it more clear is it easier to understand of course it is and why is that because we rewrote the sentence without trying to be fancy so again 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 subscribe to the channel and pick up your gift at tear-filled calm