2. Words like very and really seem to make your
meaning stronger. But do they?
3. Consider the following sentence:
It was a very cold winter and many of the old people in
the village died of hypothermia.
Is it any less strong without the word very?
It was a cold winter and many of the old people in the
village died of hypothermia.
4. Consider the following sentence:
I love you. Will you marry me?
Does it sound stronger if we write it this way?:
I really love you. Will you marry me?
5. A shopkeeper woke up in the morning and found
that his shop had been robbed in the night.
He called the police. They arrested two local boys
and called them in for questioning...
6. The police asked the first boy: Did you rob the
shop last night?
The first boy answered: No, I swear to you. I didn’t
do it. I would never, never, ever do a thing like
that. I’m telling the truth, you’ve got to believe
me. Please mister, I'm not lying.
7. Then the police asked the second boy: Did you
rob the shop last night?
The second boy answered: No, I didn’t.
Do the extra words in the first boy’s answer help
make it sound more truthful?
10. It is said that this slogan is
one reason why Lenin
garnered the support of
Russian workers in 1917.
This slogan is powerful
because it’s simple.
11. Qualifiers are words that intentionally weaken
the meaning of a sentence. Although they
may give the author a feeling that he is being
more honest.
It’s better to simply say what you believe and let
the reader decide if it’s true.
13. Instead of:
It was pretty kind of her to bake a cake for a man who
had only two weeks earlier caused her to loose her job.
Write:
It was kind of her to bake a cake for a man who had
only two weeks earlier caused her to loose her job.
14. Words and phrases like kind of, a little,
pretty much, a bit, and quite make your
sentences longer and more complex but
they don’t make the meaning clearer.
Delete them .
16. nd of hinking apacity
When you get to the end of a list, stop. Before
you reach the end, keep writing.
Instead of:
There are many seasons such as winter, spring...
Write:
The four seasons are winter, spring, summer, and fall.
17. nd of hinking apacity
If you have to write an incomplete list, give more than
two examples and write a complete sentence.
Instead of:
I like to eat traditional Indian foods such as masoor
dhal, etc.
Write:
I like to eat traditional Indian foods including masoor
dhal, channa masala, chapati, and roti.
18. Make items in a list follow the same grammatical
structure.
Instead of:
I like watching films, to cook, read good books, and I
have long hair.
Write:
I like watching films, cooking meals, and reading good
books. I also have long hair.
19. In the following sentence, write each item in the
list as a noun.
Instead of:
The advantages of our software are efficiency, easy to
manage, and speed.
Write:
The advantages of our software are efficiency,
simplicity-of-management, and speed.
20. Instead of:
The most expensive parts of a computer are the screen,
the microprocessor, the hard drive.
Write:
The most expensive parts of a computer are the screen,
the microprocessor, and the hard drive.
21. Instead of:
It wasn’t a long poem. If fact he remembered it
completely after seeing it only one time scratched above
the doorway of the old parsonage: “Catch for us the
foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our
vineyards that are in bloom.” He felt that he had heard
it somewhere else before but he couldn’t remember
where.
22. “Besides” is informal english.
Instead of:
Besides, dual-core processors aren’t even faster for
single-threaded processes.
Write:
Furthermore, dual-core processors aren’t even faster for
single-threaded processes.
23. “Besides” is informal english.
Instead of:
Besides his deaf aunt, there was no one in the house to
hear the awful sound of his violin.
Write:
Aside from his deaf aunt, there was no one in the house
to hear the awful sound of his violin.
24. Rewrite the following sentence without using the word “you”:
The guilt is the feeling you get when you know
that you have done something wrong.
25. Passive Voice:
The report was written by Nguyễn Phan Nam.
Active Voice:
Nguyễn Phan Nam wrote the report.
27. Passive Voice:
My first visit to Boston will always be remembered
by me.
Active Voice:
I will always remember my first trip to Boston.
28. Passive Voice:
The reason that he left college was because his
health was failing.
Active Voice:
Failing health forced him to leave college.
29. (Microsoft Word style and grammar check will
always warn you if you have any sentence in
passive voice.)
30. Use passive voice when it makes your writing
simpler:
Nikola Tesla was regarded as a mad genius. Few
people really understood his ideas.
Here the writer intends to be unclear about who
regards Tesla as a mad genius. Therefore it’s
difficult to write the sentence in active voice.
31. Read The Elements of Style, Chapter III, section
11 for many more examples of active and
passive voice.
32. 's
Instead of:
Đại Học Bách Khoa’s students have the habit of singing
karaoke late at night.
Write:
The students of Đại Học Bách Khoa have the habit of
singing karaoke late at night.
33. 's
Instead of:
Your foot’s bottom is soft and vulnerable to infections,
cuts, and bruises.
Write:
The bottom of your foot is soft and vulnerable to
infections, cuts, and bruises.
35. When you want to put two sentences together into one:
,
Karl, one of of my closest friends., at the bar on
Karl is one my closest friends, was
Karl nightat the bar on the night of the shooting.
the was of the shooting.
36. Instead of:
My wedding if it ever comes will be a source of great
relief to everyone in my family.
Write:
My wedding, if it ever comes, will be a source of great
relief to everyone in my family.
37. Instead of:
He was an interesting talker. A man who had
traveled all over the world, and lived in half a
dozen countries.
Write:
He was an interesting talker, a man who had
traveled all over the world, and lived in half a
dozen countries.
38. “Tức là...” can be translated as “I mean...”
but not as “It means...”.
39. After three years together you still aren’t happy. It
means, if you don’t love him then why don’t you
find someone else?
After three years together you still aren’t happy. I
mean, if you don’t love him then why don’t you find
someone else?
40. Instead of “I mean...” you can write “In other
words...”
41. Process scheduling is an essential function of the
kernel of every modern operating system. I mean,
without it, there would be no multitasking.
Process scheduling is an essential function of the
kernel of every modern operating system. In other
words, without it, there would be no multitasking.
43. He could never wake up early in the morning. So
that he was always late for his first class.
44. He could never wake up early in the morning.
That’s why he was always late for his first class.
He could never wake up early in the morning.
Therefore he was always late for his first class.
45. He wanted to cut her picture up into tiny pieces so
that he could forget her more quickly.
The drain beneath the road was small and easily
clogged, so that every time a heavy rain came it
became flooded.
46. All nouns fit into one of the following cases:
• Proper Nouns: names of people, places,
companies, operating systems
• Nouns with an article: a, the, my, your, our
• Plural nouns
• Uncountable nouns
47. Every time you hear a noun in English you must
know the answer to these questions:
• Is it unique? The
Article or Plural = countable,
• Is it coutable? noun alone = uncountable.
• Is there one thing or more than one? Article or Plural
48. Vietnamese: (sự thù hằn = hate, an uncountable noun)
Sự thù hằn gây ra đau khổ.
English:
Hate causes suffering.
49. Vietnamese:
car – countable, plural, not unique
air pollution: uncountable, not unique
Xe ô-tô làm ô nhiêm không khí.
English:
Cars cause air pollution.
50. Vietnamese:
car – countable, plural, not unique
air in Ha Noi: uncountable, unique
Xe ô-tô làm cho không khí Hà Nội ô nhiêm hơn.
English:
Cars make the air in Ha Noi more polluted.
51. Uncountable nouns like love, life, ambition, and
science can be written with the or without it.
The life / life
The love / love
The science / science
But adding the word “the” changes the
meaning.
53. “Love”: the idea of love in general. All kinds
of love.
“The Love...”: a special kind of love. Not all
love. Not love in general.
54. Love...
• ... isn’t just a feeling
• ... has to be felt to be understood.
• ... is just a waste of time.
• ... always forgives.
55. The love...
• ... of a mother for her child is the greatest
love of all.
• ... that I have for you is only skin-deep.
• ... she felt for her sister was not enough to
bring her back home.
56. Each of the sentences below is written twice. Choose the most correct version:
1) Life is hard The life is hard.
2) Life of a college The life of a college
student is busy. student is busy.
3) He has the ambition He has ambition that is
that is necessary for necessary for the
the leader of a large leader of a large
company. company.
4) A love like ours The love like ours could
could never die. never die.
57. The sentences below have some unnecessary articles. Identify the words that do not belong.
1) The love is the most important thing in the
life.
2) The guilt is the feeling you get when you
know that you have done something wrong.
60. English:
Should we pick up the girl before we go to the movie?
Vietnamese:
Chúng ta có nên rủ cô ấy đi cùng trước khi chúng ta đi
xem phim? (tôi không nhớ tên cô ấy)
61. English:
Should we pick up a girl before we go to the movie?
Vietnamese:
Chúng ta có nên đi tán gái trước khi chúng ta đi xem
phim?
