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Do you have a sensation that the words you use are not exactly what you need to express your opinion? Do you feel lack of strong expressions or idioms to describe the problem you are working on? Maybe, sometimes you are not sure you’ve understood where your interlocutor or your teacher is leading to? In all the cases there is one problem to overcome: insufficient vocabulary. Here are some useful tips to enrich your vocabulary so that you’ll feel confident while speaking and writing.

1. Make a careful revision of the words you already know. Saving terms and notions, nearly all of them have several meanings some of which are more common and the others less. Try to recollect all the meanings of each word you know; then use a dictionary to find out some additional meanings. Make sure you know how to introduce them in the sentence.
2. Fall into the habit to work with books, films, and broadcasting in a proper “linguistic” way. All of them should become the source of pleasure and delight on the one hand and the source of informal language with its phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions on the other. Give yourself the trouble to set off all the useful expressions in colorful ink and translate unknown words with the help of a dictionary. Having stumbled over some word several times, you’ll for sure remember it later.
3. Be attentive to learn all the new words in the context; otherwise, taken out of context, they will be effaced from the memory in two or three days. Firstly, pay attention to the way this word is used in the source you’ve come upon it, secondly, look for some extra explanations in the dictionary, thirdly, make several sentences with this very word or expression of your own. When dealing with firm expressions and idioms, it’s more useful to learn them as one unit. Even one word changed, it won’t be this very expression anymore.

However, if you are going to enrich your vocabulary, be ready to consolidate your success by using new words, idioms, and expressions in practice while speaking and writing. Never miss an opportunity to show your proficiency in a language by means of a rich vocabulary.

Sooner or later, each of us faces the necessity to write a resume or curriculum vitae (CV), another word for it. It is not evaluated with the grade, it doesn’t influence a course grade; the role resume (CV) plays in our life is more important for it is our spokesman before the employer. To put it short, a resume (CV) is a one- or two-page writing where a job seeker presents his/her education, work experience, skills in order to persuade an employer to provide him/her with a job. To write it in a proper way, you are to take into consideration a number of requirements that are typical for this genre.

What to write in a resume (content)?

1. Work experience: not only full-time jobs; underworking, babysitting, and other occupations of that kind should be presented here. Volunteer activities may be included in the resume (CV) or enumerated in a separate list.
2. Education: you are to mention elementary and higher education, advanced training courses, courses in foreign languages, refresher courses, if any.
3. Military experience, if any.
4. Achievements in other spheres: sport awards, participation in some creative projects or contests.

How to write a resume (style)?

1. Be brief and meaty: try to make the most efficient use of the one or two pages you have, present information in a form of items, keep in mind that your working experience and education are two the most important things.
2. Be persuasive: explain why you are the right man for this job. Avoid overpraising yourself or flattering your employer; try to sound argumentative and use facts to support your claims.
3. Be honest! Never resort to false data to get a job for in the majority of cases, information is being checked. Even if not caught, you’ll be for sure asked to perform the functions “you were already occupied with”. In order not to seek for excuses, tell about the experience you really have.

Technical specification.

1. Try to scram all the information in two pages.
2. The most popular typefaces are: Times New Roman, Souvenir, Palatino Linotype, Bookman Old Style, Courier New.
3. Use size 12 so that your employer doesn’t have to strain to read the information. There should be one space between lines and double space between paragraphs.
4. In the top right corner give your contact information: your first and last names, address, phone number, e-mail; in the top left corner write the name, position, place of employment, and its address of the employer. Then shift it several lines below.
5. Check your resume (CV) to avoid mistakes in grammar and punctuation.

Good luck with your resume!

Most college essays are so full of crap you could plant a forest in them. Write an essay that reads, write and rings true. For this purpose you will need:

• Time to think and write
• Writing material (a pen, paper or computer)
• Somebody you trust

Follow the steps outlined below in order to write a good application essay:

1. Think of something that makes you unique and pick a subject that no other applicant could possible write about. It could be your background (maybe you grew up as the only child of two magicians or it could be a personal experience – the more unusual, the better).
2. Ask your friends and relatives what makes you special. This could be embarrassing especially if they don't respond, but it could also help you identify something you hadn't considered.
3. Once you've picked the subject write the first draft of your essay. Don’t worry about making it perfect, just get your thoughts on paper. You should avoid gimmicks. Admission officers have seen them all. For example, don't write your essay from a perspective of your pet.
4. Read over your essay. Then read it again, aloud. Does it sound like you? Cut out unnecessary sentences, paragraphs and adverbs.
5. Find a couple of good editors – English teachers, relatives or anyone whose opinion you trust and who will be honest what does and does not work.
6. Make the revisions you’ve agreed with and when you are done review your essay carefully for spelling and grammar mistakes. Otherwise, a perfect essay can be ruined by sloppy typos.

Send it off and relax. Nobody will be planting a forest in your crap.

If you study in high-school or university you should be able to write effectively. If you want to write about something specific one of the best ways of doing it is to ask a question. By asking a question it gives you a clear picture in your head of what you want to know. By asking a question there has to be an answer. The reader wants an answer to this question. By asking a question it helps to get very specific in your focus. There should be a focus on your target.

Writing an effective essay includes several parts:

1. Writing a question.

When you figure out the answer to the question, write it down. But it’s not just an answer, in English it becomes your thesis. The thesis is what you should focus on. That's why you should ask a question.

2. Thesis.

It is the answer to your question. Your thesis should be strongly and clearly stated. You can't say "maybe", maybe yes or maybe no. It's not a thesis.

3. Introduction.

In the introduction you add your thesis to some nice words to introduce it. People reading an essay should be able to identify your thesis.

4. The Body

In the body you should prove your thesis. You should have at least three main reasons (ideas) that make the thesis true. You should also look for other things that will support these main ideas.

5. Conclusion

In the conclusion you should go back to your three main ideas and since each one of them is true the conclusion must be true.

If you follow the above steps you will become an effective writer.

Before writing a comparative analysis you should have two different works to compare. It doesn't matter if you are comparing two different forms of literature, two different novels or two different approaches to politics.

In each case in your writing you should be able to give equal weight and research to both sides. You are going to juxtapose the views of both sides. You should take all the notes you have on the first one and all the notes on the second one and divide them into similarities and differences between the two sides. You should make sure your analysis doesn’t give too much weight to one side, of course it may be the side that you favor, and then a little less to the other. The last thing in your comparative analysis paper is to reach a conclusion that is proper for your analysis based on your comparison.

A cause and effect essay is a little different than a literary analysis paper or an opinion paper. In cause and effect essay you should get all of your facts straight. Since you will compare and contrast in this type of essay it's recommended to write down all of your causes and effects of whatever topic you choose.

Then you should think how to organize your paragraphs around these things. In each paragraph you should have one detail followed by either a good or bad effect what you are writing about. Each paragraph should sort of illuminate a new part of an argument. So, by the time you get to the end of your paragraph you’ve either persuaded someone to want to perpetuate an activity or to stop it.

More information on cause and effect essay.

You should be well-prepared to write a personal statement and approach it with great responsibility since this is your chance to get into the graduation school.

There are some things that you should consider when writing your personal statement. You should add a little of your personality in there. You may talk about your life and everything that you do, how great you are, but what it is important to add a little bit of yourself into your letter. Don’t feel that you have to make it professional and perfect that you can’t tell them who you are or what you are about. You should describe what you plan to do with your education at this particular school. This also requires you knowing about the program you are applying to, what kind of things they do, what kind of people they produce and what you think you might do afterwards. You should be able to answer a question “Why are going to go to graduation school?” You should be very honest with the people you are writing to.

Finally, if you are sitting down writing your personal statement and just can’t figure out why you want to go to school there, what you are going to do, then maybe you should take a little break from school for a while. Think about grad school, what you want to do with it and save yourself some time and money from applying to lots of schools that you are not really sure you want to go to.

In order to really compete for some top scholarships you should make sure you follow all the guidelines and pour yourself into this essay. Usually, you will be given a pretty broad topic to write on and you are going to be able to put a lot of yourself into it because people who will be reading this essay want to know who you are and what you plan to do with your life.

Of course, first of all you should have a plan. Second of all, implement that plan whenever you are writing your scholarship essay. In the scholarship essay you should present all your dreams and mold your essay around yourself so it itself will make you shine and you will be more attractive to that particular school. Don’t worry about going over the top in a sense, but do worry about keeping your integrity, make sure you are not writing the essay just to impress, but that you really do stand behind the things you are writing in it.

There are several ways of writing a literary analysis paper:

1. Start with choosing a topic that actually interests you, something in the novel or the story that you find to be strange, romantic, touching in some way. Otherwise, your literary analysis paper is going to be boring. Afterwards, start writing down all of your questions about this topic, why it interests you, etc. You should pick a topic that is very specific. Then, you should take the book and go through it. You should write down or type down all the passages from the novel or poem that will help to construct your literary analysis paper.

2. Go to library or go online and find works by other people who have written about similar subjects as the one you are writing about and take down good examples from the writings and use them in your own. Also, legitimize your opinion, back it up and contrast it so you have a more varied paper rather than just your ideas. You will have other people’s ideas as well. Do not summarize and explain your position in each paragraph. Take your opportunity at the beginning to write down your argument and then give your explanations, your examples in the body of your paragraphs. Do not summarize the plot of the story or your argument in each paragraph.

3. Try to come to a compelling conclusion. You are not the only one who has written about this piece of work and you are not the last person who is going to write about it. Therefore, leave the reader with an idea that you know there is more to come, to be written about your literary work that you are analyzing.

Below there are several steps that might be useful if you are going to write a proposal.

1. Start your proposal with an abstract or project description about what you are going to do. (i.e. You are travelling somewhere and you need money to apply for a grant. In the abstract you should describe what you will be doing at that conference, why is it important to your field of study or your field as a professional.

2. Give the proper materials for this proposal. If it requires an acceptance letter to prove you are going, if it requires a letter of recommendation from a professor to show that you are actually in the department because the people you are going to be submitting to, for the most part, do not know you. They are going to be looking at your proposal as itself rather than looking at you in the face.

3. If you applying for money, you should definitely have an itemized budget page stating what you need the money for (i.e. if you make a plain travel or train travel, or you need to spend the money for gas, etc.). You need to put that down. You should mention how long you are going to be there and how much you need for your daily coverage.

4. Have somebody who knows about what you are applying for, double check your proposal for any mistakes or anything you’ve left out and make you sure that you can get your money, and you can get it for what you need it to go to.