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1. Use a variety of vocabulary.⠀
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What the EAA is expecting from you is not a whole passage full of difficult words which the markers themselves might not know. What they want is a variety in the usage of vocab, i.e. don’t just use words like “happy” and “good” again and again. Try using some synonyms. For instance, replace “good” with words like “brilliant”, “excellent”, “magnificent”, “fantastic”, “fabulous”, “terrific”, “exceptional”, “marvellous”, “wonderful”, “splendid”, “outstanding” etc. (but do remember which words are informal and which are formal coz you’ll just 弄巧反拙if u use informal words in a formal piece of writing and vice versa). You can probably do some research on the synonyms of the most commonly used words⠀
2. Use a variety of sentence structures⠀
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Don’t just keep on using simple sentence structures like “subject + be + verb”. Try to use different (and more complex) sentence structures like conditional sentences, gerunds, active voice/passive voice (passive: usually used in formal writing), inversion, rhetorical questions, conjunctions, “the more…,the more…” etc. But again, make sure you use them appropriately, i.e. using them in the correct type of writing (formal/informal)⠀
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3. Make sure that the language you use suits the formality and genre of the writing, as well as the role and target audience⠀
For formal writing eg proposals and reports, don’t use “don’t”, “can’t”, “won’t” etc. Use “do not”, “cannot”, “will not” instead. Avoid using slangs (eg LOL) or idioms (eg a piece of cake, raining cats and dogs) as well. It’s also best to minimize the use of first person pronouns like “I” in formal writing.⠀
If you are writing to the principal, make sure you are polite and respectful enough. Use words like “would” and “could”. Show sympathy to the school eg. “We understand that…” ⠀
If you are writing to a friend, show more care towards him/her and do show the marker that you are well aware of your close relationship with him/her. For instance, you can use stuff like “how are you doing?”, “I bet you must’ve…”, “Guess what?” etc. Don’t sound like you are writing to someone whom you’ve never met.
DSEHIGHBANANA 