Shadowing Practice: How to Use Writing to Sharpen Your Thinking - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Gonna talk a little bit about how to use writing and why you should use writing to improve your thinking.
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So I would credit much of the success I've had to
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whatever extent I've had success to learning how to write and to practicing writing.
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And the reason for that is
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that without writing it's very hard to freeze your thinking on paper so that you can sharpen it, so that you can see where,
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for instance, using words that aren't well -defined, where you're saying things that don't need to be said all of this will help everything else.
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I remember in college, for instance, when I took a class with John McPhee, an incredibly gifted writer and teacher, all of my grades in every other class went up
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because every extraneous bit of information that was hurting instead of helping me was taken out.
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So to sharpen the saw, a couple of different approaches.
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Number one is write anything, anything whatsoever stream of consciousness essay doesn't really matter let's just
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call it one to three pages something along the lines of morning pages
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and Julia Cameron the artists way popularized this
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and there are a number of folks like Brian Koppelman very
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well known writer screenwriter co -creator of the show billions swears by morning pages
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so that is an easy way to ease into the practice of just moving a pen I recommend freehand
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so that you can see your thinking on paper that accomplishes two things.
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Number one, it takes the anxieties and nebulous worries in your head, puts them down in a freeze frame so
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that you can kind of trap them in the printed form so you can get on with the rest of your day.
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The second thing it does is it allows you to see where you are sharp
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and where you are dull in your thinking.
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Now if you are drafting as I do for instance right now once a week writing, if you are looking for a proofreader and you do need a proofreader, if you can't find a professional writer
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because we can't all find professional writers talk to friends who have any type of legal training
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or you could even hire a lawyer to do this
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or a paralegal someone with a law degree they are trained to look at language very very carefully
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because in a dispute in a negotiation
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and a disagreement arbitration it's gonna come down to the wording of contracts
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and I have found that
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when I do not have access to professional writers it is oftentimes just as good
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or even better to get lawyers or people with legal training to read my writing.
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So that would be a workaround that I accidentally discovered that is very powerful.
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A few things to keep in mind when you are then doing revisions, because writing is in fact rewriting.
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You're gonna vomit out your first one or two pages, and my mantra of sorts, which I borrowed from someone else who is a career ghost writer, is two crappy pages.
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Two crappy pages per day.
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And very often you're going to exceed that and then write more
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but so that you set the game up in a way
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that is winnable two crappy pages is your minimum
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and it can be just brain vomit it can be worthless
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but you gotta get two pages all right once you have
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those two pages you can approach revision in a few different ways
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and you can revise yourself say in three rounds like my friend Neil Strauss who I think has seven
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or eight New York Times best -selling books at this point when he He does his first edit, he edits for himself, all right?
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So he's editing just for his pleasure, for his enjoyment, for what he thinks is good.
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Then the second round of edits, he will edit for his fans, the people he thinks will really love this material.
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The third round is for the critics, the people who try to tear it apart to find little niggly points that they could twist and so on.
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And that can be a helpful framework for revising.
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What I do with proofreaders, and you You can do this also with people who are not trained writers at all, and in fact you should have some lay people,
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so to speak, people who are not writers as a craft.
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Very simply, what I will ask people to do is read and highlight anything, this could be in a Google Doc, a Word doc on paper, that is confusing.
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People can like what you write, they can dislike it, they can love it, they can hate it, but it should not confuse anybody.
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All right, so the first thing I will do is I'll ask people, just highlight anything that is confusing
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or unclear all right that's that's step one anyone can do
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that the next is if you notice your mind wandering
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while you're reading this please note that all right so
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if something is slow
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and maybe it can be taken out note where your mind starts wandering all right the dictum there is
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when in doubt take it out just be like I don't know
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if I should take I don't know if I should keep this
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or not take it out at least as an experiment the other Another question that I pose to proofreaders, because you can train people to be very good proofreaders,
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is the 10 % rule, and it's not really a rule, but a guideline that I like to use.
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So I'll say, please indicate the 10 % I should keep no matter what.
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If there is 10 % that I should keep no matter what, what is the strongest 10 % like if there's 10 % I have to keep, please indicate that.
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And if I had to cut 10 % or even 20 % in some cases, I'll ask people, please indicate what you would cut if you had to cut something,
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even if this is an essay or a blog post that is a page or two long.
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And what you'll find if you approach writing systematically in this way and revision systematically in this way is your cognition,
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your analysis, your awareness of how you use words,
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how you use explanation, how you use questions will become so much sharper that it will transcend
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this type of exercise and begin to positively affect just about everything in your life.
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So for fulfillment, for excitement, for professional success, for personal success,
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I find writing to be arguably the most important practice.
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Good luck.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Use Writing to Sharpen Your Thinking”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: page, writing, writer, proofreader, edit. This video has 71 sentences and 1105 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:51. The speaker talks fast, about 189 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| edit verb | /ˈɛdɪt/ | To change a text, or a document. |
| indicate verb | /ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/ | To point out; to discover; to direct to a knowledge of; to show; to make known. |
| revision noun | /ɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/ | The action or process of reviewing, editing and amending. |
| confuse verb | /kənˈfjuːz/ | to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand |
| sharp adjective | /ʃɑɹp/ | Terminating in a point or edge, especially one that can cut or pierce easily; not dull, obtuse, or rounded. |
| essay noun | /ˈɛs.eɪ/ | A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject. |
| highlight verb | /ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/ | To make prominent; emphasize. |
| freeze verb | /ˈfɹiːz/ | Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature. |
| wander verb | /ˈwɑndɚ/ | To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood. |
| vomit verb | /ˈvɑmɪt/ | To regurgitate or eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth; puke. |
| systematically adverb | /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/ | In a systematic manner; organizedly or methodically. |
| extent noun | /ɪkˈstɛnt/ | A range of values or locations. |
| carefully adverb | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | With care; attentively, circumspectly. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| awareness noun | /əˈwɛɹ.nəs/ | The state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| take out verb | To remove. |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. |
| get on with verb | To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be said · was taken · are trained |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | friends who have · people who try · people who are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: revision /ɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/, sharp /ʃɑɹp/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, consciousness /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: systematically /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like edit, indicate, revision.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.