A new exercise and some food for thought in the Community of practice
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https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/updates/how-to-find-the-main-idea-of-a-text-demonstration

One of the reasons I like Brené Brown's work is that she actually tries to give meaning to the language. She explains things to herself, even the seemingly obvious ones. There is not a single cliché in her books, even though she writes about the experiences that so many other speakers, coaches, leaders, therapists, and influencers talk about too... However, when I listen to these popular people online, all I hear is noise and the echo of meaningless clichès. When I read Brené' Brown's books, I can feel that she is intentional with her words.

What is connection? What is to be daring? What is vulnerability? Courage? Belonging? Contribution? Failure?
Can you explain these words?

She can, and that's what I'm learning from her work. When I read her books, I'm sort of doing the advanced training on Brevity, Clarity, Meaning, and love for People.

Here are some examples:

Opaque writing and the curse of knowledge. From the talk by Steven Pinker. Watch until the end!

Adults often assume that if they know something, then everybody else should know it. It's not true. Students who take my writing courses learn that what is obvious to them might be foreign to others ONLY when they start receiving feedback from other people. We don't see what we don't see. It might be obvious to others that our writing lacks structure, but we don't see it.

To help yourself write in English with clarity, ask yourself these two questions: What do my readers know? What don't they know?
Don't assume that people know. Instead, ask them to read your text and give you feedback. Come back to your own text a week or a month after you have written it and give yourself honest feedback. Does it make sense? Is it clear enough? Can I SEE the message? Don't ask yourself - "Can they read my message?". Any 12-year-old can read words. We're practicing to SHOW people the story, to help them SEE the meaning in our writing.
Practice.

If you do something occasionally, it's not practice. You need to do it consistently. Consider joining the Creative Writing Sprint to practice writing better in English and to get better at taking feedback.

Self-correction and self-reflection are the prerequisite skills that must be mastered to successfully self-regulate the learning process.
Practice daily. You speak every day. But do you listen to how you speak to yourself and others (in any language)?

Did you know that there are rules that tell you how to stress long words in English?

These 5 suffixes will shift the stress of a root word. The primary stress is always on the syllable BEFORE the suffix:

1. -ical (hisTOrical)
2. -ity (availaBIlity)
3. - tion (celebRAtion)
4. -ic (systeMAtic)
5. -ify (soLIdify)

Watch the video to listen to examples and practice. Video creator: Julie Cunningham (watch her Youtube channel "San Diego Voice and Accent")

Can you find a mistake? Interactive Exercises to self-test your grammar

New resource to self-test your grammar and a complete algorithm of how to improve your grammar.
What to study? How to practice? How to test yourself?https://community.nataliatokar.me/c/grammar/can-you-find-a-mistake-interactive-exercises-to-self-test-your-grammar

The examples in this audio message include:

- excuse
- increase
- close
- abuse
- house
- use

Don’t take my word, go and check every example 😉