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Tips on Making a Lecture More Interesting

Teaching is largely based on lectures. They are an integral part of any education course. With the help of a properly delivered lecture, a teacher can provide educational materials and ensure that students understand them. It’s also possible to find custom essays on this topic or request to make a research and tips how to make your lecture catchy.

Lectures should be properly arranged to be interesting for all the students. By participating in lectures, learners can understand materials better and memorize them. Student participation indicates the difference between covering of the material and its learning. In such a way, students can acquire more knowledge than during the conventional lectures. Tips on giving interesting lectures can be divided into several categories:

  • · Beginning a lecture,
  • · Encouraging participation,
  • · Asking Questions during a Lecture,
  • · Using Different Formats, and
  • · Ending a Lecture.

How to Begin a Lecture?

A lecture should begin with a certain question. By doing that a teacher can find out about opinions of students. The lecture may begin with a problem statement as well as students’ responses to it. Later on the lecture will investigate and provide suggestions via a discussion. Topic should be introduced by asking learners to respond to particular answers individually as well as put all their ideas together. For example, a lecturer can ask students to come up with 10 types of environmental disasters or provide names of 10 health disorders.

How to Define the Right Tone of the Lecture?

Teachers should encourage participation with conversational tone as well as avoid critical approach to their ideas. The thing is that students are taking risk when talking in a class, and a teacher should be very tactful. Body language is particularly important. You need to consider how to hold yourself, e.g. relaxed or stiff way, since that is pivotal for student participation. Avoid speaking from behind the podium. Instead, try moving closer to learners. Looking at students may encourage them to talk. It is important to know students’ names when asking them to speak in a class. Additionally, you should consider name cards if they do not know each other yet.

Good lecturers should also ask challenge their ideas, which might result in debates. Make sure that students are familiar with the material. Questions should be invited. If some students are not familiar with the subject, you need to motivate them more. A good approach is to provide different ideas regarding the subject on a specific topic and then to explain why a certain idea is the best option. Another aspect that is worth pointing out to is that concerning interruptions, you should decide whether they are acceptable or it is better to speak one at a time. If a student wants something to be clarified, you should encourage others in the class to respond instead of doing that yourself.

The lecture should contain questions. That would be more of a conversation, rather than a traditional lecture. Lecture would be more interesting if there are questions with surprising answers. Questions are more interesting, if a teacher does not expect a particular answer. Without fixed answers in mind a teacher will launch a thought-provoking discussion.

Building the Right Structure of the Lecture

Pauses also play an important role in lectures. You should make them after every major point. In addition, you may want to apply multiple-choice question technique in regarding the material you have covered.

In case there have been readings assigned previously, you should ask respective questions. With the use of slides or maps, it is a good idea to ask students what they see prior to telling them the answer. With these techniques, you will stir the interest in your students.

Role-playing can be a useful technique if you want to change a typical format of the lecture. After a brief presentation delivered by TAs, you should encourage all the learners to discuss the points covered.  

Large-group debates suggest dividing the class into several groups. Each of them should take on a specific position. If there is enough time, it is also a good idea to ask students to switch their debating positions.  In order to illustrate your lecture points better, you should use specific cases.

To enrich thought-provoking process, you should pause your lecture and tell students to write down their thoughts on a certain question. After that, get everyone involved in the discussion. Writing down thoughts will help them to present their responses more logically and coherently. Lastly, when you end your lecture, find some time for questions. You will be able to see if they have understood all the points.

To sum up, in lecturing there are many ways to make the process more interesting. Instead of sticking to dry-out procedure, a teacher should be more creative and introduce new techniques. Approaches described above help to invite active participation of students, which in turn allows to understand materials in the lecture better as well as memorize key facts. 

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Content marketing is an essential strategy for pretty much every brand that’s in the digital marketing space. Google is updated regularly, new techniques and rules appear, while the old ones become ineffective. However, SEO and content marketing is still very important, although it’s constantly changing due to the abuse of many. Everyone is abusing the title of a content creator, because nowadays, it applies to everyone that simply writes or publishes online and knows all the little tricks how Google search engine rankings work.

Before we get into the importance of content marketing and what we need to reflect on, let’s take a look at the history of Google and how it influenced content marketing.

Story of Google Updates

Head of Google’s webspam, Matt Cutts, claims that Google makes changes about one to two times per day to the algorithm. Some changes are more substantial and official, while some are little and not usually announced.

2011 was a revolutionary year because Google made the big Panda Update, which is a change in algorithm. This change was concerned with low-quality sites, such as link farms, that didn’t actually provide any information to the users, or give them  poor user experience, as opposed to those websites that had lower bounce rates and a design that actually caters to users. This caused a big stir, and many website owners were confused as to why their website wasn’t up to standards, which is why Google came up with a list.

But this wasn’t the end of changes. Just about a year later, Google decides to change again, and this is when Google Penguin happened. This was yet another change, only slightly more direct and aggressive. It was an attack on black hat techniques that was aimed to weed out keyword stuffing, cloaking and content that was copied or is duplicate.

These massive changes had a huge effect on search engines, and businesses felt frustrated because they depend on a lot of search engine rankings. However, Google wanted to show that it serves the users and wants to serve them right, with content that’s high-quality and answers their needs. This also meant high-quality websites were going to stack high, while other’s had to fight their way through the list, fair and square if they wanted to end up on the first page.

Content Marketing is King

After 2011, everyone got hyped about content marketing. It became popular fast, however, this also had a huge downside. People started creating content that was unusable, full of fluff, and straight down a copy of something else. This doesn’t just refer to websites who were ranked lower on the search engine, but also to those who were on the first page because they could repeat content and post it over and over again. This is when Google realized changes need to be happening all the time, and the system needs to be more accurate, in order to separate the bad from the good, and be fair both to the creators and users.

However, no business can escape content marketing. Everyone who wants to push their business out there and drives some traffic to their website needs to get on board with content marketing. Therefore many of us use some essay writing service that can save our time and get professionals do their work. In this case, we get good written content to attract new visitors.

What Lies Ahead

Google has advanced a lot since first entering the world of social media with Google+. Although many claim this was a bust, Google kept rolling out with new platforms like Google Authorship and +1 bubbles. And now, the search has been personalized to the point where no single person is going to see exactly the same results. It all depends on what you tend to search for the most, where you are located and what your friends like to share on Google's social media platform, Google+. Google really goes all out to show that they want to provide their users with the ultimate experience, and help them get the best content in the shortest time possible.

One other change that is soon going to take place is authorship. Google Authorship is an opt-in program that links the content you produce, with the author, using his/her Google+ profile. Now, this doesn’t only mean that your photo is going to be alongside the article, integrated automatically by google. This will also affect the results in the search engine, and it will look at things like, where authors are publishing whether these websites are high-quality as well as how active they actually are on social media.

It’s best to keep track of these changes because some of them are already going on. By staying on top of the new upgrades and by implementing these changes, you’re going to enable your amazing content to be seen by larger masses, which is what the end goal is.

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The necessity of writing has grown to such an extent that every field irrespective of education has found the need of people with good writing skills. Therefore, students are expected to acquire these skills from their Academia without any need of further furnishing. Unquestionably, writing has become quintessential for employment and students find it inevitable to gain this hard-to-earn skill. Although, teachers strive to make this skill impregnated into the weaponry of the students, sometimes it becomes difficult to take care of every student. Nevertheless, to aid the teachers and students alike, there are many online tools and websites which are more than capable of enhancing the writing skills of the students. The following online tools are handpicked from various educational sources and are undoubtedly the best for improving writing skills amongst the students.

Tools for finding resources and inspiration

  1. Teen Ink – This website is the most student friendly of them all and targets teenage skill developments. It has numerous resources poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc., which can be read by the students for developing ideas and imagination. Interestingly, they have summer programs, camps and scintillating contests to encourage students to write and display their talents. There is also an art/photo section where the talents of young minds are posted which is really fascinating to watch and take notes.
  2. Bartleby – The website Bartleby is synonymous with high standards, and there is no one to beat their varied provision of books. They have books on everything from ancient texts to classics in literature to writing services; such is the vastness of Bartleby – the preeminent website for great books online. A student unconsciously can learn in abundance about how writing is done and how pioneers in world literature dealt with words while writing. This subjection to great pieces makes the student active and ready to write.

Tools for learning necessary writing skills

  1. Learning Path – Reading is the first part in gaining abilities to write and the next part would be to know the ways by which an effective content can be penned down. This website provides for free diverse writing courses starting from general development, essay writing, poetry, fiction writing, etc.  Fascinatingly, these courses are offered by top Universities and recognized educational websites aimed to make students gain optimal knowledge in writing. Further, there are also many resources for ensuring the visitors to stay glued to the website and fulfill their every writing need.
  2. Using English – Learning stuff alone does not improve language skills and these can be learnt only through constant testing. This website is suitable for teachers and students to realize their skill level in writing. There are many types of testing on different aspects of English language and the visitors can select any of the tests. Additionally, tips and guides for ESL students benefit wonderfully as they have simple instructions about the four skills of language for gaining progress.

Tools for enhancement of writing skills

  1. Essay Wolves – While sincerely focusing on improving writing skills, a student may face difficulty in finding the right place to get expert advice. Essay wolves focus on reviewing the many online writing services available and bring to notice the best out of them. Furthermore, there are many posts and guides on methods to improve writing skills. The most useful aspect of this website is provision of information regarding particular type of writings which are useful for writing exam essays as well as writing passionate content.
  2. Daily Writing Tips – It is essential for students to constantly gain knowledge about the slightest of mistakes in writing. This website bears no match in providing tips regarding common errors and misconceptions penned in any content. There are loads of tips on grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, etc. which can make a student from being average to extraordinary.

In conclusion, by employing all the above mentioned methods a student evidently can become a highly respected person with excellent writing skills. Although the progress might take some time, but there is a distinct improvement observed not only in writing, but also in confidence levels, cognitive skills, social interaction and approach to life. All of this can be made possible by fruitful usage of the tools which creates positive attitude towards all aspects of the student.

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The crafting of a great headline which lures the reader into clicking the link is an art which is not perfected by many writers. There is no doubt that Universal appeal is difficult to achieve with a headline, but one can certainly improve the attempt so that it can reach to the maximum readers. The headline is not just about creativity or perfection in the structure, it has many essential elements which are to be fulfilled so that it can go viral. Here are some of the common errors while writing headlines which need to be avoided at all costs.

  1. Neglecting curiosity – Curiosity is the major ingredient which attracts readers into flocking the page to know more. A headline with dull and standardized words makes it appear as a redundant text with no new details. Most writers do not think of the wondrous nature of a headline and neglect the enticing effects of a curious headline. By the use of numbers, questions, statements, challenges, etc. readers would become fascinated and your headline will guide them to the content.

 

  1. Intention of the headlines – Always remember that the content you have written is based on a target niche and the headlines should be accordingly framed. It is understandable that delivering the essay on time is important for writers and there are many ways to do that, but in the process headlines is forgotten. For instance, if the content is about business solutions, the target audience should be business owners or other important members and the title should have a mention of them so they could easily relate to the intention of the headline, otherwise everything goes into the dust.

 

  1. Misspelling & Incorrect punctuation – If ever a headlines need standard form it is in this aspect. Unfortunately, most writers in a hurry do not check the spelling or inappropriate punctuation in the headline. It is disastrous as the readers would think that the content is not of good quality by looking at the erroneous headline.

 

  1. Headline presented like an advertisement – It is true that content is written for the promotion of the website either directly or indirectly, but a headline should never show this intention. For instance, “Why you should buy only _____ product?” is more an advertisement than critical presentation. Instead the headline can be modified as; “The advantages of _____ product in comparison to other products” is more acceptable because it looks a comparative article about different products with an inherent intention of promoting your product.

 

  1. Lack of urgency – Although some headlines are excellent they fail to create a sense of urgency which makes the reader to go through the content immediately. Inspiring the reader to get involved in the content is the major victory of the writer. If you follow the steps mentioned above and make sure to write the headlines in a crafty manner everything fits well and the purpose is achieved easily.

The power to draw the reader into the page lies within those handful of words and making it as crafty as possible is the duty of the writer. So, whenever you think of an interesting topic make sure to create an equally prominent headline also which completes your task effectively.

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