how to... play scrabble

The point of scrabble is to make words to get more points than other people by making words. This sounds simple but there is extreme amounts of strategy that goes into it.
1. if you get the first move, play from the left or top to the center peice. This spreads the game out and stops a cluster of letters in the lower right hand corner. Because you can only play down and left, oftentimes beginners make this mistake and have a boring game.
2. Use the double words immediately surrounding the center to get high points off the start and also make use of the triple letters. Only use higher valued letters such as k or j when using triple letters, anything else is a waste of the space. However, if you feel your opponent is trying to get to these bonuses, then block them by playing a c or such next to it.
3. Play small words that you can play off of, such as "we", because you can then use an "o" or "a" in front of it and make awe or owe and then also play another word perpendicular to it. Other uses of small words are words such as "ox" that you can play on a triple letter, if you can play these two ways, you get the triple letter twice and it can soon be forth 40+ points.
4. If you are somehow losing, or getting unlucky, flood the board. By this I mean play in any open area and leave open several double and triple words open, this isn't a fool proof method, but when down by 30 or more points, its the only option. You can play off of the bonuses that the other person can't utilize.
5. When you have a large lead, close the board by using x, q, or c to stop the enemy from playing off of it. This is an extremely effective strategy as long as you can maintain your lead