I will share with you the three tips to improve your writing skills. You can use these three tips for writing emails, letters, articles, and academic papers, IELTS writing task, blog posts, and Instagram descriptions, anything you need to write in English!
Let us go through these three stages together. To improve your writing skills in English, it is important to be using these three writing tips regularly to evaluate your writing and to improve your English writing skills. Three tips we will be going through are.
- Be Inspired.
- Write.
- Be consistent.
Let us begin by looking at the first tip.
Writing Tip 1: Be Inspired!
Friends, we are all inspired by somebody. What do I mean by this?
You may be reading something, and think Wow, how well did that person write that, I wish I could write like that!
Now, in this phase, I do not suggest that you directly COPY exactly the style of that person, but use their style as inspiration.
Expose yourself to writers to inspire you to write…
In order to do this properly, I don’t want you to be reading everything and anything…
Think about what exactly you want to write better.
Do you want to write better emails, letters, blog posts, essays or academic articles in English?
Read more of the style of writing you would like to improve to get inspired, to see how other people write, use language, express themselves so that you can do this too when you write in English
To do this properly you need to be reading these texts regularly.
Now there is a big difference between inspiration and copying!
Therefore, to avoid you copying someone, what I suggest is that you clearly identify why exactly you like that persons writing by analyzing that writing that you admire.
Analyze that writing and ask yourself questions. Why do you like that writer? Is it because of the vocabulary they use? Alternatively, is it because of the grammar?
One great way to analyze writing is by dissecting the text that you are reading.
Print out the text and highlight any words, phrases, sentences you like and takes notes as to why you like that style.
Are there are any common trends, words or grammar that they use, that you could use when writing in English? Try to apply these techniques or vocabulary to your own writing
Writing Tip 2: Write!
This tip is self-explanatory, though it can be the hardest tip to apply.
Below you will find useful pointers to help you actually write to improve your English
writing skills
Plan your writing: Do you know how hard it is to write something in a foreign language,
I know, I’ve struggled with this in Croatian. A simple plan on a post-it note or on a rough piece of paper can save you all the stress and panic you may have from actually writing.
Plan the exact question you want to answer and what exactly you want to say.
Make sure you are clear about what you are writing about, while planning, write down questions you may need to answer in your writing, to make sure that you are on topic and not writing pointlessly.
Answer the questions you need to answer in the writing: do not be writing just random topics. Many people write just to fill up paper. There must be a purpose to your writing, answer the questions in your plan to ensure that you are actually writing with purpose. Keep your sentences simple: do not try to sound smart when writing. Keep your sentences as short and clear as possible using the grammar and vocabulary you know!
The more you complicate your writing by trying to sound smart, sometimes the reader will not be able to understand what you are trying to say.
Don’t worry too much about grammar: grammar is important, but when you are starting out, it is better to write something rather than constantly going back to your grammar book and worry about whether your grammar is correct. Focus on actually writing, and then only later worry about grammar.
Infuse your personality into your writing: while writing, do you actually sound like you or do you sound like an automated computer program? Read your writing and try to see your personality in there. There is nothing wrong with your personality, writing is a means of communication, so you should be adding in your personality to your writing to ensure that your writing is interesting and people would want to read it. Self-Correct by reading aloud what you wrote down: You would be surprised at how many times YOU can actually correct your own writing, see all the grammar, spelling and vocab mistakes, and see if you UNDERSTAND what you are actually writing. Read aloud exactly what you wrote down (not in your head) and listen to yourself. Can you understand what you wrote? Is it clear? Do I need to change anything?
Get feedback from a teacher: getting feedback from a professional teacher will help you better plan your essay and understand exactly on how to improve your vocabulary and grammar skills to improve your English writing skills.
Writing Tip 3: Be consistent
Make sure that you make writing a habit. I suggest that you dedicate at least 10-15 minutes a day to improving your writing skills.
Writing goals: set up writing goals to make it a daily habit to improve your English.