8 Great Tips on How to Improve You Writing Skills
Well researched tips on the best courses of action that you should take as a university-level student to ensure that you improve your writing skills.
Every writer needs to have excellent skills and unique writing styles. A writer’s style in delivering the message is what attracts the audience rather than the idea. There are some elements that every good writer should consider, such as short sentences, simple words, and language that engages readers. While striving to preserve and maintain your unique tone, you can improve your style by being keener on arranging your words and how you craft your idea.
Every student, at some point in their life, will be required to write high-quality essays, assignments, and research papers as part of their learning process. Most students will find writing a daunting task since they already have too much on their hands, and coming up with an impressive essay can be very difficult. When it comes to essay-writing, most students have no clue how to go about it to come up with a good article. But luckily, you can quickly get assistance from great companies that will gladly offer essay writing services to students who are struggling to submit to their professors an outstanding essay paper.
These companies are capable of helping you to improve your writing skills as well as writing for you excellent academic papers that are null and void of any sort of errors. In this article, we explore eight of the most excellent tips that you can use to make sure that you improve your writing skills.
To be an excellent writer, you need to learn how to be precise and clear while putting your unique signature to your writing. Even though we cannot all be great writers, there are many ways to solve this problem. With a little amount of hard work and dedication, you can take some significant steps towards improving your writing skills.
In fact, instead of wasting a great deal of time doing non-productive things like playing video games when you are free the whole day, you should take your time to practice and hone your writing skills. As the saying goes, great writers are not born but made. Sit down and write as much as possible, and you will see the difference.
Even if you lack the confidence to write good papers when you write and get some good feedback, your confidence will grow, and you will soon start enjoying writing papers no matter how complex they seem at first glance. Follow the below tips to improve your writing;
Read Famous Authors Work
Although this may sound obvious, it is the best place to start. A majority of the well-renowned writers are also the best readers. Therefore, reading regularly and widely is the best way to develop your writing skills.
Always choose materials that interest you, with a variety of styles, voices, and forms of writing. As you read more and more, you learn how other writers create their techniques and choose their words.
When you read more content, you expose yourself to a wide range of writing elements and styles which can significantly help you to improve your style of writing.
For example, some good writers prefer to use a robust academic language that makes their output seem more professional. They also ensure that their work is free of any grammatical, logical, and plagiarism issues. When you emulate such a style and incorporate it into your work, you are likely going to see the difference in your content and your work will significantly improve.
Learning New Vocabulary
To write more fluency and with confidence, you may be required to expand on your vocabulary. As much as you may know a lot of English words and their meaning, an essential principle is the ability to use these words correctly to express yourself clearly. Always use simple words as they are more direct, and readers will easily understand your points. Reading wide can significantly help you to improve your vocabulary.
Whenever you come across new words as you read through numerous sources of content, try and understand their meaning, and see how you can try and use them in your essays. It is never easy, and you should take your time, or else you are going to use unsuitable words that may make your pieces hard to read. In fact, if you do not understand a given word, avoid using it at all costs. Do not be deceived, difficult, and big words do not make you look smart.
In fact, they serve to confuse your audience, and you may end up making them lose interest in your work. No one really wants to spend a great of time reading content that they do not understand and you should try and make your work as understandable as possible even if you are using new vocabulary.
Short Sentences are More Powerful than Long Sentences
Ensure to make your sentences short, precise, and clear. Long sentences are cumbersome and confuse readers. A sentence containing too many words will lose meaning, and the readers will end up not grasping your point; they may not even read through the sentence, which will lead to you losing points.
On the other hand, short sentences are more comfortable to comprehend and understand; something your audience will appreciate a lot. Avoid having more than one idea in one sentence. Long sentences are, in most cases, very confusing, and your audience is likely to ignore your content when you choose to use extremely long sentences.
For example, in an essay trying to explain the dangers of smoking, nobody really wants to read sentences that stray away from the real purpose. Take, for instance, this article, the sentences are short and to the point. It would be otherwise difficult to read if longer and wordy sentences were employed.
Mastering Spelling
Spelling English words can sometimes be confusing and tricky as some words such as desert and dessert sound the same, although they contain different meanings. Keeping a list of complicated words is an excellent idea as it will spare you the embarrassment of writing the wrong word when you intended to write another one.
You can also use the spell checker on your computer if you set it to auto-correct mode. When you use wrong spellings or words that sound similar interchangeably, you are likely going to lose the actual meaning that you want to portray. As much as you want to learn how to use words correctly, it would be best if you also learned how to spell them since it dramatically affects the quality of your essays. It is common for most students to ignore this element, and you should take your time to ensure that you do not fall in the same class.
Write Short Paragraphs
Short paragraphs are clear and easier to manage. Each paragraph should have sentences supporting the same idea or thought. Do not introduce more than one concept in one paragraph. Short paragraphs are easier to understand, as well as creating a more visually appealing layout.
Academic writing consists of lengthy paragraphs as they require more materials to support each argument or idea. But in essence, they should portray the main idea that you want to present to your audience. Do not spend too much time beating around the bush if you're going to attain that much-needed impact in the eyes of your audience. In fact, state a point, consider your argument, and give supporting evidence without going too much into detail.
Depending on the required length of your paper, ensure that you balance out your paragraphs. For example, when you have a one-page paper that is approximately 300 words, it is irresponsible to write 200 words in a single paragraph since you will not have enough space for the remaining. The paper will also seem disorganized because your paragraphs will essentially fail to balance.
Use the Active Voice
When writing, always use the active voice instead of passive voice and follow the subject-verb way of structuring sentences. This is critical as it directs you as you put down your point. The active voice, when used shows that the subject is doing something. This is more exciting, contrary to the passive voice, which shows that something is being done to the subject. Active voice gives room for short and straightforward sentences, whereas passive voice will create long and complex ones which are a terrible way of relaying information.
Making an Outline
List down all the essential ideas about a topic as this gives you a clear road map to follow when writing your paper. This will help you save time and keep you focused when writing as you will not deviate from the topic at hand.
Before sitting down and writing an academic paper, you should be aware of how to structure an essay. Put in mind that a well-structured essay should consist of a thesis statement which is the center of the paper, body paragraphs which discuss your arguments, and the conclusion.
Prior to writing the paper, make sure that you create an outline that offers a good skeleton for all of these parts of the essay. When you do this in the early stages, it becomes easier to flesh out the skeleton as you write, and, likely, you will not forget the main points that you want to put across.
Creating a good outline also helps you to save a great deal of time as you write academic papers, and it will definitely help you complete your essay without too much stress.
Review and Edit Your Work
After the writing process of the first draft is over, sit down and proofread your work and edit where necessary before submitting your paper to your professor. Pay attention to every detail, including punctuations, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes. Check sentence structure and your choice of words to make sure they make sense and ensure the paragraphs are of the correct length and that they have a logical flow.
Also, ensure your documents are neither too short nor too long as required as this could robe you some points. In most cases and if it is convenient for you, you can let an independent party read your work and give you their honest opinion.
Once you get their feedback, you can perform all the relevant edits to your work and ensure that it is in tip-top condition. In this way, you can be confident that you will score a good grade. The best quality papers need to be checked and rechecked, even in situations where you feel confident that your work is free of errors.
Nobody said writing is smooth, and many seasoned writers are still struggling to hone their writing skills. Academic writing is not in any way easier, and a lot of students have no idea how to go about it to create impressive work which will help them earn good grades. Writing, to students involves too much effort and time which may leave them drained and stressed.
The above tips, when followed diligently and a positive attitude, will see students transform their writing skills for the better. Prepare your paper in advance by collecting all the facts before you can put it in writing. When you take your time and place in a considerable amount of effort, it is most likely that you are going to produce a superior paper that can propel you to success.
