How to improve your writing skills

Improving your writing skills may seem like a daunting prospect. Speaking is one thing but writing – we all know that whatever is written stays and mistakes are always there. How to avoid them, how to sound fluent and not to be afraid to express yourself on paper.

In general, according to Phil Williams, a teacher and writer based in Sussex, there are 3 key ways to improve writing:

1. Write and keep it simple – write short, simple sentences, one idea at a time. Try to choose the most common or even shorter words, unless you really need to use a more specific explanation. At the same time avoid repetition by not using the same word twice in a sentence or even in a paragraph. Remember that even in academic, business and specialist texts, simple language is always recommended. By doing so, we avoid making mistakes and creating confusion. Our main goal is to make our ideas clear, rather than over-complicate them.

Simple sentence structure:

Subject, followed by a verb, ending with an object.
If you feel you are having problems with sentence structure, it is definitely worth revising the technique of ordinary word order. You can find it in any grammar book, one of my favourite is English Grammar in Use by Murphy, alternatively Word Order in English by Phil Williams.

2. Read, read and read absolutely everything you can from non – fiction (factual writing, academic, business) to fiction (creative writing, novels, stories, diaries). The more you do, the more you are going to get a sense of different style and types of writing. You will get the so-called “feel” of what is wrong and right, what is acceptable and inappropriate.

3. Study – only through intensive studying, will you really improve your writing skills. As mentioned before studying other fields of writing give more transparent and transferable skills. In my experience, only through having had to develop an academic style of writing (one that you learn at school, college or university), will you become fluent. In this case, focussing on reading more non-fiction literature and analysing it in writing is a perfect way of improving your writing skills.
And never lose hope and optimism, if the aspects above seem to be too complicated, write however you feel, just do it, keep on practising with whatever words and constructions come to mind. Then try to edit it harshly by yourself or let your teacher help you. Good luck and keep on writing!