Tips on How to Improve English Writing Skills

Do you want to know how to improve your English writing skills? Do you want to know how to write correct sentences without it being a painful task?

Here are some tips to help you feel more confident with writing, and improve your English writing skills:

1. Read as much as you can

Just as we say that listening is closely related to speaking, reading is closely related to writing so our number 1 tip would be to read as much as you can! This will help you improve your vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and show you there are many different ways to communicate ideas. For example: If you need to write a description of a house or a bio of yourself, a great idea is to read some other bios or house descriptions, from books, magazines, brochures, the internet or whatever source you can think of. After having read others, then you can attempt to write your own. You’ll realize it’s much easier than trying to write without any previous input!

2. Keep an English dictionary  

You’ll be able to look up words to clarify their meaning and to learn antonyms and synonyms so as not to repeat words or phrases, which will better your communication skills.  

3. Brush up your grammar

Even though you don’t have to “study” grammar, your writing will improve a lot if you work on grammar exercises. Also, remember that grammar is more important when you write than when you speak because it is usually more formal and more structured.

4. Check your spelling before and after writing

How do you feel when you read something full of spelling mistakes in your own language? Poor spelling can spoil an otherwise interesting piece to read, and we generally write for other people to read what we’ve written.

5. Keep a diary in English

It will make you write every day to turn writing into a routine activity. Besides, you are “writing to yourself”, which can make you feel liberated and satisfied. You don’t need to write elaborate sentences: you can keep them as simple as you want.

6. Learn how to expand your basic sentences into more elaborate ones

There are five basic sentence structures in English:

• Subject – Verb (John studies; My friend is playing )
• Subject – Verb – Object (I like apples; Mary reads novels)
• Subject –Verb – Adjective (Jenny is happy; Linda is pretty)
• Subject – Verb – Adverb (She speaks fluently; These flowers are everywhere)
• Subject – Verb – Noun (My father was a chemist, You are a student)

Here are a few examples of how you can expand them:

• John, my brother, studies at home. My long-life friend is always playing.
• These small white flowers are everywhere during the summer. My father, who passed away several years ago, was a well-known chemist.

7. Learn how to organize a paragraph

Start with a topic sentence: i.e. a sentence that explains what you are going to write about. Continue with supporting sentences: i.e. sentences that provide more information about the topic. Finish with a conclusion: i.e. it is generally a summary of the ideas developed in the body of the paragraph. Learn how to make transitions between paragraphs to signal relationships between ideas so as to create a fluent body of text,

8. Write an outline

Even in a very simple piece of writing you have to keep some kind of an organization to convey the message you want in a clear orderly way. There are many different ways to write outlines and these have much to do with the way you organize things in your mind.

9. Try to get someone to read what you’ve written

A teacher, a tutor, a native speaker: whoever masters the language and can help you understand and correct whatever mistakes you may have made both in grammar or spelling and in the way your paragraph text has been organized.

Writing in English is not really something you can achieve immediately, but with hard, efficient work and gradual improvement you should definitely get there. Start writing very simple sentences and then get the challenge to write more elaborate pieces. Just give it a try!