Learning to write

How to Improve English Writing Skills

Mary Smith
By Mary Smith. Updated: March 21, 2017
How to Improve English Writing Skills

Although from a young age we are faced with the task of writing things up on a daily basis when we reach adult life only a few people manage to do this effectively, in a manner appealing to the reader and free of errors. If you want to improve your writing skills in the English language, at oneHOWTO we give you some good tips to take into account so you learn how to improve your English writing skills.

You may also be interested in: How to Write a Report in English

Steps to follow:

1

Develop a reading habit as there is no better way to improve your writing than by reading. This activity will provide you with a greater vocabulary that will help you improve your spelling and will open your mind to different literary styles.

How to Improve English Writing Skills - Step 1
2

One of the errors when trying to write something up is to not know how to organise ideas, so start by the essence of what you want to transmit and then continue with the details. In journalism there is a list of questions a writer must answer to successfully transmit information: what, who, how, when, where and why, a key that is very useful when writing informative texts.

3

Pay attention to grammar and numerical details, ensure nouns are correctly represented and that their numerical representations are correct. If you have not made any grammatical mistake but things still sound peculiar it is worth double checking the text.

4

If you do not have a developed vocabulary, avoid the use of complex words as you could apply them incorrectly, making your effort to write well reduce to nothing.

5

Do not over-garnish ideas, good writing does not imply an excess of redundant and meaningless words, be clear about what you want to convey in writing and use the resources you have available without exaggeration.

6

Avoid paragraphs which are too long and remember that punctuation exists and is very useful. Use them and try to synthesize ideas without giving them too much thought.

How to Improve English Writing Skills - Step 6
7

Beware of excessive repetition of words and connectors, to write properly it is important to use synonyms and have as rich a vocabulary as possible; use a dictionary and a thesaurus or use electronic versions of publications such as The Oxford English Dictionary, every writer's best friend.

8

A good writer does not necessarily write all texts well, if you have an interest in something specific, study and read books on that subject, for example, read corporate manuals if you want to improve your writing in an employment context or read newspapers if you feel you must learn to summarize better or read literature if you want to improve that kind of writing skills.

9

Check, check and check. Nobody said that good writers do not check their work a thousand times to make sure it is perfect. Sometimes, to get a good write up it is necessary to change the text structure several times, it is part of the process so do not get frustrated.

10

If you want to improve your english writing easily, you can sign up to Lingualia and start to learn!

See the article How to write a report in English or how to write a formal letter in English or how to write a cover letter to further improve your writing skills in English.

If you want to read similar articles to How to Improve English Writing Skills, we recommend you visit our Learning category.

Tips

  • To write properly it is important to prepare the mind, read, pay attention to spelling, know the basic rules and strive to improve every day
  • You may not see results immediately, but if you follow these tips to your writing will improve in little time.
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How to Improve English Writing Skills