How can I improve my writing skills?

Nothing strikes more panic at an English learner than being asked to write something in English. But hang in there! Writing doesn’t have to be this petrifying – it’s not rocket science! Here are five tips to help you master your writing skills.

Exercise reading!

Just like speaking and listening are closely related skills, reading and writing go hand in hand as well. Reading will help you not only with structuring your sentences, spelling, and grammar, but it will show you different alternatives to communicate an idea. But don’t worry! We’ve got a full article filled with handy tips to help you improve your reading skills: (link artigo 3) 

Keep a vocabulary journal!

A vast vocabulary is crucial to overcome, not only writing, but for all English competencies. A Vocab Journal offers you a chance to expand your repertoire of new words and expressions often used by native English speakers. When you keep a journal and write down new words, they are  reinforced in your memory. Not only that, but it helps you to memorize the spelling of words.To help you out, we put together a free printable template that you can fill in every day! 🙂 

Preview:

Scan the QR Code to get full access to the template!

Try to have someone to read what you wrote!

A helpful tip on improving your writing is to always write as if the reader has no idea of what you are talking about, as if it is a completely new subject to them – even if it’s not. To complement this tip, try asking a native or fluent English speaker to read what you wrote and correct your mistakes.  

Note: Cambridge has an online free tool that helps you practise your writing. You can get valuable and instant feedback from professional English tutors. 

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/free-resources/write-and-improve/

Prepare key sentences

Another helpful tip on improving your writing is to always have key sentences on the tip of your tongue – or pen 🙂 It makes your job a lot easier and your writing will flow a lot better if you have linking words prepared. For example, if you want to write “in my opinion”, you could use “for instance”, “from my perspective”, or “from my point of view”. It’s important to expand your prepared sentences to make your writing richer. 

Make the reader’s job easier!

When writing an article, essay, text or any other thing in English, always keep in mind that someone will have to be able to comprehend what is written. When writing something, try to keep it as simple as possible. Try to not take twists and turns or complicate it just to prove you have more knowledge. It’s important to put yourself in the reader’s shoes – we want to make their job easier.

Hopefully, this article got you fired up and ready to begin your journey on improving your writing skills! Check out our other articles to have a better look at all English skills and how to improve them 🙂