Writing is a skill, and like most skills, it takes practice to improve. No one comes out of the gate a world-class athlete, and no one produces the Mona Lisa the first time they pick up a paintbrush. By the same token, you can’t expect to write like Ernest Hemingway or Toni Morrison unless you work hard to make your writing better. Just as pro athletes must train before a competition, developing your writing skills requires a bit of effort and some structured practice to help you perfect the skills and knowledge you’ll need to achieve your writing potential.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some ways to make your writing better so you can improve your writing and become a more proficient writer.
Take Your Writing to Another Level With Our Tips
So, where should you begin? Here is a place to start:
- Read a lot. The first step in becoming a great writer is to be a great reader. The more that you read, the more you will begin to absorb some of the patterns, practices, and techniques that make writers great. As a writer, there are likely certain fields where you hope to write. Read the literature in your field. For example, if you are looking to become a writer of science fiction, read the masterpieces of science fiction. If you are planning a career in journalism, read great journalism in publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as The Doe narratives. If you are looking to improve your essay-writing skills, read the annual collections of the year’s best essays. You can’t do better than learning from the best.
- Write every day. Because writing is a skill, you need to practice it regularly. Try writing every day, even if it is only for a few minutes. It doesn’t matter what you write about as long as you engage in writing. For example, free writing activities, composing friendly emails, or making thoughtful social media posts are all great ways to engage in writing on a daily basis. The more that you are able to use your words and put them together to form thoughtful and compelling pieces of writing, the more you will develop your skills. But don’t worry about the end product when you are free writing. It’s a chance for you to experiment with techniques, themes, and styles. Anything you put down on paper will be good practice that can make you a stronger writer. Just be sure to write consistently!
- Master the art of transitions. Another important way to improve your writing is to use transition words and phrases to show the audience how each new paragraph connects to what came before. Chances are that you are already doing some of this automatically. But it’s a good idea to be more mindful about how you can use connecting words like “Similarly,” “By contrast,” “However,” and “Another” to show the audience how each new idea builds on what they just read. For longer pieces of writing, you may need whole sentences or even transition paragraphs rather than single words to move from one major section to the next.
- Improve your vocabulary. Elegant writing makes effective use of vocabulary to develop stronger and more impactful messages. To improve your writing, build your vocabulary. The more words you know, the better able you will be to select the most effective word to convey a specific meaning. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should use the biggest possible word in every circumstance. Irrationally magnitudinous verbiage invariably obfuscates in contradistinction—as this sentence shows—to well-chosen, clear language.
- Take advantage of professional help. When you are having difficulty with an essay, you can always find someone to provide online writing help and write papers for you. When you need an essay written fast, experts from services like WriteMyPaperHub.com can deliver a custom-written paper quickly to show you the right way to approach any topic. When you have an expert’s version to guide you, your writing will improve dramatically. Think of it like training wheels on a bicycle. The extra help will steady you as you develop your balance until you are ready to write without assistance.
- Always edit and proofread. Many people think that once they finish their first draft, that is only the first phase of writing. When you finish the first draft, put it aside for a few hours or overnight so that you can look at it again with fresh eyes. Once you do, you will be able to edit and proofread your paper to make sure that every part of it says exactly what you want it to say and is free from errors. Many times, things that seem clear and obvious to us while we write can turn out to be less than clear when we go back and look at it again. A second run through—and even a second set of eyes from a friend—can help to improve your paper.
- Take breaks and give yourself rewards. It might seem counterintuitive, but doing less can sometimes make you more productive. Writing for a long time without a break can create boredom and lead to less engagement with your writing. Taking a five-minute break every thirty minutes can help keep your brain fresh and focused. Rewarding yourself with a small reward for hitting milestone writing achievements can also help motivate you.
Get Things Done: Write Faster, Submit On Time
It is not only about how well you write, it is also about how fast you do it. We have decided to share some tips on how to deal with your assignments faster. First, start immediately. Once you have received a task, do at least something — create a folder and a document, do 15 minutes search for sources and note them, or put together 2-3 outline points. Don’t concentrate on quality, you just need to start. This will help you to fight procrastination later. Second, do the minimum, and add extras later. Don’t dive into details, don’t spend hours on research without writing something, don’t develop new theories. Keep writing. If you have time later, you can make some changes, but it never happens. Third, no matter how close the deadline is, spend some time editing and proofreading. This will certainly pay back. Even if the argumentative part of your essay is not strong enough, neat formatting and close to zero mistakes will play their part.
