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Do you dream of becoming the next big author like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King? Want to improve your English writing grades and sharpen your academic writing skills? We’re here to help!
Check out this article with some of our favourite tips on how to improve your English writing skills! Whether you’re looking to write an essay, a poem, a short story or a novel, the tips below can help you improve your English writing skills.
Tip #1 To Improve Your English Writing Skills: Plan and Outline
Have you ever felt overwhelmed looking at a blank piece of paper knowing that you have to fill it up with words? Or perhaps you’ve written something halfway and then got stuck? Well, you’re not alone. Writing in English can feel intimidating if you start without a plan.
Therefore, it’s important for you to make it a habit to plan and outline your essay before you start writing. Firstly, brainstorm ideas and then organize them into different categories. Many people find mindmaps helpful to do this but you can always just put your ideas down in bullet points.
If you’re struggling with ideas, use the WH questions as prompts. For example:
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What – What is the story about? What is the main point that you want to convey?
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Who – Who is the main character? Who does the topic affect?
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Where – Where is the story taking place?
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When – When does the story unfold?
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Why – Why is the topic important?
To further outline your essay, you can also develop your ideas or points during planning. A structure that we like to use is PEEC which stands for:
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P: Point
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E: Explanation
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E: Example
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C: Conclusion
Thinking about PEEC in advance helps you better imagine what you would like your essay to look like, so keep this tip in mind as you work towards improving your English writing skills.
Tip #2 To Improve Your English Writing Skills: Proofread and Edit
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Once you’ve written something, it might be tempting to just put it away or hand it in without reading it back. However, proofreading, which is the process of reading a text to spot any mistakes is very important to enhance your writing skills. During proofreading, you’re able to correct any spelling or grammatical mistakes that you might have made.
Pro tip: There are also online tools to help you with proofreading, such as the spelling and grammar check function in Microsoft Word and websites like Grammarly. However, only use these tools as an additional measure after you’ve proofread your writing by yourself.
Besides spelling and grammar, proofreading also enables you to assess the flow of your writing and think of any opportunities to make your writing better. For example, you may realise that you need to include more explanations to make a paragraph clearer, or you may think of an idiom that can be added to make the essay more interesting. Therefore, editing your own writing is a great tip to improve your English writing skills. Even the best writers have to do this!
Tip #3 To Improve Your English Writing Skills: Get Feedback
After you’ve proofread and edited your writing, the next step is to get feedback from others! If you’re feeling nervous about showing your writing to others, keep in mind that in order to improve your writing skills, a little help from others can go a long way. If you’re wondering who are the best people to give you good feedback, some suggestions are your teachers, friends and family members who are good in English or Gurulab’s English tutors.
To get different perspectives and ideas, ask more than one person to give you feedback on your piece of writing. When asking for feedback, here are some questions that you can ask them.
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What do they like and enjoy about it?
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What do they think can be improved?
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Do they think the essay or story is well-organised?
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Is there anything unclear to them?
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Did they spot any mistakes?
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Is there anything that they wish was done differently?
After receiving the feedback, take some time to think about them. Then you can repeat our previous tip to improve your English writing skills which is to edit your essays further based on the comments you received.
Tip #4 To Improve Your English Writing Skills: Practice, Practice and Practice
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The key to becoming a better writer is practice. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect!
You might not realise it, but there are plenty of opportunities to practice writing in English in our daily life. For example, when you’re messaging your friends and family or when you’re crafting captions for your social media posts. Therefore, besides working on writing tasks, keep practising English writing by incorporating it into things you already do!
Tip #5 To Improve Your English Writing Skills: Read To Write Better
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Another important tip to improve your English writing skills is to read! If you’re looking to write a short story, read more short stories. If you’re looking to write a book review, look for existing book reviews for ideas. This is because the more samples you read, the more ideas you can include in your own writing.
When you’re reading, be intentional with it and try to think of what you enjoyed from the piece and why. Then, try incorporating these in your writing. Reading is also a great way to expand your vocabulary. Learning new words and phrases would help you express yourself better and in a more creative manner.
Besides books, there is a wide range of materials available on the internet for you to read. Whether it’s social media posts, news articles or even advertisements, these are all opportunities for you to learn and improve your English writing.