20 ways to improve your English language writing skills
Are you studying English language and want to improve your writing skills for work or for an examination? Writing English can appear scary and daunting but there are great ways to make the process fun and at your own pace.
We have identified 20 creative ways to improve your English language writing skills.
If you know of any more then please add your comments to this post.
1 – Read a variety of English books
Reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary and gain an understanding of how sentences are structured and how punctuation is used to enhance words and meanings.
Your can start with children’s books or graded books then move up a level as you progress until you can read one of the English Classics such as Jane Eyre.
2 – Read newspapers and online newspaper websites
Newspapers are great for general reading allowing you time to digest and guess the context of the newspaper articles by pulling out key words and phrases.
Reading a newspaper article with a heading and possibly a picture gives you a small piece of writing to focus on.
3 – Keep a notebook of new words and phrases
Keep a notebook on your person at all times to jot down new words and phrases where ever you are for reviewing later.
4 – Keep and Diary or Journal
Keeping a Diary forces you to write down thoughts and events each day and constructing sentences in your own words.
This is good practice and as you begin to improve the diary you can review and reflect on your progress.
5 – Get a pen pal
Get a Pen Pal. Make new friends by writing letters to pen pals.
Your pen pal can give you feedback on your writing skills and it’s certainly a lot of fun.
6 – Join online Forum
Jump into social media or join one of many online forums for discussions and light conversations on lots of topics.
We don’t currently have a forum on this website but watch this space!
7 – Use English Language CD’s
Write down the sentences you hear and use the pause button to give you time to think and recreate the sentence on paper.
If you listen to the radio or watch tv there is not a pause button to process all the incoming information.
8 – Get Audio Books
Audio books are like cd’s in that you can hit pause to process the information and rewind to repeat words and phrases missed.
9 – Learning different forms of the same word
English has many different forms of the same word. This is important to know when constructing letters or writing an essay.
There – their – they’re are all pronounced the same so speaking these words is not a problem.
However, when writing it is important to pick the right one for the context of the writing for accuracy.
10 – Brain storm words then put them together
Brain storm words then put them together to make sentences.
You can do this alone or in a group. Putting random words together is a test of your creativity and imagination too.
11 – Write a short story
Construct a short story in your mind then write your short story in English.
If you are writing your short story straight into a Word Document you can use the available ‘review’ features to check your grammar and spelling.
12 – Make a note about punctuation
Understand that the use of punctuation can completely change the meaning of a sentence.
Get to grips with coma’s, full stops, semi-colons, apostrophe’s, brackets and more.
Make a reference guide if necessary to refer to keep in mind what punctuation is required when writing.
13- Always have an English Dictionary to hand
Get in the habit of having your English Dictionary, with Thesaurus, with you to look up words at any time.
We do not recommend relying too heavily on the Dictionary but it is a good resource especially when starting out.
14 – Use cue cards
Cue cards are great for quick referencing words or phrases that you have a mental block with.
Used for Exam revision, these cards can jog are memories for those tricky words we just can’t seem to remember!
15 – Use Post notes
For many people sticking up post notes all around the home is a great way to memorize key words of items or just general reminders.
16 – Learn some English idioms or proverbs
Idioms are sayings or proverbs. Most countries have their own sayings but Britain has quite a few corkers. Learning some of the English Idioms is a bit of fun but can be useful to know.
A Penny for your thoughts?
Add insult to injury
Barking up the wrong tree
Best thing since sliced bread
17 – Write poems
For the creative types who want to play with words and meanings then creating beautiful short poems is a nice way of putting words together.
Write poems on specific topics then source suitable words that blend nicely together.
18 – Write down recipes
If you love to bake or cook then why not create your own recipe card collection?Writing down recipes and instructions to yourself on the baking process.
Actually this is a curve ball. I love to bake and write my own recipes complete with instructions but could I do it in another language? This is the test.
19 – Take an online test
There are lots of free English grammar tests online so test your knowledge on spelling, punctuation and grammar regularly.
Online Reading and Writing Test from Everygreen Vallen College.
20 – Play Scrabble
The British love a game of Scrabble. Scrabble is a word game with a point system. The more difficult the words, the more points are gained against your opponent.
Are you competitive? Do you want to improve your vocabulary? Play Scrabble.
Conclusion
You can be creative and have fun practicing your English writing skills. Whether it be in a Journal or writing down recipe cards, the key is that you are writing something down every day.
Some of these ideas can also be applied to writing Italian, French, German or any other language.
If you would like further help on English writing then we offer English Language classes so contact us for further information at info@accent.gg
