Tips for writing in English - part 2
Six tips to help you write better
Hello everyone!
A couple of weeks ago, I gave you some tips for improving your writing skills and today, I want to give you a few more.
The most important thing to do is just practise! The more you practise, the better you’ll get. This is true even for native speakers and teachers! Over the last few weeks, I’ve been improving some old blog posts, adding to them and putting them together to make a book. I can see that my own writing is better than it was a few years ago.
The book I’m working on is “A Year in England”. Do you remember I wrote about June in England a few weeks ago? Well, this book will contain an article like that for each month, plus a couple of extra bonuses. It’s coming very soon!
Now here are your writing tips:
1. Plan
Sometimes it’s good to just write what comes into your head but if you need to write a work email, an essay or some homework for your teacher, then maybe it’s better to make a plan before you start. Your writing should be organised into paragraphs and each paragraph should contain one topic so think about what you want to put in each paragraph before you start. For example, an essay for an exam typically has an introduction, two or three paragraphs which explain your ideas, one idea per paragraph, and then a conclusion.
2. Check
Always, always, always check your work for mistakes. When you have finished, read through your work and check your spelling and grammar. Here are some examples of things to check for. Did you remember to use the past tense in your story? Did you remember -s, -ed and -ing? Did you use the right prepositions? Did you use “the” and “a” correctly? If you can, leave your work for a few hours or until the next day and check it again. You might see silly mistakes that you can’t believe you missed the first time!
3. Accuracy vs complexity
You have to find the right balance between accuracy and complexity. If you write in very simple sentences, you won’t make so many mistakes but your work might sound childish and you won’t get good marks in an exam. If you try to use too many complex sentences, you might be able to show what you know about the language but you might make more mistakes. Too many mistakes make your writing difficult to read and understand. You have to get the right balance and this will depend on your level and why you are writing. For example, if you are writing for an exam, you have to show what you know so try to use some more complex grammar structures that you are comfortable with. If you’re chatting to other learners on social media, simpler sentences might be better.
4. Dictation
Try a dictation. This is an old but effective way to practise writing and listening. Find a short text to listen to and try to write it down. If you search for “English dictation” on YouTube, you can find some exercises for your level, but you can use any video, as long as it has subtitles or a transcript so you can check your writing afterwards. Alternatively, you could listen to a song and write down the lyrics. Dictation helps you with your writing because you get model sentences and it forces you to think about your spelling. It can help you with your grammar too. Also, it makes you think about your knowledge of the language as you write.
5. Get some feedback
For detailed feedback and advice on how to improve, the best option is to get an English teacher like me to help you. I know that not everybody can afford to do this though. If you can’t ask a teacher, ask a friend to check your writing for you. There are also websites where you can post your work and get feedback from native speakers. Two of these are italki.com and hinative.com. There’s also “Write and Improve” by Cambridge or even ChatGPT.
6. Learn from your mistakes
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes when you write. Mistakes can help you to learn. And don’t be afraid of the teacher’s red pen! When I check my students’ writing, there is a lot of red but this doesn’t mean that the writing is bad! I just want to give as much help as I can! If you do some writing for a teacher, make sure you look carefully at the comments and corrections that the teacher makes and learn something for next time.
In case you missed it, here’s part 1 for you:
I hope you found something helpful here! Good luck with your writing! You can ask me questions in the comments.
Until next time,
Katie
Thanks for reading! I’m Katie Salter and I teach British English online. I help adult learners to speak better English through conversation and grammar lessons.
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