How To Improve Your Writing In English

Even when you know a lot of English words, it can be really hard to form good sentences and write well. But when you put these strategies into practice, you’ll be able to improve so that you can write confidently in English.

Writing Tip #1 – Understand The Different Types Of Writing

Writing a report for work is very different from writing a short story, and writing an academic essay is different from writing casual e-mails to friends.

We use different phrases, different vocabulary, and different organization for different types of writing.

So it’s important to know specifically what type of writing you need or want to do, so you can learn the things that will help you improve that particular kind of writing.

Writing Tip #2 – Spend More Time Reading

When you know what type of writing you want to focus on, the next step is to spend time reading, especially reading examples of that type of writing.

Let’s say you want to improve your ability to write business e-mails, for example – search online for examples of business e-mails, and pay attention to the words and phrases in the e-mails you receive from co-workers.

Or if you need to write academic essays, then read a lot of essays. If you want to do creative writing, then read short stories and books in English.

When you read more, you’ll naturally learn the writing style and the types of vocabulary and expressions used in that type of text, and then you’ll be able to use these in your own writing.

Writing Tip #3 – Organize Your Ideas BEFORE You Start Writing

Before you begin writing, one thing that will help a lot is organizing your ideas and putting them in a logical order. When writing is organized, it communicates much more clearly. But when the ideas are disorganized, then other people will have trouble understanding what your writing is trying to say.

So just make a simple list of the main ideas you want to communicate. Then you can see if anything is missing or anything is out of order. You can expand your list by adding some additional information under each main point.

You don’t need to write full sentences here, just short words or phrases. The goal is to organize your POINTS and the SUPPORTING INFORMATION, and then you can expand these into sentences later when you actually start writing the text.

Organizing your ideas into a list or an outline will help your text be clearer and it’ll also help your writing process because you’ll know exactly what to write about in the next sentence.

Writing Tip #4 – Focus On Clarity, Not On “Big” Words/Sentences

Sometimes English learners make the mistake of thinking that big words or long sentences will make their writing seem more advanced, but the result is that they use words incorrectly and write confusing sentences.

It’s important for writing to be CLEAR, so you should always use the words that will most directly and accurately communicate the concept.

As for sentences, they can be long or short, but a good rule to remember is 1-2 ideas per sentence. If you’re trying to put 3, 4, 5 or more ideas into one sentence, then the sentence will become too long and confusing.

Writing Tip #5 – Learn Linking Words To Make Connections Between Ideas

If you followed the tip about organizing your main points, then your ideas will be in a logical order. But it’s also important to learn the linking words to show the connections between those ideas.

These are words like…

• therefore - to introduce a logical result
• however - to introduce a contrast or opposing point
• moreover or in addition - to introduce additional information
• in summary - to introduce a quick review of your main idea

This way, someone who is reading your writing will easily be able to follow the flow and sequence of your ideas, and understand your text.

Writing Tip #6 – Practice A Little Bit Every Day & Revise It The Next Day

It’s good to read, and it’s good to learn about writing, but you also need to practice writing, to do it yourself.

So make sure to practice even when you don’t “need” to, even when you don’t have an assignment or report on your to-do list. Try to get into the habit of writing a paragraph or two per day, because the more you do it, the easier it will become.

Another thing that really helps is always to look at your writing again the next day. So you write something, you go to sleep, wake up, and read it over the following day. Letting a bit of time pass can help you see any errors or changes you’d like to make.