Writing can seem daunting to some, especially if you feel you do not have any writing skills. But no one is born with perfect writing skills. These skills are honed and polished throughout your whole life, with practice, effort, and time. Seeing that you have to write a complex essay on a specific topic or a blog post might start stressing you, and might even make you feel overwhelmed. But learning how to write a powerful and compelling piece of paper is not as difficult as you may think.
However, there is a lot of practice needed, practice you may have already started doing. You might not write large pieces of text, but you write emails, you write text messages or even texts for your social media posts. And even though it may not seem much, these short pieces of text help you understand how writing works and, of course, polish your skills. But what other ways can you use to improve your writing skills? Expert writers from college-paper.org suggest seven ways you can easily do this and become better at writing.
- Basic writing fundamentals
- Read more
- Have the end goal in mind
- Always outline
- Express your thoughts clearly
- Show empathy
- Save time for editing and proofreading
1. Basic Writing Fundamentals
One of the first things you should begin with is to get to know the basic rules of writing. Indeed, most pieces of advice on the internet encourage you to just start writing as you feel it, which is a valuable piece of advice we will delve deeper into later. But at first, it would be useful to know the fundamentals of writing. To know how to construct a sentence and a paragraph, how to make the transition from one idea to another, and how to use correct grammar and spelling.
These are crucial to writing as no matter the goal of your paper, you need to deliver one that is correct and smooth. To get to know more about the fundamentals of writing, you can read the book “The Elements of Style” by William Struck and E.B. White. Other resources that will be of great help are Cambridge and Merriam-Webster dictionaries, where you can check the meaning and correct spelling of the words you intend to use.
And if you plan on writing news posts or academic papers, make sure you check the requirements of the style you want to use: APA, Chicago, or MLA. They have custom rules and being aware of them will help you customize your text and deliver a powerful text.
2. Reading More
It may come as no surprise that reading more actually helps you improve your writing skills. Reading distinct genres, distinct novels, and different authors helps you expand your knowledge of writing. You see how ideas are expressed differently, you will learn about the cadence of writing, and you will see how authors simply express their voice through writing.
Reading faces you with a lot of new things, things you can learn a lot from. Start reading not only books but news or blogs too. If you like a specific genre, do not focus only on that but try to explore many others, as this will expand your knowledge of writing. And, of course, it also helps you expand your vocabulary.
3. Knowing the End Goal
One of the most important pieces of advice when it comes to improving writing skills is to know your end goal. You have to write a text, but what is the goal? What are you trying to achieve? Do you have a specific result in mind? Answering these questions helps you clarify the entire process, but also customize the piece of paper so that you reach that end goal. Knowing the concepts you want to write about will lead to a powerful text, so be clear about your scope and the topic of your paper.
4. Always Outline
Indeed, you should start writing what flows through your head without thinking too much about the words you use or the structure of the sentence. At first. But, to produce a structured piece of paper, you should start by making an outline. Even though you may seem that this makes the writing process more strict, in fact, it helps you deliver a powerful and compelling text. Especially if the topic is complex, an outline is even more helpful. Maybe an outline would not be the solution every time, but having only even some quick notes about your topic will help you get started easier.
5. Clearly Expressing Thoughts
If you are just polishing your writing skills, you may feel that you need to create a piece of paper that convinces the audience. This is indeed true, but this does not mean that you should use only fluffy words or share too much information. Depending on your goal, which you have decided before, you need to customize your writing. Avoid sharing unnecessary information that might only confuse the reader. Choose to be clear and straightforward and stick to the salient relevant facts. Do not complicate writing, just choose the simple and clear way.
6. Empathy
Improving your writing skills is not only about learning about creative writing, grammar, spelling, and how to structure your ideas. Writing skills are about empathy too, especially if you have readers that follow your texts. So, it is crucial to show empathy in your writing, to show that you understand their struggles and needs. Think about things that would be of interest to them and choose to mention those. Put yourself in their shoes and try to anticipate what they are looking for so that you write exactly what they need.
7. Editing and Proofreading
Many beginners have the unrealistic expectation to produce a compelling piece of paper from the very first time. But no one can do this, not even the most experienced writers. This is why you should always save time for editing and proofreading, as the first draft is most of the time not perfect. And when you edit and proofread, pay attention to grammar and spelling. But apart from this, make sure that ideas flow smoothly from each other and that your text has the clarity and coherence your readers are looking for.
Final Thoughts
Improving your writing skills might seem challenging, but if you practice, you will become better over time. Put into practice these seven ways that will help you become better and write more compelling and powerful pieces of text.
