Develop Your Writing Skills [9 Pro Tips]

Whether good or bad, we all have to do different writing assignments throughout our school years. Writing is crucial to getting a good grade, whether it’s a literary analysis or a research paper. Many students find writing difficult. But anyone can master the skill if they want to. It is enough just to use the right guide and practice a little. Let’s consider some recommendations on how to improve writing skills.

Practice all the time

If you want to become a better writer, write regularly. This will not only improve the writing skills themselves but also develop a new useful habit. You can even start by simply rewriting your favorite notes and articles. Gradually complicate the tasks, learn to write essays, and create topics in forums.

Read a lot

Reading is fundamentally different from watching movies. A movie flows by itself, and whether you know what is happening on the screen or not, it goes on. On the other hand, a book requires the brain to be in an active state from beginning to end. When you make a conscious effort, you become able to think. This is a great way to practice your writing skills.

This may sound obvious to some – you can’t learn to express yourself well on paper without reading hundreds of books. Read a variety of books. Of course, you can’t read all the books. However, try not to limit yourself to fiction; there is scientific and philosophical literature.

Many writing and cognitive skills increase automatically when you read many books.

Use synonyms when writing.

Synonyms serve several functions. They help avoid repetition of the same words and allow you to express a thought more accurately and vividly.

Use idioms and phrasal verbs

A variety of phrases can help you convey your message more colorfully. Keep in mind, however, that you should refrain from excessive use of idioms and phrasal verbs in official letters.

Make a plan

Experienced writers think through the structure of a future text from beginning to end, even before they pick up a pencil and paper.

It’s better to start with a plan. Take a sheet of paper and write down a sentence or two summarizing each major section you intend to include in your text. Then for each section, make a list of subsections. Finally, arrange the sections and subsections in logical order.

An outline like this will help you see the structure of your future text and keep you focused as you work.

Formulate your position

One of the main requirements for written work is to formulate your point of view on the issue under consideration. This basic idea (usually one or two sentences in the introduction) is called a Thesis. Your thesis determines the content of the written assignment.

The stronger your thesis statement and the better it is supported by the information in the text, the more worthy your writing will be overall. Don’t be afraid to take an aggressive stance. As long as you support your point of view with facts, the text will effectively convey the indicated position, whatever it may be.

Don’t plagiarize

It is unethical to pass off other people’s ideas as your own. In addition, plagiarism can get you into serious trouble. Most teachers use plagiarism detection software to catch thieves red-handed. Therefore, write a plagiarism-free essay.

Avoid plagiarism by using original thoughts and ideas in your work. If you include someone else’s words in your text, put them in quotation marks, thus showing that it is a quote, or take the trouble to paraphrase the borrowed sentence. Be sure to cite the author of the quoted words and, if necessary, provide a link to the source at the end of your article.

Keep a dictionary/thesaurus handy.

Nothing is more valuable for writing a lively and easy-to-read text than a good dictionary and thesaurus. These tools make it easy to find the right words and help give the text the right tone and mood.

You can find good (and free!) dictionaries and thesauri online. Don’t forget to save the addresses of the relevant sites in your bookmarks, so you can easily open them the next time you work on the next writing assignment.

Reread and revise your written text

After finishing writing a paper, some students hand it to the instructor without bothering to read their creation. This is fundamentally wrong. The text likely has errors and typos, which should be corrected. In addition, when you read your written work, you always see ways to expand and improve it immediately.

When you finish a written assignment, you should first run a spelling and punctuation checker. Then proofread the text to find errors the computer couldn’t recognize. And finally, revise those parts of the paper that do not seem quite correct to you, focusing mainly on improving the clarity of the presentation of your thoughts. Or ask the best essay writing services to proofread your paper.

Summing Up

The most important tip: write by hand. In a text editor, there is no possibility of full maneuvering and flexibility. The text turns out that way precisely because you are too lazy or it is very difficult to correct. When you write by hand, you can cross out, underline, highlight and rearrange phrases. In addition, many scientists agree that hand motor skills activate parts of the brain that are not involved in keyboarding.