Learning English is one thing and learning how to write is another. Learning how to write exquisite sentences doesn’t come in a package while you’re learning English. I mentioned in my first blog post that I did not particularly lean towards writing until 12th grade. My writing has never been impressive – I think it’s only okay – but I always strive to learn new things and improve my writing. It may seem easy, stringing words together to create sentences, but it is not. Writing is never easy.
One of the courses that helped me improve my writing was “Prose: Style and Argument.” It was a second year course and it served as an introduction to the practice of non-fiction prose. Duncan Koerber, the professor, is one of the professors that I like in university. He gave exercises every after class as homework to help improve our writing. He gave assignments that challenged our writing skills, like writing a memoir, essays, and articles. These types of assignments helped cultivate our writing skills as well as develop various writing styles depending on the medium and audience.
Here are 10 tips I learned for successful writing:
- Avoid wordiness. Make your sentences succinct and straight to the point.
- Avoid jargon. Use words that are familiar to everyone.
- Avoid passive voice. Active voice strengthens your sentences.
- Avoid dead verbs. Use strong verbs that show action.
- Avoid clichés. Clichés are overused and corny.
- Be descriptive. Descriptions create vivid imagery to your writing.
- Be clear. Writing should be clear to the reader.
- Use items in a series: nouns, adjectives, verbs.
- Maintain parallel structure with items in a series. If the first item is a noun, the following items must be nouns.
- Write a draft.
These tips can be applied to any kind of writing, be it creative writing or essay writing. It’s always helpful to keep these tips in mind while you’re writing so you can improve the quality of your writing.
Denisse C 