One is a writer who can write so are you? It is as easy but did I mention the "Quality" of writing? Writing is an art which everyone is not blessed with but over the time, it can be developed which depends upon you that how much effort you put into learning it. Whether you are a blogger or freelance writer, you need to be able to make a stand out from the crowd. It takes more to become a good writer then learning English by reading newspapers, journals or other articles. Below are some useful tips to improve your writing skills quickly I learned and would like to share.
1) Learning Grammar (Basics)
This is the first step you need to go with if you are serious with your writing. Grammar is the base of a good article. Writing is a totally different story and it doesn't matter whether English is your native language or not. If you are a Native English Speaker, then you can easily speak and understand English but it doesn't apply to writing. A simple mistake of "comma" or "apostrophe" can change the taste of the whole article. Here are some useful links I came across which might be helpful for you.
TalkEnglish: Basics of English Grammar
GrammarBook: English Rules
2) Read The Best of Best
This is the best way I ever came to know that read the best of best. It means reading the articles of experienced/giant writers and study them thoroughly about how do they write? How is the Formatting Style? How do they use graphics/images in their articles? How do they write sentences? How do they engage readers? etc. Here are a few links I do prefer to read articles on:
Brian Clark: CopyBlogger for reading articles and study them.
3) Write To The Point
Always try to convey your message in simple and short sentences. Do not turn your article into a school teacher's lecture which is always hard to understand. :) Avoid using complex words and instead use simple and widely used words in daily life. Do not try to over explain your message because no one likes it and chances are more that you will not receive any comment because everything is over explained already. Leave some curiosity to be explained in comments :).
4) Proofread Your Articles
This is no wonder that everyone makes errors while writing whether new or experienced. Errors may be of the comma, misspelled words, a typo or forgetting to close parenthesis bracket. Reread your article to check these errors or ask others (friend or family member) to proofread your article to ensure an error-free article. I myself make a lot of errors and sometimes it is hard to find out our own errors so this is a good choice to ask others to proofread our article if possible.
5) Do not Repeat Same Words
Never ever repeat the same words in your article again and again as it will not sound delicious to your readers. The article will lose the engagement factor and distract the readers. Finally, you will end up losing a visitor who could be a loyal reader. Use the synonyms of those repeated words if it is necessary to use them. You can use a free software called WordWeb with over 1,20,000 synonyms, which is available online to download for free use.
Download Here: Free WordWeb Dictionary
Download Here: Free WordWeb Dictionary
6) Come Back Later
After You have drafted your post/article, leave it and go get a cup of tea or walk around then be back later to edit it with a fresh mind. This time read your article loudly and watch your flow of reading it. Does it sound good? Change the words which are breaking the flow and use their synonyms instead. You will also find out other common mistakes or complex sentences which need to be converted into simple yet effective to convey your message to the audience.
7) Re-write Your Older Posts/Articles
It is a good idea to pick some of your older articles to re-write again and measure the improvements in your writing you have developed over-time. It would be a push up in your level of confidence. Furthermore, you can choose to re-write the articles of newspaper or magazines of your choice.
So finally these are the 7 tips to increase your writing skills I know and shared with you. Let me know if you have more of your own and help each other. Nothing is perfect and we always remain in a learning curve. Be dedicated and devoted. Take Care!
