You’ve probably heard people saying writing is like an art. What does this mean? To understand the expression of equating writing to an art, take a look at this case scenario. When you travel from point A to B, what guides you on the road? You might encounter signposts without words telling you to either stop, turn, or reduce the speed.
As such, “writing as an art” means people use it to convey information. In particular, anyone can put words or numbers on a piece of paper. The only difference you might notice would be the logical follow of ideas and adherence to proper usage of grammar. It’s because of these reasons many scholars consider writing skills as both an art and a science.
This definition might probably solve a long-standing stalemate of whether a writer is a technician like an engineer or a chef who uses their craft and knowledge to design products that elicit users’ reactions. In other words, regardless of your occupation, age, or academic level, you must improve your writing skills to create value for society and yourself. For example, colleges capitalize on assignments and homework to gauge students’ comprehension of a specific concept, whereas companies require great SEO specialists to expand their customer base.
However, this article highlights the strategies you might use to improve your English writing skills to gain a competitive advantage in the job market after graduation.
2 Starting Points to Improve Your Academic Writing Skills
1. Develop a culture of reading
Stephen King states, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Without a doubt, this quote can help you improve your writing skills if you put it into practice. For instance, assuming that your professor requires you to review a scholarly source, specifically a journal article, what will be your first step?
While many students might begin with actually writing a paper based on the rubric, this approach could not be perfect. As such, you must consider searching for previous examples to understand the tone, style, and technique of composing a well-structured literature review. What’s more, you should never wait until you get an assignment to read published papers on the Internet. By developing this culture throughout your academic life, you stand a high chance of attaining a high GPA in school.
2. Make writing guidelines your friend
Even if you strive to improve your writing skills in English, it’s important for you to be conversant with different checklist catalogs. In spite of the degree you’re pursuing in college, there is a high likelihood that you might hold a managerial position whether you enter into the corporate world or entrepreneurship. Due to this reason, many learning institutions in the United States and globally obligate students to undertake some courses in English.
Nursing and medical students might be conversant with writing capstone projects, lab reports, and analyzing case studies. However, depending on their school curricula, these learners must complete English 101 or 102 with a lot of creative writing, such as negative letters.
In case they encounter such assignments, the best course of action would be to look for an example on the Internet. Even though online sources offer a myriad of examples and guidelines, you might not get custom-written papers with references like the ones provided by paper writing services by CustomWritings, for example. An experienced team of writers is ready to help you online with accessing referencing materials.
3 Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills: Proper Grammar and Style
1. Learn to maintain consistent verb tense
You can elevate your writing skills and grammar to a pro level if you learn the intricacies of maintaining a specific time perspective throughout your work. In other words, if you decide to write your essay in the past tense, you should not change it to present or future tense. However, this approach might not be the case for complex writing. Take a look at the following case scenario to understand how you might somehow deviate from this rule.
For example, you might write that “you received a call from your sister yesterday about wearing warm clothes before traveling. Therefore, you must pack extra outfits.” The two sentences have different time perspectives, but they logically make sense.
Even if you try to maintain consistent verb tense throughout your papers, you should mean what you write. As such, it’s important to note that adhering to a specific time perspective should be limited to a sentence. Take a look at the examples below:
- Inconsistent verb tense: After I woke up, I take tea.
- Consistent verb tense: After I woke up, I took tea.
Generally speaking, you’ll dramatically improve your academic writing skills if you become keen on the perspective of verb tenses.
2. Write complete sentence
Whether you write compound or simple sentences, you should ensure that they contain a subject or verb. Take a look at the following examples:
- Correct version: The teacher speaks English and French.
- Incorrect version: Speak English and French.
In the first version, “teacher” and “speaks” make the sentence complete as they are subject and verb, respectively.
In the second version, you don’t know if it is a “command” or “who spoke.” In other words, when you write a sentence, you should never leave any doubt in the reader’s mind.
3. Learn to use a single word rather than phrases
In academic writing, you should learn to use a single word rather than a phrase. This approach demonstrates a mastery of vocabulary and choice of words.
For examples:
- Use “reveal” instead of “find out.”
- Use “decide” instead of “make decision.”
- Use “combine” instead of “put together.”
- Use “besides” instead of “in addition to.”
3 Essay Writing Skills You Never Know
Whereas you might find numerous online tips on how to write your essay, you should consider reading this section to understand strategies for composing the “crème de la crème” body paragraph. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
1. Always stick to a single idea
Many students might never understand what this rule means. For example, if you’re writing about the advantages and disadvantages of legalizing marijuana for a 10-page essay, you’ll discuss every point in an independent paragraph. However, what about if you’re writing a 275-word discussion post? In such a case, you’ll put advantages and disadvantages in separate paragraphs.
What does this mean? Putting a single idea in one paragraph doesn’t mean the point shouldn’t be two or more.
2. Always evaluate your sources
Rather than paraphrasing information from sources to answer a question, you should consider analyzing the authors’ ideas. In this case, you should look for divergent and convergent opinions, challenge the presented verdicts, and unveil your own conclusion. Even though it might be difficult to master this technique, you should keep embracing it as it’ll make you write better.
3. Always use scholarly sources
It’s best to learn how to use journals, chapters of books, and websites with “.org,” “.gob,” and “.edu.” These sources offer qualitative and quantitative data to support your arguments.
Although this article highlights some of the proven ways to improve writing skills, it doesn’t limit you from exploring other materials. Overall, improving your essay writing skills extends beyond this informative article.
