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A (Very) Simple Way to Improve Your Writing

  • Mark Rennella

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It’s called the “one-idea rule” — and any level of writer can use it.

The “one idea” rule is a simple concept that can help you sharpen your writing, persuade others by presenting your argument in a clear, concise, and engaging way. What exactly does the rule say?

  • Every component of a successful piece of writing should express only one idea.
  • In persuasive writing, your “one idea” is often the argument or belief you are presenting to the reader. Once you identify what that argument is, the “one-idea rule” can help you develop, revise, and connect the various components of your writing.
  • For instance, let’s say you’re writing an essay. There are three components you will be working with throughout your piece: the title, the paragraphs, and the sentences.
  • Each of these parts should be dedicated to just one idea. The ideas are not identical, of course, but they’re all related. If done correctly, the smaller ideas (in sentences) all build (in paragraphs) to support the main point (suggested in the title).

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Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Most advice about writing looks like a long laundry list of “do’s and don’ts.” These lists can be helpful from time to time, but they’re hard to remember … and, therefore, hard to depend on when you’re having trouble putting your thoughts to paper. During my time in academia, teaching composition at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I saw many people struggle with this.

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  • MR Mark Rennella is Associate Editor at HBP and has published two books, Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders and The Boston Cosmopolitans .  

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Learn How to Improve Writing Skills And It Will Change Your Life

You already know that having writing skills has the power to change your life and the lives of those who read your work.

So, it makes sense that writing better — more clearly, more fluidly, and more beautifully — has even greater power for both you and your reader.

How do you improve writing skills?

How do you improve to become the kind of writer whose work other people read aloud — because it sounds so good in their heads, their vocal cords get jealous?

It’s both easier and harder than it sounds to develop new writing skills.

It’s easier because once you learn tips for better writing, you’ll find it easier to improve your writing ; it’s harder because it takes commitment, butt-in-chair time, and discovering ways to practice writing. It’s real work.

There is no magic bullet that will instantly transform you into a highly-skilled and emulated writer.

When it comes to learning to write well, you’ll cover more ground in less time if you implement these steps on how to get better at writing.

So, dig in and see how even small changes to your writing skills can make a huge difference.

Why Learning Basic Writing Skills Is So Important

1. improve your writing every day., 2. increase your word power., 3. pace yourself with punctuation., 4. respect your reader’s time (and energy)., 5. write once, edit twice (or more)., 6. let your writing breathe., 7. read great writing., 8. copy great writing., 9. avoid unnecessary adverbs., 10. kill those clichés., 11. keep it simple., 12. cut out redundancies., 13. deliver information in small doses., 14. stick with one idea per sentence., 15. learn the rules — and learn to break them when necessary..

Effective writing that hooks and holds onto your reader’s attention takes conscious effort. It takes an appreciation for the rhythm and nuances in the words you use.

And it takes a commitment to ruthless editing . You need to know what stands in the way of improving your writing.

But why bother? Why put in the effort?

Unlike the textbooks you had to read in school, no one has to read your writing. And there’s plenty more to choose from — and plenty other claims on your reader’s attention.

If you want readers to go beyond the first sentence, you’d better make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

I don’t mean that you should dumb down your writing. Good writing respects your readers’ intelligence as much as their time.

Good writing also leads the reader effortlessly from one sentence to the next.

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By learning to write well and applying these writing tips shared in this article, you can make your writing kinder to your reader — and harder to put down.

And what can that do for you?

If you’re at all interested in writing books and reaching an audience hungry for your message, your commitment to writing better (for your reader’s sake) is what will make that possible.

Self-publishing has made it both easier and more difficult for writers. It’s easier to make your words more accessible to your target readers but harder to compete against a larger selection of books written on the same subjects.

So, learning how to be a great writer is critical to your success.

15 Ways To Improve Writing Skills

If you’re serious about improving your writing, you make time for it every day — even if it’s only fifteen minutes at a time.

You show up for it even on the days when it feels as though the words are jammed inside you and nothing wants to come out.

Not sure what to write ?

Try using any of the following questions as writing prompts:

The human mind likes to reach out and know things.

Give it a chance to explore, and write about what’s going on in your head or in the head of one of your story characters.

Just keep showing up — one day at a time. Keep getting the words out and then taking the time to edit them.

While you shouldn’t force ten-dollar words into your writing to impress your readers, it can only do you good to increase your vocabulary.

The more words you know, the more likely you’ll find just the right ones to evoke the images you want your reader to see — without relying on overused modifiers (like “very,” “really,” etc.).

The games and dictionary at Vocabulary.com test your knowledge of English vocabulary and help you improve your word power by exposing you to other words, as well as other meanings for the words you already know.

Varying your punctuation and sentence length creates a certain cadence for your writing, which helps keep your reader’s attention.

No one wants to read a series of short, choppy sentences.

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And few of us have the time or inclination to read stream-of-consciousness sentences so long we’re no longer sure each one is grammatically correct by the time we get to the end of it.

And reading it again to check would take too much effort.

Sometimes, you’ll want to link phrases with commas , other times with semicolons or colons , and other times, you’ll separate them with a period to create two distinct sentences.

If you’re a fan of the dash , it’s all too easy to overuse it.

Respect your reader’s attention and mental energy by varying the rhythm of your sentences, using punctuation to create pauses and full stops where you need them.

Don’t waste your reader’s time with sentence after sentence of verbal throat-clearing.

There’s setting the stage, and then there’s killing time before the main act finally wanders onto the stage. The audience knows the difference.

Gently but quickly lead your reader to the message at the heart of your writing.

Cut out sentences and phrases that are little more than pointless digressions from your message.

If it’s fodder for another book or article, save it for that.

Writing is rewriting. You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth repeating.

To make your writing as enjoyable to read as possible, you’ll need to edit it at least twice.

This is why professional editors tend to make at least three editing sweeps of their clients’ work before returning it.

The final sweep may be mostly about proofreading , but their eyes are always open to other details that may need fixing.

As a writer, yours should be, too. Take the time to carefully edit your work.

Before you dive into editing, though, give yourself and your work in progress (WIP) some time apart.

Here are some ideas for what to do with yourself during the break between writing and editing:

You’ll come back to your work with a clearer head and fresher eyes.

If you want to learn to write well, read exceptional writing. Read the kind of writing ability that makes you think, “Man, I wish I could write like this!”

Make a list of books and other publications that immerse you in high-quality writing – writing so good you want to read it aloud – and spend time with them every day.

The company you keep includes what you read. And the strong writing skills you read shows up in what you write.

I mean this literally. Take something written in language that clears your mind and makes your heart swell, and copy it by hand into a notebook.

You can also copy by typing, though handwriting engages your reticular activating system (RLS), making it more likely that you’ll internalize the vocabulary and writing style of the passages you copy — particularly those that make a strong impression on you.

It may seem like mundane and pointless busywork but think of it as a way to ensure that you’ll receive the greatest benefit from the book you’re reading.

Not only will you remember the message and its articulation more clearly; you’ll also be better able to articulate that message in your own words while learning to express your ideas with more clarity and elegance.

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If you really, truly, honestly want to firmly keep your reader’s attention, cut all the adverbs that aren’t strictly necessary – starting with the ones in this sentence.

Result: “If you want to keep your reader’s attention, cut all the adverbs that aren’t necessary.”

I don’t mean you can never use adverbs. They have their place. But use them as sparingly as you can. Find verbs , nouns, and even adjectives that create the right mental picture without the extra dressing.

Check your work for repeat offenders like the following:

There are others. They’re everywhere because they’re easy to use.

Writing the way you talk has its advantages — particularly with blogging — but also its pitfalls. This is one of them.

You’ve seen them everywhere. That’s how they became clichés.

But they’re so, so easy to use. They come into your head and appear on the page almost before you realize what you’re doing. They’re insidious.

And just as you want to avoid unnecessary adverbs and anything that slows your reader’s progression from one sentence to the next — distracting them so they roll their eyes or crinkle that space between their eyebrows — you want to mercilessly cut every cliché you find.

You don’t want your writing to draw attention to itself.

So, take a hard pass on the purple prose and stick with language that conveys the idea with clarity, simplicity, and elegance.

It doesn’t mean you can’t get creative sometimes with your description.

But don’t try so hard to sound creative that you sacrifice clarity and flow.

For example, the odds are pretty good that the word “utilize” will make your reader think, “Why not just go with the word ‘use’ like a regular human?”

You don’t want your reader questioning your word choice. It interrupts the conversation.

Cut out any sentences or clauses that say the same thing you said earlier with different words.

Redundancies don’t add emphasis. Most of the time, they’re just a waste of words and your reader’s attention.

You’ll clean up most of these during the editing process.

Shorter sentences are easier to read and process than long, rambling ones with multiple clauses strung together. This is why the Hemingway app flags sentences if they stray beyond the ideal word count limit.

Sometimes you’ll want to join a couple clauses, using the right punctuation.

But a series of compound sentences — with two clauses joined with a conjunction , semicolon, or colon — can be as stultifying to the reader as a string of simple sentences.

When you try to cram as much information into a sentence as you can, you usually end up sacrificing both clarity and your reader’s attention.

Just as with clauses, you’ll want to be careful about stringing together too many ideas in one sentence. One is usually enough.

For example, you can write that A is B and is also C, but try to avoid linking two different ideas together in the same sentence.

Instead of saying “A is B and, by the way, C is nothing like D,” find a way to do justice to the “A is B” idea before moving on — in a different sentence — to “C is nothing like D.”

Don’t try to get two points across in the same breath. It doesn’t work, and your reader will probably give up and move on to something else.

Grammar rules are there for a reason. But when it comes to creative writing , there are few absolutes.

With fiction, it’s pretty much the norm to see sentence fragments — especially in dialogue.

With blogging, it’s not unusual to dispense with the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition.

Because, in speech, we do that all the time.

And interrupting a conversation to point out someone’s grammatical errors is not a good way to make (or keep) friends.

This is one situation where it pays to read great writing and to take time to copy it. You pick up on current grammar use for the type of writing you want to master, and you’re less likely to compose your ideas in a way that sounds like you’re trying to please your high school English teacher.

Please your reader instead. Improve your grammar by keeping the rules that serve the purpose of your writing, and break those that don’t.

Write it Forward

If you found value in this article, please share it on your preferred social media platform to help fellow writers to strengthen and clarify their writing.

Think of all the students out there learning new things by reading . As we work to make education more person-centered — rather than industry-focused — the quality of the written content we give them has long-term ramifications.

What if the students of tomorrow read something you’ve written – or will someday write?

You’ll want to make sure to improve your writing so it is as clear and compelling as possible. You’ll want it to be so good teachers read it aloud – and encourage their students to do the same.

If you now have a better idea of how to hone your writing skills, this article has fulfilled its purpose.

And may your purpose and your creativity influence everything else you do today.

If you want to gain readers who are raving fans, you'll need to know how to improve your writing skills. These 15 tips will give you a leg up on the competition and boost your writing confidence.

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– 14 min read

How to write better: a quick-start guide for anyone and everyone

Anne Ichikawa

Anne Ichikawa

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Just about everyone knows how to write — but writing well is something different. Great writers are formed through hard work and a passion for learning. But just like you, they all started from the beginning.

Problem is, a lot of “start writing well’ articles focus on the result. But good writing begins before you tippity-tap on that keyboard. Studying everyday practices, learning how to organize your thoughts, and then turning those ideas into effective writing should be your priority.

Whether you’re a blogger , an SEO writer, a marketer, or want to be the next Stephen King, these universal writing tips give you lots of ways to write better.

15 writing tips to help you write better

1. think before you start writing.

One of the best writing tips for beginners is organizing your thoughts in a logical, explainable manner before putting pen on paper. The biggest hurdle is often not knowing how to begin or what to say—everything is a jumble of ideas that probably look like a bunch of paint thrown against a wall (and not in an artistic way). It can be very frustrating.

Note: THIS IS NORMAL. Don’t get discouraged. There’s a reason the phrase “writer’s block” exists. Let yourself think about it for a day or two, especially if you’re doing creative writing. You’ll be surprised at how that paint blob slowly transforms into a recognizable shape.

2. Embrace the writing “brain dump”

In business writing , the “brain dump” signals the beginning of every new project or assignment. It’s the opportunity to get whatever is in your head out on digital paper in a stream of consciousness.

Avoid correcting misspellings, typos, sentence structure, or grammar—just type, type, type until your brain excavates all musings. You can use this creative writing skill for all kinds of work, from personal blogging and copywriting to essays and work emails.

Remember that at this phase of writing: bad ideas don’t exist. Your best creative ideas will come when you’re not held back by perfectionism.

3. Make an outline

Now that you have all your wonderful, messy thoughts on paper, it’s time to get more granular and organized. Some tips on how to edit your brain dump: do a first pass and delete the parts that are definite “nos.” Then go through again and highlight the ideas you like best. Revisit the “maybes” later.

Now, take your favorites and as briefly or as detailed as you like, make an outline that conveys your message. Start top-level with your biggest, overarching ideas, and then get into the details. Fill in missing parts, elaborate on other parts—rinse and repeat until satisfied.

4. Know your audience

This is a straightforward writing tip for beginners, but a lot of people forget it. For example, your voice and elements of style for personal blogging will be much more informal than business writing (i.e writing a proposal for a new client). Being mindful of your audience is key to improving writing skills and creating more impactful work.

5. Keep a journal

Being a better writer means writing more! Keeping a journal should be a very low-pressure thing. It can be as simple as writing a list of things you did that day, playing around with word choice for a LinkedIn headline, or recounting a conversation you had with a friend.

If you don’t want to keep a physical journal, you can start a note on your phone or a document on your computer. The point is—there are no journaling rules. Just start writing whenever you feel like it, because the more you do it, the more naturally it will come to you.

6. Pen a letter instead of texting

Great writers write letters for fun and for practice. Pen a letter (or an email) to a friend who lives in another city. A hundred years ago, people wrote long letters detailing everything from the mundane to faraway travel. Why not now? It’s the perfect way to get your creative writing juices flowing, rather than relying on boring texts.

Remember to check spelling, comma use, sentence structure, typos, etc. Your friends deserve good writing too. Spell-check is a nice starting point, but writing well happens when you use a reputable grammar or punctuation checker tool like  Writer  to support you.

7. Read more to do better writing

One of the best, passive ways of becoming a better writer is to read a book (Stephen King’s work makes for great binge reading). Not into books? Long-form business writing, graphic novels, or short stories do the trick as well.

Reading every day puts you in the fast lane for improving your writing skills. As  Roz Morris , the author of the bestseller book,  Nail Your Novel , puts it: “Reading exposes us to writing that’s better than our own and helps us to improve. Reading—the good and the bad—inspires you.”

By reading more, your brain will naturally pick up on things like good word choice, different writing styles, and good sentence structures. It also improves your reading comprehension and concentration levels (which comes in handy for the procrastinators among us, including me).

8. Keep your writing simple

As the legendary American novelist, Jack Kerouac, once said, “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”

One big misconception about writing is that it should be full of beautiful prose and impressive words. Wrong! Sure, I can use the word 'floccinaucinihilipilification,' but most people will just think my cat walked across my keyboard. Click To Tweet

No matter who they are, you should empower readers with your words. Complex writing can leave readers feeling insecure, weary, or both. To simplify your writing:

  • Replace adverbs with more powerful verbs (e.g. she talked quietly > she whispered)
  • Get rid of unnecessary adjectives
  • Opt for simple word choice
  • Delete fluff (e.g. instead of saying “in order to”, say “to”)

Go ahead and make use of a thesaurus, but don’t try to be a Shakespeare or even an Ernest Hemingway—just keep it simple and true to yourself.

9. Tone up your tone in writing

Getting tone right is key to being a good writer. It’s the personality of your writing, influenced by the type of writing you’re doing and who you’re talking to.

Just like we said in “Know Your Audience,” business writing like an email might sound conservative, while a personal social media post can be friendly and casual. Your tone can and should change depending on your needs. An extreme example: don’t start a cover letter with: “Hey, dude! Wassup?”

10. Prioritize your key points

If you want to learn how to write good, sentence structure and word placement is everything. If you have a question to ask, don’t put it in the middle of a paragraph, because it could get skipped over. Similarly, if you have an important piece of information to share, make it into its own paragraph or strategically place it in the introduction or conclusion—the sections readers tend to pay attention to the most.

11. Break up your writing into bite-size bits

Long sentences that are full of fluff are boring to read! Like staring directly at the sun—you just have to look away. Instead of creating a heavy block of text, break down large sections of information into concise, punchy sentences. Bullet points in particular are an amazing tool. They help you:

  • Communicate information effectively and quickly
  • Emphasize important points that are more easily remembered
  • Provide easily digestible information to the reader

(See? They come in handy) AI writing software  like Writer can help you be a better writer by identifying paragraphs that are hard to read.

12. Use active voice

Once you’re comfortable with sentence structure, punctuation and comma use, and word choice, it’s time to look at elements of style. One core element is passive voice vs. active voice.

An active voice is key for effective writing. It makes for a much more engaging read, conveying a strong and clear tone. Whereas passive voice pulls you away from the action, which can create an apathetic experience.

Here’s an example:

  • Active voice: The thief stole one million dollars (subject + verb + object).
  • Passive voice: One million dollars was stolen by the thief (object + past participle + subject).

See how in the first sentence, the subject performs the action? This eliminates extra processing time by getting to the point faster, unlike the passive voice example which puts the subject at the end of the sentence.

13. Edit (then edit again)

Now that you’ve overcome writer’s block and have the first draft, it’s time to move on to the editing process. Chances are, you’re not a professional editor, but that doesn’t matter—you can do a great job on your own. First, don’t edit immediately after writing. You want fresh eyes on that baby. Revisit it the next day and it will be easier to look for:

  • unnecessary words (like adverbs and adjectives)
  • long sentences that can be shortened
  • passive voice use

At this phase, don’t worry about grammatical errors. Right now, you’re editing for clarity of your ideas and thoughts.

14. Proof your writing

Proofreading  is where you check spelling, punctuation (i.e. comma use), run-on sentences, typos … you get the picture. Spell-check is a good starting point, a reputable grammar checker tool like Writer gives you advanced support.

Whenever possible, ask a real human to read your writing. They’ll likely be able to point out any writing mistakes  and even offer suggestions. Over time, the lessons you learn from using these tools will help you become a great writer.

15. Reflect on your main point

We’ve made it to the very end. You’ve taken your idea and found many words to make into numerous sentences that communicate your intended message… or did you?

The last step is to always take an objective look at your writing. Pretend you’re a total stranger. Now ask yourself—does the narration make logical sense? Can you read it once and understand its message? Even better, can you sum it up in a few sentences? If so, you’ve written something you can feel good about.

8 exercises to improve writing skills

Here are fun activities you can do every day to become a better writer.

1. Write every day

This is the best writing tip for beginners. Write like it’s your job. Practicing every day is key to learning how to write good. It helps you stretch those writing muscles and learn from doing. Keeping a journal with you at all times also means you can write whenever inspiration strikes, like when you’re walking your fave four-legged friend.

Write every day, and you’ll turn it into a habit. That doesn’t mean you have to write ten thousand words every day, as the author of the children’s novel,  See You in the Cosmos , Jack Cheng says:

“When mastery is the goal, spending an exorbitant number of hours in one sitting will likely lead to burnout. We don’t go to the gym expecting to put on 20 pounds of muscle in a single, day-long workout. Instead, we do several short workouts a week, spread out over months.”

2. Turn long paragraphs into bullet points

Want to learn how to write better sentences? Sentences that are easy to read and get to the point right away? Practice the art of brevity by chopping up hard-to-read paragraphs into succinct bullets.

This is especially useful for business writing because your readers are likely short on time. They want you to get to the point fast! And they want easy to digest information.

There is a place for long sentences in your work though, especially when it comes to creative writing. Writology has a great guide on this full of ace writing tips for beginners.

3. Change passive voice into active voice

A little recap on passive and active voice: Active voice is when the sentence starts with the subject acting on the verb. Passive voice is when the subject is a recipient of the verb’s action. Active voice is more engaging because it takes less processing time from the reader, and also gives the impression that the action is happening now, not in the past.

Use an AI writing platform like Writer  to spot unengaging instances of passive voice and transform them into the active voice. This will help you draw readers in and make your writing easier to read.

4. Use grammar checker tools like Writer

Use a grammar checker like Writer helps you spot mistakes you may have missed. Mistakes such as misused commas, spelling errors, typos, incorrect use of words (we’re looking at you, thesaurus lovers), etc. Writer is also ideal for business writing. You can submit your company style guide and the app will measure your written work against it to ensure consistent and on-brand content.

5. Proof your friend’s or colleague’s writing

One effective way to improve writing skills:  Proofreading  other people’s content. You can pick up on  common grammar mistakes , different sentence structures, new words, word placement – everything that you might not learn from your own writing. It’s about getting a fresh perspective on all the different ways language is used.

Bonus: you get all the good feelings for helping someone out. And they might even return the favor one day!

6. Write fanfiction

Improve your creative writing skills by writing about stories and characters you love. Why? The more passionate you are about what you’re writing, the more fun and engaging it will be to read. Because you’ll naturally inject your love of the subject into your work. Plus, you can ensure your favorite novels or short stories live on through that amazing imagination of yours! It’s also a great place to start if your idea bank is running on empty, giving you the inspiration and direction needed to write freely.

7. Read out loud

Sometimes you can’t tell if a word or phrase doesn’t work until you read it out loud. Same with spotting mistakes. This is especially true if you’ve read your work over a hundred times (hello fellow perfectionists). Your brain will find it more and more difficult to spot mistakes – reading out loud can fix this!

When you read out loud, it requires you to slow down and focus on every single word that you’re saying, so that it can make its way from your brain to your mouth. When we proofread inwardly, we tend to rush through things and don’t actually read the text properly.

That’s because our brain already has a version of the content embedded and it wants to concentrate on the meaning rather than the words. As psychologist Tom Stafford, who studies typos at the University of Sheffield in the UK, says : “We don’t catch every detail, we’re not like computers or NSA databases Rather, we take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning.”

8. Read books on how to write better

These books on how to write better are simple, easy to read, and full of valuable info.

  • Everybody Writes by Ann Handley – for business writing, marketing, and blogging
  • On Writing  by Stephen King – for writing novels and improving your creative writing skills
  • Write Tight  by William Brohaugh – for business and creative writing, with lots of writing tips for beginners
  • The Sense of Style  by Steven Pinker – for writing novels, letters and understanding the sciences of mind when it comes to language
  • You Are a Writer  by Jeff Goins – for business writers with great writing tips for beginners
  • Nail Your Novel  by Roz Morris – for budding novelists who want to polish their first draft or write a book

That’s your next vacation reading list sorted!

Now you can write better

It’s time to unleash your amazing writing skills and creativity! Got a friend who also wants to learn how to write well? Share the tips you’ve learned today. By teaching them, you’ll embed them further into your wonderful brain.

Write with clarity and confidence when using Writer.  Sign up for your free trial .

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Developed by the University of Cambridge, Write & Improve is a free tool that helps you to improve your English writing online.

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The Write & Improve workbooks contain hundreds of writing tasks at Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels, and for Business and Just for Fun, too. Choose tasks from the Write & Improve workbooks or create your own tasks based on your interests or homework. Your work will be saved in your workbook.

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How to Improve Writing Skills: 18 Tips to Become a Better Writer

Want to become a better writer from penning emails to essays to novels, read this practical guide for more on how to improve writing skills..

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Writing involves more than just churning out random words and hoping it makes sense. Good writing is well-structured, intentional, and intricate. If you’ve been struggling with your writing and want to know how to improve writing skills, you’re in the right place.

In today’s post, we’ll be highlighting some incredible tips on how to improve your writing skills. Follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a better writer.

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1. Consistency Is Key

The best way to become a better writer is to practice your writing consistently. Write every day, and you’ll become a better writer in no time. It doesn’t matter how long your writing sessions are; what matters is that you’re writing regularly.

Start small with 500 words a day, and later bump up the word count to 1,000 or even 2,000. Learn from other blog posts and ask for feedback from your peers to gauge whether or not your writing is improving. Don’t be discouraged if they give you a low rating; it gets better with time.

2. Read Like Your Life Depends on It

Great writers are also avid readers. Reading every day will also go a long way towards improving your writing skills. It helps improve your grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. 

Reading other people’s work exposes you to different writing styles and techniques. You can learn how to use metaphors, similes, and other literary devices by reading the works of great writers.

Don’t just read any book or blog post; pick well-written and engaging ones.

Related Read : How to Improve Handwriting: 10 Great Tips to Up Your Handwriting Skills

3. Have the Basic Down Pat

No matter how advanced your writing skills are, you can’t go far if you don’t have the basics down pat. This includes proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. You need to ensure your work is free of errors before hitting the publish button.

Also, brush up on the correct use of punctuation marks. This includes commas, semicolons, apostrophes, and quotation marks. Using these incorrectly can change the meaning of your sentences, so be careful.

4. Keep It Simple

Being a good writer doesn’t mean using big words to show how smart you are. Remember, writing is more about the reader than the writer. As such, be sure to use simple words that are easy to read and understand.

You can still sound smart without using big words. Using simple words makes you sound more confident and in control of what you’re saying. So, next time you sit down to write, keep it simple.

5. Keep It Short and Sweet

Keeping your sentences and paragraphs short makes it easier for readers to consume your work. Long sentences are hard to follow. Most readers don’t have large attention spans for long sentences and paragraphs.

The best way to keep your writing concise is by using an active voice. In the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action. For instance, “John wrote a novel” is in the active voice, while “A novel was written by John” is passive.

Use simple words, short sentences, and an active voice, and your writing will be more concise.

Related Read : 10 Different Types Of Journaling & Which Writing Type is Right for You

6. Create an Outline for Your Work

Creating an outline for your work makes it coherent and well-structured. Before getting down to business, create a clear outline for your work.

Suppose you’re writing a  college essay . Try creating an outline with the introduction, points, and conclusion. Decide how many words you want each section to have, and you’ll be good to go.

7. Avoid Overexplaining Your Content

Of course, you want readers to understand your work, but don’t go overboard on the explanations. Remember, you’re not writing to third-graders. There’s no need to go into trivial details of whatever you’re working on.

Overexplaining will likely lead to long sentences and paragraphs. This means it does the opposite of what it’s supposed to do. It only makes your work hard to follow and understand.

8. Do Your Research

All forms of writing require extensive research to be good. Research is a must, regardless of whether you’re writing an article or a blog post.

Ensure you gather as much information as you can before you start writing. This will give your work more depth and make it more interesting to read. It’ll also help you avoid making mistakes.

9. Read Out Loud

Reading aloud helps ensure that your text sounds how you want it to. It also gives you a good idea of your work’s flow and also helps identify typos.

It will also help identify what areas of your work you need to improve.

Related Read : How to Write an Email to a Professor (5+ Tips for Starting, Ending & Body)

10. Remove Filler Words and Phrases

Filler words and phrases  are words and phrases that don’t add value to your content. They only take up unnecessary space and burden the reader. Ensure your work is free of filler words or phrases before submitting it.

So how can you tell whether you have filler words or phrases? Well, read your work sentence by sentence. After every sentence, ask yourself whether it adds value to the reader.

If it doesn’t, it’s a filler sentence. If it does, then let it be.

11. Join Forums and Writing Groups

Forums and writing groups are great ways to get feedback on your work and connect with other writers. Feedback will help you improve your writing skills by pointing out areas that need improvement.

It’s also a great way to learn from other writers and get different perspectives on how to approach writing. Visit some of the top  writing websites and forums  and sharpen your writing skills.

12. Use Contracted Word Forms

Using contracted forms like “can’t” instead of “cannot” and “won’t” instead of “will not” makes your writing sound sharp. Use contractions to make your work less stuffy and easier to read.

Unfortunately, it lowers the word count, but at least your writing sounds better. Use contractions appropriately and improve your writing immediately.

Related Read : How to Write an Essay: A Beginner’s Guide to Earning an A+ Essay Score

13. Sprinkle Some Personality Into It

Add a bit of personality to your writing to make it less drab and more exciting. Don’t be afraid to throw in a few funky phrases or even use a bit of slang. Of course, this only applies to informal writing.

Some good writers use anecdotes in their work to spice it up. This is a great way to show your personality and make your writing more fun.

14. Get an Editing Tool

Editing tools help you identify errors in your work to improve your writing. There are tons of editing tools available online, so find one that works for you and start using it.

Your writing will improve if you use an editing tool. Just make sure to choose a reputable one.  Try Grammarly  for starters, and explore other options as you grow your writing.

15. Don’t Overuse Adverbs

Adverbs are great for writing, but only if you use them appropriately. Writers have the habit of padding weak words with adverbs. In most cases, instead of adverbs, you can use words with the same meaning as your “adverbed” words.

For instance, you could use “hilarious” instead of “extremely funny.” You could also use “gorgeous” instead of “very beautiful.” The list is endless.

Related Reads : Learn how to write a resume , how to write a cover letter , and how to write a scholarship thank-you letter .

16. Look for a Writing Partner

A writing partner is someone with whom you can share your work and get feedback. They’ll help improve your writing skills by pointing out errors and suggesting improvements.

It’s also a great way to connect with other writers and learn from each other. If you don’t have a writing partner, look for one online or in forums and groups. You can read and rate each other’s works and motivate each other to become better writers.

17. Take a Writing Class

If you’re serious about improving your writing, you should consider taking a writing class.

A good writing class will help you understand the intricacies of writing and also give you valuable feedback. You can learn about the different writing styles and how to beat common writing challenges.

It’s a great way to improve your writing skills, so take a writing class if you have the opportunity. The best part is that taking the class doesn’t mean interfering with your daily activities. You can take night classes and spend the day at work or in school.

Apart from taking writing classes, you can also consider joining a writing program. This is a huge step in knowing how to become a better writer.

18. Avoid Excess Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases are great for adding detail to your work, but using too many of them makes your writing sound choppy. If you can say the same thing without a prepositional phrase, do so. It’ll make your writing smoother and easier to read.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid prepositional phrases altogether. Just use them sparingly and only when they’re needed. 

Related Read : How to Improve Memory: 25 Steps to Take to Remember Things Better

Final Words on Improving Skills in Writing

Now that you know how to improve writing skills, our work here is done. Knowing how to write better is improving a lifelong skill that’ll help you move mountains. Practice every day and become the pro writer you’ve always wanted to be.

A blog post showing you how to be a better writer is just the tip of the iceberg. Check out our blog’s  self-improvement section  and learn about how you can become a better version of yourself. Oh, and bonus tip for future bestselling writers: consider contributing to the Goodwall Blog to start getting your name out there!

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Writers.com

The best writing exercises bring out our latent creativity. Especially if you ever feel stuck or blocked, making creative writing exercises part of your daily writing practice can be a great way to both hone your skills and explore new frontiers in your writing. Whether you’re a poet, essayist, storyteller, or genre-bending author, these free writing exercises will jumpstart your creative juices and improve your writing abilities.

24 of the Best Free Writing Exercises to Try Out Today

The best creative writing exercises will push you out of your comfort zone and get you to experiment with words. Language is your sandbox, so let’s build some sand castles with these exercises and writing prompts.

Write With Limitations

The English language is huge, complicated, and — quite frankly — chaotic. Writing with self-imposed limitations can help you create novel and inventive pieces.

What does “limitations” mean in this context? Basically, force yourself not to use certain words, descriptions, or figures of speech. Some writing exercises using limitations include the following:

  • Write without using adverbs or adjectives.
  • Write without using the passive voice – no “being verbs” whatsoever. (Also called “E-Prime” writing.)
  • Write a story without using a common letter –  just like Ernest Vincent Wright did .
  • Write a poem where each line has six words.
  • Write without using any pronouns.

Among exercises to improve writing skills, writing with limitations has the clearest benefits. This practice challenges your brain to think about language productively. Additionally, these limitations force you to use unconventional language – which, in turn, makes you write with lucidity, avidity, and invention.

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Writing the Memoir-in-Essays

Writing the Memoir-in-Essays

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February 22nd, 2024

Learn how to tell your story through the memoir-in-essays, a form that allows writers to interweave the facts of their lives in interesting and evocative ways.

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Death Riding Shotgun: How Awareness of Our Mortality Impacts Poetry

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Freewriting & Stream of Consciousness

What do you do when the words just don’t come out? How can you write better if you can’t seem to write at all? One of the best poetry exercises, as well as writing exercises in general, is to start your day by freewriting.

Freewriting, also known as “stream of consciousness writing,” involves writing your thoughts down the moment they come. There’s no filtering what you write, and no controlling what you think: topicality, style, and continuity are wholly unnecessary in the freewriting process. While the idea of freewriting seems easy, it’s much harder than you think – examining your thoughts without controlling them takes a while to master, and the impulse to control what you write isn’t easy to tame. Try these exercises to master the skill:

  • Do a timed freewrite. Start with five minutes.
  • Freewrite until you fill up the entirety of something – an envelope, a receipt, a postcard, etc.
  • Freewrite after meditating.
  • Freewrite off of the first word of today’s newspaper.

Among daily writing exercises, freewriting is one of the best writing exercises. Poets can use freewritten material as inspiration for their poetry. Prose writers can also find inspiration for future stories from the depths of their consciousnesses. Start your writing day with freewriting, and watch your creativity blossom.

Copy What You Read

Plagiarism is still off the table; however, you can learn a lot by paying attention to how other people write. This is what we call “reading like a writer.”

Reading like a writer means paying attention to the craft elements that make an excellent piece of literature work. Good writing requires different writing styles, figurative language, story structures, and/or poetry forms, as well as key word choice.

When you notice these craft elements, you can go ahead and emulate them in your own work. As a fiction writer , you might be drawn to the way Haruki Murakami weaves folklore into his stories, and decide to write a story like that yourself. Or, as a poet, you might be inspired by Terrance Hayes’ Golden Shovel form — enough so that you write a Golden Shovel yourself.

  • Read a favorite poem, and write your own poem in the same poetic form.
  • Blackout poetry: take another poem, cross out words you don’t want to use, circle words you do, and write a poem based on the circled words.
  • Copy a single sentence from a favorite novel, and write a short-short story with it.

Among free writing exercises, this is a great way to learn from the best. The best kinds of exercises to improve writing skills involve building upon the current canon of works — as Isaac Newton said, you achieve something great by “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Write From Different Perspectives

The conventional advice given to writers is to “write what you know.” We couldn’t disagree with that statement more. The best creative works force both the writer and the reader to consider new perspectives and learn something new; writing from a new point-of-view makes for a great exercise in expanding your creative limits.

Try these ideas as daily writing exercises:

  • Write a story with the same plot, but with two or more perspectives. For example, you could write a lover’s quarrel from two different view points.
  • Write from the point-of-view of a famous historical figure.
  • Write a story or poem from the perspective of an object: a statue, a doll, a roomba, etc.
  • Write from the perspective of a person you dislike.

While playing with perspective makes for a great fiction writing exercise , poets and essayists can do this too. Patricia Smith’s poem “Skinhead,” for example, is a persona piece written from the perspective of a white nationalist, but the poem clearly condemns the speaker’s beliefs.

Thus, perspective writing also works as a poetry exercise and an essay writing practice exercise . If you’re stuck in your own head, try writing in someone else’s!

Write Metaphor Lists

All creative writers need figurative language. While metaphors, similes, and synecdoches are more prominent in poetry , prose writers need the power of metaphor to truly engross their reader. Among both exercises to improve writing skills and fun writing exercises for adults, writing metaphor lists is one of the best writing exercises out there.

A metaphor list is simple. On a notebook, create two columns. In one column, write down only concrete nouns. Things like a pillow, a tree, a cat, a cloud, and anything that can be perceived with one of the five senses.

In the other list, write down only abstract ideas. Things like love, hate, war, peace, justice, closure, and reconciliation — anything that is conceptual and cannot be directly perceived.

Now, choose a random noun and a random concept, and create a metaphor or simile with them. Delve into the metaphor and explain the comparison. For example, you might say “Love is like a pillow — it can comfort, or it can smother.”

Once you’ve mastered the metaphor list, you can try the following ideas to challenge yourself:

  • Create a coherent poem out of your metaphor list.
  • Turn your metaphor list into a short story.
  • Try making lists with a different figurative language device, such as personification, pathetic fallacy, or metonymy.

Any free creative writing exercise that focuses on figurative language can aid your writing immensely, as it helps writers add insight and emotionality to their work. This is an especially great creative writing exercise for beginners as they learn the elements of style and language.

Daily Journaling

Of course, the best way to improve your creative writing skills is simply to write every day. Keeping a daily journal is a great way to exercise your writing mind. By sitting down with your personal observations and writing without an agenda or audience, a daily writing practice  remains one of the best writing exercises , regardless of your genre or level of expertise.

Consider these ideas for your daily journal:

  • Track your mood and emotions throughout the day. Write those emotions in metaphor — avoid commonplace adjectives and nouns.
  • Write about your day from the second- or third-person.
  • Journal your day in verse. Use stanzas, line breaks, and figurative language.
  • Write about your day backwards.
  • Write about your day using Freytag’s pyramid . Build up to a meaningful climax, even if nothing significant seemed to happen today.

Writing Exercises: Have Fun with Them!

Many of these writing exercises might feel challenging at first—and that’s a good thing! You will unlock new ideas and writing strengths by struggling through these creative challenges. The main point is to have fun with them and use them to explore within your writing, without indulging too many monologues from your inner critic.

Are you looking for more exercises to improve your writing skills? Our instructors can offer prompts, illuminating lectures, one-to-one feedback, and more to help you improve your craft. Check out our upcoming creative writing courses , and let’s put these skills to practice.

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Sean Glatch

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Thank you for this. I’ve been stuck for months—more than that, actually, and you’d think that a pandemic stay-at-home would be the perfect time to do some writing. But no. I’m as stuck as ever. In fact, the only time I seem able to write consistently and well is when I’m taking one of your classes! I’m still saving my pennies, but these exercises will hopefully get me writing in the meantime. Thanks again!

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Hi Kathy, I’m glad to hear some of these tips might spark your creativity 🙂 I feel the same way, I was hoping the stay-at-home order might spark some creativity, but we shouldn’t push ourselves too hard – especially in the midst of a crisis.

The best part about writing: all you have to do is try, and you’ve already succeeded. Good luck on your writing endeavors!

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Bravo….!What a great piece! Honestly I learnt a lot here!

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I picked interest in poetry just a week ago after reading a beautiful piece which captivated my mind into the world of writing. I’d love to write great poems but I don’t know anything about poetry, I need a coach, a motivator and an inspiration to be able to do this. This piece really helped me but I will appreciate some more tips and help from you or anyone else willing to help, I am really fervid about this.

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for your comment! I’m so excited for you to start your journey with poetry. We have more advice for poetry writing at the articles under this link: https://writers.com/category/poetry

Additionally, you might be interested in two of our upcoming poetry courses: Poetry Workshop and How to Craft a Poem .

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected] . Many thanks, and happy writing!

[…] 24 Best Writing Exercises to Become a Better Writer | writers.com  […]

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Hi, kinsey there. Thanks for giving information. it is a very informative blog and i appreciate your effort to write a blog I am also a writer and i like these type of blogs everyone takes more knowledge to check out my essay writing website

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As a writer, I often struggle to break free from the chains of writer’s block, but this blog has gifted me with a map of inspiration to navigate through those creative storms. It’s like being handed a box of enchanted writing exercises

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Writing

Here you can find activities to practise your writing skills. You can improve your writing by understanding model texts and how they're structured.

The self-study lessons in this section are written and organised by English level based on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR). There are different types of model texts, with writing tips and interactive exercises that practise the writing skills you need to do well in your studies, to get ahead at work and to communicate in English in your free time.

Take our free online English test to find out which level to choose. Select your level, from A1 English level (elementary) to C1 English level (advanced), and improve your writing skills at your own speed, whenever it's convenient for you.

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The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips

Published on April 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 8, 2023.

The writing process steps

Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.

The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.

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Table of contents

Step 1: prewriting, step 2: planning and outlining, step 3: writing a first draft, step 4: redrafting and revising, step 5: editing and proofreading, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the writing process.

Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write about and do the necessary research.

Coming up with a topic

If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of what you’ve covered in class— is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can explore in your writing.

The scope depends on what type of text you’re writing—for example, an essay or a research paper will be less in-depth than a dissertation topic . Don’t pick anything too ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to say.

Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question. For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:

Doing the research

Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:

  • Searching for primary and secondary sources .
  • Reading the relevant texts closely (e.g. for literary analysis ).
  • Collecting data using relevant research methods (e.g. experiments , interviews or surveys )

From a writing perspective, the important thing is to take plenty of notes while you do the research. Keep track of the titles, authors, publication dates, and relevant quotations from your sources; the data you gathered; and your initial analysis or interpretation of the questions you’re addressing.

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Especially in academic writing , it’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively. It’s far better to plan this out in advance than to try to work out your structure once you’ve already begun writing.

Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.

Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance. Even for a short text that won’t use headings, it’s useful to summarize what you’ll discuss in each paragraph.

An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:

  • Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
  • Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
  • Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
  • Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
  • Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
  • Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
  • Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
  • Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
  • Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
  • Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
  • Answer the research question
  • Indicate areas for further study

Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft.

This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.

To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework. Make sure that each paragraph has a clear central focus that relates to your overall argument.

Hover over the parts of the example, from a literary analysis essay on Mansfield Park , to see how a paragraph is constructed.

The character of Mrs. Norris provides another example of the performance of morals in Mansfield Park . Early in the novel, she is described in scathing terms as one who knows “how to dictate liberality to others: but her love of money was equal to her love of directing” (p. 7). This hypocrisy does not interfere with her self-conceit as “the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world” (p. 7). Mrs. Norris is strongly concerned with appearing charitable, but unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to accomplish this. Instead, she stage-manages the charitable actions of others, never acknowledging that her schemes do not put her own time or money on the line. In this way, Austen again shows us a character whose morally upright behavior is fundamentally a performance—for whom the goal of doing good is less important than the goal of seeming good.

When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas.

The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a clearer idea of where improvement is needed.

Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual chapters.

Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.

Evaluating the first draft

It can be difficult to look objectively at your own writing. Your perspective might be positively or negatively biased—especially if you try to assess your work shortly after finishing it.

It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes; you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something you end up cutting out anyway.

Right now, you’re looking for:

  • Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
  • Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
  • Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
  • Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.

For example, in our paper on Mansfield Park , we might realize the argument would be stronger with more direct consideration of the protagonist Fanny Price, and decide to try to find space for this in paragraph IV.

For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need improvement.

Redrafting and revising

Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what your text needs, this step might involve:

  • Making changes to your overall argument.
  • Reordering the text.
  • Cutting parts of the text.
  • Adding new text.

You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.

Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most important changes.

Editing focuses on local concerns like clarity and sentence structure. Proofreading involves reading the text closely to remove typos and ensure stylistic consistency. You can check all your drafts and texts in minutes with an AI proofreader .

Editing for grammar and clarity

When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:

  • Grammatical errors.
  • Ambiguous phrasings.
  • Redundancy and repetition .

In your initial draft, it’s common to end up with a lot of sentences that are poorly formulated. Look critically at where your meaning could be conveyed in a more effective way or in fewer words, and watch out for common sentence structure mistakes like run-on sentences and sentence fragments:

  • Austen’s style is frequently humorous, her characters are often described as “witty.” Although this is less true of Mansfield Park .
  • Austen’s style is frequently humorous. Her characters are often described as “witty,” although this is less true of Mansfield Park .

To make your sentences run smoothly, you can always use a paraphrasing tool to rewrite them in a clearer way.

Proofreading for small mistakes and typos

When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text:

  • Spelling errors.
  • Missing words.
  • Confused word choices .
  • Punctuation errors .
  • Missing or excess spaces.

Use a grammar checker , but be sure to do another manual check after. Read through your text line by line, watching out for problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might have missed.

For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:

  • Mary Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
  • Mary Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.

Proofreading for stylistic consistency

There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose between multiple different standards. For example:

  • Whether you use the serial comma .
  • Whether you use American or British spellings and punctuation (you can use a punctuation checker for this).
  • Where you use numerals vs. words for numbers.
  • How you capitalize your titles and headings.

Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British spellings in your paper.

Additionally, you will probably be provided with specific guidelines for issues related to format (how your text is presented on the page) and citations (how you acknowledge your sources). Always follow these instructions carefully.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

  • Ad hominem fallacy
  • Post hoc fallacy
  • Appeal to authority fallacy
  • False cause fallacy
  • Sunk cost fallacy
  • Deep learning
  • Generative AI
  • Machine learning
  • Reinforcement learning
  • Supervised vs. unsupervised learning

 (AI) Tools

  • Grammar Checker
  • Paraphrasing Tool
  • Text Summarizer
  • AI Detector
  • Plagiarism Checker
  • Citation Generator

Revising, proofreading, and editing are different stages of the writing process .

  • Revising is making structural and logical changes to your text—reformulating arguments and reordering information.
  • Editing refers to making more local changes to things like sentence structure and phrasing to make sure your meaning is conveyed clearly and concisely.
  • Proofreading involves looking at the text closely, line by line, to spot any typos and issues with consistency and correct them.

Whether you’re publishing a blog, submitting a research paper , or even just writing an important email, there are a few techniques you can use to make sure it’s error-free:

  • Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
  • Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
  • Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between US and UK English , or inconsistently capitalizing a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a professional proofreading service instead.

If you’ve gone over the word limit set for your assignment, shorten your sentences and cut repetition and redundancy during the editing process. If you use a lot of long quotes , consider shortening them to just the essentials.

If you need to remove a lot of words, you may have to cut certain passages. Remember that everything in the text should be there to support your argument; look for any information that’s not essential to your point and remove it.

To make this process easier and faster, you can use a paraphrasing tool . With this tool, you can rewrite your text to make it simpler and shorter. If that’s not enough, you can copy-paste your paraphrased text into the summarizer . This tool will distill your text to its core message.

Cite this Scribbr article

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Caulfield, J. (2023, December 08). The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/writing-process/

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The Write Practice

100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises

by Joe Bunting | 50 comments

Want to become a better writer? Perhaps you want to write novels, or maybe you just want to get better grades in your essay writing assignments , or maybe you'd like to start a popular blog .

If you want to write better, you need practice. But what does a writing practice actually look like? In this post, I'm going to give you everything you need to kick off your writing practice and become a better writer faster.

100 Top Writing Practice Lessons and Exercises

What Is Writing Practice?

Writing practice is a method of becoming a better writer that usually involves reading lessons about the writing process, using writing prompts, doing creative writing exercises , or finishing writing pieces, like essays, short stories , novels , or books . The best writing practice is deliberate, timed, and involves feedback.

How Do You Practice Writing?

This was the question I had when I first started The Write Practice in 2011. I knew how to practice a sport and how to practice playing an instrument. But for some reason, even after studying it in college, I wasn't sure how to practice writing.

I set out to create the best writing practice I could. The Write Practice is the result.

I found that the best writing practice has three aspects:

Deliberate . Writing whatever you feel like may be cathartic, but it's not an effective way to become a better writer or build your writing skills. You'll get better faster by practicing a specific technique or aspect of the writing process each time you sit down to write.

This is why we have a new lesson about the writing process each day on The Write Practice, followed by a practice prompt at the end so you can put what you learned to use immediately.

Timed . It's no secret writers struggle with focus. There are just too many interesting distractions—Facebook, email, Kim Kardashian's Instagram feed (just kidding about that last one, sort of)—and writing is just too hard sometimes.

Setting a timer, even for just fifteen minutes, is an easy and effective way to stay focused on what's important.

This is why in our writing practice prompt at the end of each post we have a time limit, usually with a link to an online tool egg timer , so you can focus on deliberate practice without getting distracted.

Feedback . Getting feedback is one of the requirements to deliberately practice writing or any other craft. Feedback can look like listening to the reactions of your readers or asking for constructive criticism from editors and other writers.

This is why we ask you to post your writing practice after each lesson, so that you can get feedback from other writers in The Write Practice community. It's also why we set up The Write Practice Pro community , to provide critique groups for writers to get feedback on each finished piece of writing.

How to practice writing

Our 100+ Best Creative Writing Practice Exercises and Lessons

Now that you know how we practice writing at The Write Practice, here are our best writing practice lessons to jumpstart your writing skills with some daily writing exercises, for beginner writers to even the most expert writers:

All-Time, Top 10 Writing Lessons and Exercises

These ten posts are our most viewed articles to boost your writing practice:

1. What is Plot? The 6 Elements of Plot and How to Use Them . Great stories use similar elements in wildly different ways to build page-turning stories. Click here to read what they are and learn how to start using them !

2. Top 100 Short Story Ideas . Here are over a hundred writing prompts in a variety of genres. If you need ideas for your next story, check this out!

3. How To Use Neither, Nor, Or, and Nor Correctly . Even good writers struggle figuring out when to use neither/nor and either/or. In this post, our copy-queen Liz Bureman settles the confusion once and for all. Click to continue to the writing exercise

4. Ten Secrets To Write Better Stories . How does Pixar manage to create such great stories, year after year? And how do you write a good story? In this post, I distill everything I've learned about how to write a good story into ten tips. Click to continue to the writing exercise

5. 35 Questions To Ask Your Characters From Marcel Proust . To get to know my characters better, I use a list of questions known as the Proust Questionnaire, made famous by French author, Marcel Proust. Click to continue to the writing exercise

6. How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life . Creating a scene list changed my novel-writing life, and doing the same will change yours too. Includes examples of the scene lists from famous authors. Click to continue to the writing exercise

7. Why You Need to be Using the Oxford Comma . Most people I've met have no idea what the Oxford comma is, but it's probably something that you have used frequently in your writing. Click to continue to the writing exercise

8. Six Surprising Ways to Write Better Interview Questions.  The interview is the most-used tool in a journalist's bag. But that doesn't mean novelists, bloggers, and even students can't and don't interview people. Here's how to conduct a great interview. Click to continue to the writing exercise

9. Why You Should Try Writing in Second Person . You've probably used first person and third person point-of-view already. But what about second person? This post explains three reasons why you should try writing from this point-of-view. Click to continue to the writing exercise

10. The Secret to Show, Don't Tell . You've heard the classic writing rule, “Show. Don't Tell.” Every writing blog ever has talked about it, and for good reason. Showing, for some reason, is really difficult. Click to continue to the writing exercise.

Book Idea Worksheet

12 Exercises and Lessons To Become a Better Writer

How do you become a better writer? These posts share our best advice:

  • Want to Be a Better Writer? Cut These 7 Words
  • What I Mean When I Say I Am A Writer
  • How to Become a Writer: 3 Simple Steps
  • 72% of Writers Struggle With THIS
  • 7 Lies About Becoming a Writer That You Probably Believe
  • 10 Questions to Find Your Unique Writing Voice
  • The Best Writing Book I’ve Ever Read
  • The Best Way to Become a Better Writer
  • The Creative Writer’s Toolkit: 6 Tools You Can’t Write Without
  • Should You Write More or Write Better: Quantity vs Quality
  • How to Become a Better Writer in One, Simple Step
  • 11 Writing Tips That Will Change Your Life

6 Lessons and Exercises from Great Writers

If you want to be a writer, learn from the great writers who have gone before you:

  • 23 Essential Quotes from Ernest Hemingway About Writing
  • 29 Quotes that Explain How to Become a Better Writer
  • 10 Lessons Dr. Seuss Can Teach Writers
  • 10 Writing Tips from Ursula Le Guin
  • Once Upon a Time: Pixar Prompt
  • All the Pretty Words: Writing In the Style of Cormac McCarthy

12 Genre and Format Specific Writing Lessons and Exercises

Here are our best writing lessons for specific types of writing, including essays, screenplays, memoir, short stories, children's books, and humor writing:

  • Writing an Essay? Here Are 10 Effective Tips
  • How To Write a Screenplay: The 5 Step Process
  • How to Write a Great Memoir: a Complete Guide
  • How to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish
  • How to Write a Thriller Novel
  • How to Write a Children's Book
  • How to Write a Love Story
  • How to Write a Coming of Age Story or Book
  • How to Write an Adventure Book
  • 5 Key Elements for Successful Short Stories
  • 4 Tips to Write a Novel That Will Be Adapted Into a Movie
  • Humor Writing for People Who Aren’t Funny

14 Characterization Lessons and Exercises

Good characters are the foundation of good fiction. Here are our best lessons to create better characters:

  • Character Development: How to Create Characters Audiences Will Love
  • Writing Villains: 9 Evil Examples of the Villain Archetype
  • How NOT to Introduce a New Character
  • The Strongest Form of Characterization
  • The Most Important Character Archetype
  • How Do You Build A Strong Character In Your Writing?
  • 75+ Antihero Examples and How to Use Them
  • How to Explore Your Characters’ Motivations
  • 8 Tips for Naming Characters
  • The Protagonist: How to Center Your Story
  • Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes: Which Is Right For Your Story?
  • The Weakest Form of Characterization
  • How to Write With an Accent
  • How To Create a Character Sketch Using Scrivener

15 Grammar Lessons and Exercises

I talk to so many writers, some of whom are published authors, who struggle with grammar. Here are our best writing lessons on grammar:

  • Is It Okay To End A Sentence With A Preposition?
  • Contractions List: When To Use and When To Avoid
  • Good vs. Well
  • Connotation vs. Denotation
  • Per Se vs. Per Say
  • When You SHOULD Use Passive Voice
  • When Do You Use “Quotation Marks”
  • Polysyndeton and Asyndeton: Definition and Examples
  • The Case Against Twilight
  • Affect Versus Effect
  • Stop Saying “Literally”
  • What Is a Comma Splice? And Why Do Editors Hate Them?
  • Intra vs. Inter: Why No One Plays Intermural Sports
  • Alright and Alot: Words That Are Not Words
  • The Poor, Misunderstood Semicolon

4 Journalism Lessons and Exercises

Want to be a journalist? Or even use techniques from journalism to improve your novel, essay, or screenplay? Here are our best writing lessons on journalism:

  • Six Ways to Ask Better Questions In Interviews
  • How Should You Interview Someone? Over Email? In Person?
  • What If They Don’t Want to Talk to You?
  • Eleven Habits of a Highly Effective Interviewers

16 Plot and Structure Lessons and Exercises

Want to write a good story? Our top plot and structure lessons will help:

  • The Ten Types of Story and How to Master Them
  • Points of a Story: 6 Plot Points Every Story Needs
  • How to Shape a Story: The 6 Arcs
  • 7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel
  • The Secret to Creating Conflict
  • 4 Tips to Avoid Having Your Short Story Rejected by a Literary Magazine
  • 7 Steps to Creating Suspense
  • 5 Elements of Storytelling
  • 3 Important Rules for Writing Endings
  • A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure
  • Overcoming the Monster
  • How to Satisfy Your Reader With a Great Ending
  • Pow! Boom! Ka-Pow! 5 Tips to Write Fight Scenes
  • The Dramatic Question and Suspense in Fiction
  • How to Write a Memorable Beginning and Ending
  • How to Write the Perfect First Page

6 Lessons and Exercises to Beat Writer's Block

Writer's block is real, and it can completely derail your writing. Here are six lessons to get writing again:

  • How To Write Whether You Feel Like it Or Not
  • This Fun Creative Writing Exercise Will Change Your Life
  • When You Should Be Writing But Can't…
  • What to do When Your Word Count is Too Low
  • 7 Tricks to Write More with Less Willpower
  • When You Don’t Know What to Write, Write About Your Insecurities

7 Literary Technique Lessons and Exercises

These writing and storytelling techniques will teach you a few tricks of the trade you may not have discovered before:

  • 3 Tips to “Show, Don’t Tell” Emotions and Moods
  • 3 Reasons to Write Stream of Consciousness Narrative
  • 16 Observations About Real Dialogue
  • Intertextuality As A Literary Device
  • Why You Should Use Symbolism In Your Writing
  • 6 Ways to Evoke Emotion in Poetry and Prose
  • 3 Tips To Write Modern Allegorical Novels
  • Symbol vs. Motif: What’s the Difference

3 Inspirational Writing Lessons and Exercises

Need some inspiration? Here are three of our most inspiring posts:

  • Why We Write: Four Reasons
  • You Must Remember Every Scar
  • 17 Reasons to Write Something NOW

3 Publishing Blogging Lessons and Exercises

If you want to get published, these three lessons will help:

  • The Secret to Writing On Your Blog Every Day
  • How to Publish Your Book and Sell Your First 1,000 Copies
  • How to Get Published in Literary Magazines

11 Writing Prompts

Need inspiration or just a kick in the pants to write. Try one of our top writing prompts :

  • Grandfathers [writing prompt]
  • Out of Place [writing prompt]
  • Sleepless [writing prompt]
  • Longing [writing prompt]
  • Write About Yourself [writing prompt]
  • 3 Reasons You Should Write Ghost Stories
  • Road Trip [writing prompt]
  • Morning [writing prompt]
  • The Beach [writing prompt]
  • Fall [writing prompt]
  • How to Use Six-Word Stories As Writing Prompts

Is It Time To Begin Your Writing Practice?

It's clear that if you want to become a writer, you need to practice writing. We've created a proven process to practice your writing at The Write Practice, but even if you don't join our community, I hope you'll start practicing in some way today.

Personally, I waited  far  too long to start practicing and it set my writing back years.

How about you? Do you think practicing writing is important?  Let me know in the comments section .

Choose one of the writing practice posts above. Then, read the lesson and participate in the writing exercise, posting your work in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you post, please give feedback to your fellow writers who also posted their practices.

Have fun and happy practicing!

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Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

How to Write a Memoir: How to Start (and Actually Finish) Your First Draft

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Write Better Sentences: 9 Tips That Pro-Writers Swear By

Write Better Sentences: 9 Tips That Pro-Writers Swear By

Table of contents

for writing improve

Writing well is a challenge.

Terrible sentences suffer from a lack of structure, clarity, and cohesion. 

On the other hand, some sentences suffer from too many words without substantial content. 

As a writer, you must ensure you’re clear on your message. The goal is to get your point across without rambling and losing the reader.

Write better sentences

This is why the words you choose and how you structure them is important. Each sentence plays a specific role so if you learn how to string them together correctly, you can write better sentences.

But that requires knowledge of grammar, sentence structure, and narrative-building.

In this guide, we’ll take you through the art of writing better sentences—and common pitfalls that prevent you from creating a solid sentence.

Let AI suggest better sentences > Let AI suggest better sentences >

better sentences

Why writing better sentences is important

No profession is free from the expectation of good writing. If nothing else, you’ll still be writing emails, Slack messages, and progress reports.

If you cannot communicate your ideas, how else will you be heard or collaborate with others?

And to be good at writing, you need to write better sentences. 

Sentences form the basic unit of a piece. While some say writing them is like writing music, others say it’s like doing math. A recent study by scientists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Poland found that sentences resemble fractals —a mathematical structure. Fractals are objects that, when expanded, have a structure resembling the whole.

So, when you build your sentences, keep the entire argument in mind. You need to know what the end goal is. If you don’t, it becomes hard to envision your piece’s direction, leading to unnecessary tangents.

Good writing is not only about writing a grammatically correct sentence or content. It hones in on the following: 

  • How do you communicate something
  • How do you choose the right words
  • How do you incorporate a specific style and flow

For example, you’ve bought a DIY bookshelf from Ikea that you now need to assemble. No matter how often you follow the instructions, you still end up with a half-built shelf that doesn’t look like the picture on the box.

This is what bad writing looks like.

The idea is there.

The words are there.

The visual imagery is there.

But the right structure isn’t.

The goal is to ensure that the reader comprehends what you’re saying—and can absorb that information. To ensure that, structuring your sentences the right way is crucial.

Here’s another way to look at it:

Since writing is integral to every job, you’d have a competitive advantage if you excelled at it. 

Think we’re being dramatic?

Here’s data that says otherwise:

  • The first point of contact for most job applications is a cover letter (even the resume comes second).
  • According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 73.4% of employers want a candidate with strong written communication skills.
  • Content ranks No.1 for jobs with the highest salary increases post-pandemic. 

So, investing the time to learn how to write better sentences could help you communicate well—and excel at whatever you’re doing.

What makes a sentence good?

A good sentence expresses a complete thought. Grammar rules say, “A good sentence contains a subject and a verb and forms an independent clause.” But there’s more to it.

"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: 1. Could I put it more shortly? 2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?” – Politics and the English Language (Essay), George Orwell

Half your work is done when you know what you want to say and how you want to say it. It’s more about saying the right thing with as few words as possible.

But this is easier said than done. Here are a few mistakes that hold you back from writing solid sentences.

Fix errors that weaken your sentence structure and make your sentence sound better

1. use of run-on sentences..

Run-on sentences occur when two complete sentences are joined incorrectly, i.e., without proper punctuation or conjunction. 

While they’re usually identified only when the sentences are too long, they don’t necessarily have to be for them to be considered incorrect.

Example: “ Yesterday was a great day my parents and I went out for dinner, ice cream.”

Why it’s wrong: The sentence combines two independent clauses (sentences) and doesn’t include punctuation or conjunction.

Corrected sentence: “Yesterday was a great day! My parents and I went for dinner and ice cream.”

2. Lack of subject-verb agreement.

If the subject of your sentence is singular, your verb should be singular too. If the subject is plural, your verb should be plural too. 

A common mistake writers make is describing singular words with plural verbs and vice versa.

Example: “ The list of ideas were at the top of my head.”

Why it’s wrong: As the subject is singular (list), the verb needs to be singular too (was).

Corrected sentence: “The list of ideas was at the top of my head.”

3. Use of unintentional sentence fragments.

When sentences miss a subject, verb, or complete thought, they’re called sentence fragments. 

This is a usual mistake because it’s typical to use them in a conversation—where the context is clear.

Example: “ She went to see the new museum. Even though she had a stomach ache.”

‍ Why it’s wrong: The second sentence doesn’t have a subject, and it’s unclear who the subject is and what they’re doing even though they had a stomach ache.

Corrected sentence: “She went to see the new museum even though she had a stomach ache.”

Pro tip: Pop this sentence into Wordtune and get it instantly corrected into a complete sentence (It'll also make it better):

Make your sentence sound better

4. Use of overloaded sentences.

A sentence cramming in too much information becomes difficult to follow—losing its clarity. Usually, you can split these sentences into multiple sentences to rectify the issue.

Example: “ Writers need to invest time learning the basics of language structure and grammar in order to ensure that they can create pieces that communicate an idea effectively but also ensure that the reader is able to walk away with strong takeaways from said pieces without the need for further clarification.”

Why it’s wrong: The sentence has 50 words which is way more than the recommended length of 20 words. It’s slightly difficult to follow because it communicates more than one idea—a need to learn the basics of writing and how it can help them.

Corrected sentence: “Writers need to invest time in learning the basics of language structure and grammar. It’ll help them create pieces that communicate ideas effectively and ensure that they’re also clear to their readers.”

Pro tip: Again, Wordtune can help you find and filter-out all those unnecessary keywords using the shorten feature. In the example below, the tool reduced the length of the sentence from 50 words to 33 words, all with a click of a button.

Find a better sentence alternative

5. Use of faulty parallelisms.

When you use the same grammatical form in two or more parts of the sentence, it’s called parallelism. The idea is to use the same structure to maintain consistency in the sentence.

Example: “ Every day, I spend two hours exercising and to meditate to help me relax.”

Why it’s wrong: The sentence uses two different structures (-ing and root form of the verb).

Corrected sentence:  

  • “Every day, I spend two hours exercising and meditating to help me relax.”
  • “Every day, I exercise and meditate for two hours to feel relax.”

The elements of a good sentence

According to Grammar rules, all of these are good sentences:

“Hydrophobic plants hate water.”

“The meeting starts at 9 am.”

“My grandmother is sick.”

This is the very basic definition. All these sentences contain a subject, a verb, and an independent clause. But is it enough? 

An actual good sentence has two more criteria :

  • It leads your narrative forward.
  • It is clear and concise . 

These two criteria, however, are harder to measure than checking for subjects and verbs. 

But you can learn to implement these, and we’re here to teach you. 

So let’s dig in. 

1. Drive your narrative forward

“Every short story must have a single mood, and every sentence must build towards it.” – Edgar Allen Poe

This is true for ALL narratives and, by extension, all sentences. 

Each section in your blog or each chapter in your book should have one mood, and every sentence should build towards it. 

But what keeps sentences from building a narrative?

Filler content.

Repetition. 

2. Trim the fat in your writing

This is what fluff looks like:

“When you write sentences that are long, drawn-out, and convoluted—only to get a simple point across—your readers will get frustrated and leave.”

See what I did there?

Here’s the alternative: “Unnecessarily long sentences frustrate and distance your readers.”

So, how do you get rid of fluff?

Step 1: Identify all the words that mean the same thing. 

For example, in the above sentence: 

‘Long, drawn-out, and ‘convoluted’ all mean the same thing.

Step 2: Pick the simplest word from the list.

In this case, “long.”

Step 3: See if you can find one word that condenses multiple words or ideas.

For example, the thought that something does XYZ “only to get a simple point across” conveys that the process is not required. 

One word: Unnecessary. 

Let’s look at this with another example: 

Fluffy example: “Creating content can be a laborious task with a thousand moving parts that don’t really belong there.”

Fluff-free example: Crating content can be cumbersome. 

“Laborious,” “a thousand moving parts,” and “[parts] that don’t really belong there” convey the same idea: cumbersomeness. 

After you’ve removed fluff and filler in your sentences, you need to vary sentence length to create a natural rhythm. 

3. Captivate your reader with a rhythm

Short sentences add spunk. Long sentences add value, examples, and context—even if they drag on sometimes. Use both, but strategically. 

Here’s an example:

“Music can delight. It has the power to transport you to a different world. But sometimes, when all is dark, and it’s quiet outside, I see this world through music—and it looks completely different. That’s what makes it great.” 

Alternating sentence length adds a lyrical quality to your writing and helps you keep the reader engrossed in your piece.

4. Evoke emotions with mental imagery

Your sentences need to drive the narrative forward. But that can only happen when you mix facts and emotions to create a powerful one that sticks with your reader.

In addition, the sentence needs to be informative enough to convey everything the reader needs to know.

“The loud barks of the rabid dogs sent a chill down the young man’s spine, freezing him on the spot.”

5. Clarity and Brevity

Clarity of thoughts comes through clarity of ideas. 

Whenever you’re writing about a subject, ensure that you spend at least twice the time researching it. It helps you form stronger ideas, back up opinions, and talk knowledgeably about a subject. 

Free AI Sentence Rewriter > Free AI Sentence Rewriter >

How to write better sentences

How to write better sentences

1. use relevant examples..

Examples make things crystal clear for your reader. It removes any ambiguity in their minds and helps you paint a vivid picture in their mind—without using visual imagery.

While examples are great, you know what’s even better? Definitions with examples. 

Here’s what this looks like in action:

Definition : “Low color contrast can make data visuals hard to understand.”

Definition with an example: “Low color contrast — like similar shades of blue paired together — can make data visuals hard to read.”

Here’s another example: 

Definition : “Intelligent workers get infuriated by mindless chores.”

Definition with an example: “ Intelligent workers get infuriated by mindless chores like updating calendars, sending check-ins, and scheduling emails.”

2. Avoid modifiers. 

Modifiers add a sliding scale to your claims.

Let’s say one of your children, Claire or Stella has lost the car keys. And your Husband says, “It can’t be Stella; she’s not irresponsible.”

This statement sounds more trustworthy than if he had said, “It can be Stella; she’s not very irresponsible.”

The second sentence induces the subconscious thought, “Stella might be irresponsible, but she’s only a little irresponsible.”

Pro tip (from Mark Twain ) for spotting that sneaky ‘very’: Substitute ‘damn’ every time you want to write “very.” Your editor will delete it, and your writing will be just as good. 

3. Avoid passive voice like the plague. 

This is crucial, especially if engagement is your goal. On the other hand, if you’re writing terms and conditions, you can add all the passive voice you want.

Why? It detaches your reader. 

Example of passive voice: “Detachment from readers is caused by passive voice.”

Active voice: “Passive voice detaches your readers.”

Let’s try one, 

Passive voice: “25 qualified leads were generated by the company from their latest blog post.”

Active voice: “The company generated 25 qualified leads from their latest blog post.”

The difference is considerable. Active voice makes you sit up and pay attention. Passive voice sounds like the radio running in the background. 

4. Ensure it has a good flow. 

Writing flows refers to the pace or rhythm of your piece. Good writing has a natural feel to it and avoids unnecessary breaks or repetitions.

Ideally, the reader should find it easy to read the piece without spending too much mental energy on it. 

If your text reads like a car stopping its brakes every five seconds, then it lacks a strong flow and cohesion.

Example: John likes traveling. He often travels for work. He has visited countries in Europe and Asia. His favorite destination is Paris. He loves Paris because of its exquisite food culture. He goes there three times a year.

Corrected example: John likes traveling, and he does so often for work. He has visited many countries in Europe and Asia, but his favorite destination is Paris. He loves it because of its exquisite food culture, so he visits it three times a year.

5. Split long sentences.

This error is similar to writing overloaded sentences, but there’s a distinction between them. The difference is that while overloaded sentences can go on tangents, not all long sentences do.

Long sentences become hard to follow, especially in digital writing. 

Readers tend to have an extremely short attention span, so they don’t want to spend time re-reading and comprehending your simple Slack message.

‍ Example: Technical content usually focuses on niche concepts that serve a specific audience which is why including foundational concepts makes no sense because your audience is already familiar with it, and if you do start at the basics, it will look like you’re patronizing them, which is not the goal.

Corrected example: Technical content usually focuses on niche concepts that serve a specific audience. So, it doesn’t make sense to include foundational concepts as they’re already familiar with them. Including them will look like you’re patronizing them—which is not the goal.

Checklist to refine clarity

‍ Refrain from using hyperbole. Terms like: ‍

  • regret missing out on
  • cannot do without

( Why can’t they do without? They absolutely can. The only must-haves are food, water, and air’. Everything else can be done without. )

Not “The ability to write is a must-have for everyone.” But “The ability to write ensures clear communication of ideas for professionals in the business world.”

Explain crucial terms when your audience might be unfamiliar with them. 

Not “Critical reasoning enhances your writing.” But “Critical reasoning, which is the objective analysis of ideas, enhances the clarity of thought.”

Take your readers on a journey. 

Not “Our product achieves reporting efficiency.” But “When you’re eyeballs deep in test results (and struggling to finish), XYZ product takes over. We ensure you have an overview while leaving the manual labor to XYZ’s automation.”

If you must use overly descriptive terms, back them with cold hard facts. 

Explain the descriptions. Don’t keep your readers guessing.

Not “Clarity enhancing checklist.” But “An internal report from our 3000 writers showed a 70% decrease in confusion after using ‘Bani's Checklist for Improving Clarity.'”

Expand abbreviations/acronyms in the first instance, as the same acronym could mean different things.

It clarifies who the subject is and removes any ambiguity in the reader's mind.

Not “The A/A program prevents the exclusion of underrepresented communities.” But “The Affirmative Action (A/A) program prevents the exclusion of underrepresented communities.”

Be specific. Clarify the why or how to make your sentences clearer.

Not “XYZ product can help you save hundreds of hours spent on manual data cleanup.” But “XYZ product can help you save hundreds of hours spent on manual data cleanup by automating the data collection and categorization processes.”

9 tips to continually improve your writing

1. read as often as you can. .

Good writing gets stored in your brain and finds its way out when you need inspiration. 

But also notice what you're reading—that's how you improve your writing. Summarize articles, rewrite bad sentences ; over time, you'll become so good at self-editing that it'll be second nature.

2. Write with your reader in mind. 

This is sometimes hard but always worth it. 

To make this a habit, paste your readers' pain points on top of your document. 

For example, if you're writing a piece on how to take notes and your readers are high school students, the top of your document should read:

"My readers have been taking notes for the last 8-10 years but haven't yet found a way to do it efficiently.  My readers need notes to make sense of their ever-increasing academic workload.  My readers need actionable checklists, not generic 'how to's."

Note: It's okay to ask questions and seek clarification when you don't understand something. 

3. Show, don't tell. 

Demonstrate the action of your story, don't just describe it. 

Example: “Lia sprinted down the pebbled street when she saw her father” is better than “Lia ran when she saw her father.”

It paints a vivid picture of Lia's actions without being too fluffy.

4. Practice thinking in threes. 

Three phrases make a good bullet list, complete a thought, and take up just enough space. 

The Rule of Three, a powerful copywriting principle, is based on our ability to retain information that comes in triplets. 

It builds a solid structure for your argument and helps your brain quickly record that information.

Example: “Jason found his passion for writing, quit his job, and launched his independent business in six months.”

5. Break your text down in bullets often. 

This helps you think clearly about your subject matter and add white space between your text blocks.

In this case, you can combine this with the Rule of Three principle to create effective and memorable lists.

  • Over-the-counter medication
  • Lots of warm fluids
  • Plenty of rest

6. Combine logic with emotion.

You need to create a healthy balance of facts and emotions. It needs to sound logical, which you can achieve by ensuring subject-verb agreement.

Example: “Dave drove himself into the ditch because it was raining cats and dogs—blurring his vision of the road.”

This sentence combines facts (driving into the ditch) and emotion (raining cats and dogs) in a way that paints a vivid picture while staying true to the facts.

7. Track your verbs.

When you're writing, it's hard to keep track of the various tenses. Plus, you might also use the wrong verbs. These issues can confuse your reader, so track your verbs to avoid them.

For example, if somebody is going to be questioned about their whereabouts, use the verb "questioned," not "asked" or "said".

“Lisa is going to be questioned by the police today about her whereabouts last evening.”

8. Work on your writing crutches.

Everybody (including me) has their own writing crutches. It could be an overuse of certain words, incorrect verbs or descriptors, or anything else you might think of.

The more you write , the better your chances of identifying your writing crutches. 

We recommend reviewing your previous pieces to see what mistakes you make or edits you're receiving from your editors/managers.

It'll help you identify where you're going wrong, and you'll become intentional about how you write.

9. Practice, practice, practice.

You can't become a great writer overnight. It takes months and years of intentional practice to get there. 

In his book, Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read, Brooks Landon mentioned:

"We will do this by studying the ways in which sentences combine information by coordinating it, subordinating it, or subsuming it in modification."

When you put in the time and effort to study the art of crafting a strong sentence, you'll be able to create them soon enough.

Writing good sentences is hard work

Great sentences often follow an obvious pattern. They incorporate the rules of writing with a tinge of creativity to get through to their readers. When you study the basics of sentence structure and practice it regularly, over time, it becomes second nature. 

The only way to get better is to hone your craft by doing three things: 

  • Identifying why your sentences are unclear
  • Making the necessary modifications
  • Refining it with ruthless editing

When you eliminate complexity and clarify what you want to say, crafting the right sentence becomes easier. 

It will not only help you write better sentences, but it can also improve the reader's understanding of what you're trying to say.

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February 21, 2024

Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

Engaging the fine motor system to produce letters by hand has positive effects on learning and memory

By Charlotte Hu

Student handwriting notes in class

FG Trade/Getty Images

Handwriting notes in class might seem like an anachronism as smartphones and other digital technology subsume every aspect of learning across schools and universities. But a steady stream of research continues to suggest that taking notes the traditional way—with pen and paper or even stylus and tablet—is still the best way to learn, especially for young children. And now scientists are finally zeroing in on why.

A recent study in Frontiers in Psychology monitored brain activity in students taking notes and found that those writing by hand had higher levels of electrical activity across a wide range of interconnected brain regions responsible for movement, vision, sensory processing and memory. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that has many experts speaking up about the importance of teaching children to handwrite words and draw pictures.

Differences in Brain Activity

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The new research, by Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), builds on a foundational 2014 study . That work suggested that people taking notes by computer were typing without thinking, says van der Meer , a professor of neuropsychology at NTNU. “It’s very tempting to type down everything that the lecturer is saying,” she says. “It kind of goes in through your ears and comes out through your fingertips, but you don’t process the incoming information.” But when taking notes by hand, it’s often impossible to write everything down; students have to actively pay attention to the incoming information and process it—prioritize it, consolidate it and try to relate it to things they’ve learned before. This conscious action of building onto existing knowledge can make it easier to stay engaged and grasp new concepts .

To understand specific brain activity differences during the two note-taking approaches, the NTNU researchers tweaked the 2014 study’s basic setup. They sewed electrodes into a hairnet with 256 sensors that recorded the brain activity of 36 students as they wrote or typed 15 words from the game Pictionary that were displayed on a screen.

When students wrote the words by hand, the sensors picked up widespread connectivity across many brain regions. Typing, however, led to minimal activity, if any, in the same areas. Handwriting activated connection patterns spanning visual regions, regions that receive and process sensory information and the motor cortex. The latter handles body movement and sensorimotor integration, which helps the brain use environmental inputs to inform a person’s next action.

“When you are typing, the same simple movement of your fingers is involved in producing every letter, whereas when you’re writing by hand, you immediately feel that the bodily feeling of producing A is entirely different from producing a B,” van der Meer says. She notes that children who have learned to read and write by tapping on a digital tablet “often have difficulty distinguishing letters that look a lot like each other or that are mirror images of each other, like the b and the d.”

Reinforcing Memory and Learning Pathways

Sophia Vinci-Booher , an assistant professor of educational neuroscience at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the new study, says its findings are exciting and consistent with past research. “You can see that in tasks that really lock the motor and sensory systems together, such as in handwriting, there’s this really clear tie between this motor action being accomplished and the visual and conceptual recognition being created,” she says. “As you’re drawing a letter or writing a word, you’re taking this perceptual understanding of something and using your motor system to create it.” That creation is then fed back into the visual system, where it’s processed again—strengthening the connection between an action and the images or words associated with it. It’s similar to imagining something and then creating it: when you materialize something from your imagination (by writing it, drawing it or building it), this reinforces the imagined concept and helps it stick in your memory.

The phenomenon of boosting memory by producing something tangible has been well studied. Previous research has found that when people are asked to write, draw or act out a word that they’re reading, they have to focus more on what they’re doing with the received information. Transferring verbal information to a different form, such as a written format, also involves activating motor programs in the brain to create a specific sequence of hand motions, explains Yadurshana Sivashankar , a cognitive neuroscience graduate student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario who studies movement and memory. But handwriting requires more of the brain’s motor programs than typing. “When you’re writing the word ‘the,’ the actual movements of the hand relate to the structures of the word to some extent,” says Sivashankar, who was not involved in the new study.

For example, participants in a 2021 study by Sivashankar memorized a list of action verbs more accurately if they performed the corresponding action than if they performed an unrelated action or none at all. “Drawing information and enacting information is helpful because you have to think about information and you have to produce something that’s meaningful,” she says. And by transforming the information, you pave and deepen these interconnections across the brain’s vast neural networks, making it “much easier to access that information.”

The Importance of Handwriting Lessons for Kids

Across many contexts, studies have shown that kids appear to learn better when they’re asked to produce letters or other visual items using their fingers and hands in a coordinated way—one that can’t be replicated by clicking a mouse or tapping buttons on a screen or keyboard. Vinci-Booher’s research has also found that the action of handwriting appears to engage different brain regions at different levels than other standard learning experiences, such as reading or observing. Her work has also shown that handwriting improves letter recognition in preschool children, and the effects of learning through writing “last longer than other learning experiences that might engage attention at a similar level,” Vinci-Booher says. Additionally, she thinks it’s possible that engaging the motor system is how children learn how to break “ mirror invariance ” (registering mirror images as identical) and begin to decipher things such as the difference between the lowercase b and p.

Vinci-Booher says the new study opens up bigger questions about the way we learn, such as how brain region connections change over time and when these connections are most important in learning. She and other experts say, however, that the new findings don’t mean technology is a disadvantage in the classroom. Laptops, smartphones and other such devices can be more efficient for writing essays or conducting research and can offer more equitable access to educational resources. Problems occur when people rely on technology too much , Sivashankar says. People are increasingly delegating thought processes to digital devices, an act called “ cognitive offloading ”—using smartphones to remember tasks, taking a photo instead of memorizing information or depending on a GPS to navigate. “It’s helpful, but we think the constant offloading means it’s less work for the brain,” Sivashankar says. “If we’re not actively using these areas, then they are going to deteriorate over time, whether it’s memory or motor skills.”

Van der Meer says some officials in Norway are inching toward implementing completely digital schools . She claims first grade teachers there have told her their incoming students barely know how to hold a pencil now—which suggests they weren’t coloring pictures or assembling puzzles in nursery school. Van der Meer says they’re missing out on opportunities that can help stimulate their growing brains.

“I think there’s a very strong case for engaging children in drawing and handwriting activities, especially in preschool and kindergarten when they’re first learning about letters,” Vinci-Booher says. “There’s something about engaging the fine motor system and production activities that really impacts learning.”

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literacy strategies with a depiction of the same

1. Phonics Instruction

2. graphic organizers, 3. think-pair-share, 4. vocabulary instruction, 5. story mapping, 6. kwl charts (know, want to know, learned), 7. interactive read-alouds, 8. guided reading, 9. writing workshops, 10. literature circles.

Today, literacy is not just about learning to read and write ; it’s a crucial tool that opens doors to a world of knowledge and opportunities. It’s the foundation upon which we build our ability to communicate, understand, and interact with the world around us. It is the cornerstone that supports all other learning.

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But how do we ensure every student learns to read and write, loves the process, and excels in it? This is where literacy strategies for teachers come into play. 

In the modern classroom, literacy strategies are essential for several reasons. They help cater to diverse learning styles , engage students more effectively, and promote a deeper understanding of the material.

These strategies are vital in an era of abundant information and attention spans are challenged. They equip teachers with innovative methods to make reading and writing more interactive and meaningful. 

In this blog, we will talk about some of the best literacy strategies that can make a significant difference in your classroom!

Literacy Strategy Definition

Literacy strategies are various methods and approaches used in teaching reading and writing. These are not just standard teaching practices but innovative, interactive, and tailored techniques designed to improve literacy skills. They include activities like group discussions, interactive games , and creative writing exercises, all part of a broader set of literacy instruction strategies.

The Role of Literacy Strategies in Enhancing Reading and Writing Skills

Teaching literacy strategies enhance students’ reading and writing skills. These strategies help break down complex texts, making them more understandable and relatable for students. They encourage students to think critically about what they read and express their thoughts clearly in writing. Teachers can use literacy strategies to address different learning styles, helping students find their path to literacy success.

15 Best Literacy Strategies for Teachers

Phonics instruction is fundamental in building foundational reading skills , especially for young learners. This method teaches students the relationships between letters and sounds , helping them decode words. Through phonics, students learn to sound out words, which is crucial for reading fluency and comprehension. Phonics instruction can be made fun and interactive with games, songs, and puzzles .

You can begin here:

Card Image

Graphic organizers are powerful visual tools that aid in better comprehension and organization of information. As part of literacy practice examples, they help students visually map out ideas and relationships between concepts. This can include charts, diagrams, or concept maps. Using graphic organizers, teachers can help students structure their thoughts, making complex ideas more accessible and understandable. It’s an effective way to break down reading materials or organize writing drafts visually.

Think Pair Share worksheet

Think-pair-share is an essential literacy strategy that fosters collaborative learning. In this activity, students first think about a question or topic individually, then pair up with a classmate to discuss their thoughts, and finally share their ideas with the larger group. This strategy encourages active participation and communication, allowing students to learn from each other. It’s a simple yet powerful way to engage students in critical thinking and discussion.

Vocabulary instruction is crucial in expanding language comprehension. This strategy involves teaching students new words and phrases in terms of their definitions, context, and usage. Effective vocabulary instruction can include word mapping , sentence creation , and word games. By enriching students’ vocabulary , teachers equip them with the tools to understand and articulate ideas more effectively, enhancing their overall literacy.

Card Image

Story mapping is a technique where students break down the narrative elements of a story, such as characters, setting, plot, and conflict. This strategy helps in enhancing comprehension and analytical skills. By visually organizing the elements of a story, students can better understand the structure and themes of the text. It’s an engaging way to dissect stories and can be done individually or as a group activity .

A KWL chart

KWL charts are an effective tool for structuring learning objectives. This strategy involves creating a chart with three columns: What students already Know, What they Want to know, and What they have Learned. This approach helps activate prior knowledge, set learning goals , and reflect on new information. It’s a great way to engage students in the learning process from start to finish, making them active participants in their education. KWL Charts can be used across various subjects, making them versatile and essential in the classroom.

Kids in a classroom

Interactive read-alouds are a cornerstone among literacy instructional strategies. In this activity, the teacher reads a story aloud, using expressive tones and gestures to bring the story to life. This method engages students in dynamic storytelling , sparking their imagination and interest. It’s an essential literacy strategy that enhances listening skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. Teachers can pause to ask questions, encouraging students to think and predict, making it an interactive and inclusive learning experience.

kids in guided reading session

Guided reading is a tailored approach that addresses the diverse reading levels within a classroom. In this strategy, teachers work with small groups of students, providing focused reading instruction at their specific level of development. This allows for more personalized attention and support, helping students progress at their own pace.

Kids in a writing workshop

Writing workshops are a dynamic way to foster creative expression among students. These workshops provide a platform for students to write , share, and receive feedback on their work. It’s an interactive process where students learn to develop their writing style, voice, and technique. Writing Workshops encourage creativity, critical thinking, and peer collaboration, making them a vital part of literacy development.

Depiction of collaborative learning

Literature circles are a collaborative and student-centered approach to reading and discussing books. In these circles, small groups of students choose and read a book together, then meet to discuss it, often taking on different roles like discussion leader or summarizer. This strategy promotes discussion, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of literature. It’s an engaging way for students to explore texts and share their perspectives, enhancing their analytical and communication skills.

11. Scaffolding

Scaffolding technique

Scaffolding is a teaching method that provides students with step-by-step guidance to help them better understand new concepts. This approach breaks down learning into manageable chunks, gradually moving students towards stronger comprehension and greater independence. Scaffolding can include techniques like asking leading questions, providing examples, or offering partial solutions. It’s especially effective in building confidence and skill in students, as they feel supported throughout their learning journey.

12. Word Walls

A word board

Word walls are a visual and interactive way to display vocabulary in the classroom . As one of the essential literacy strategy examples, they help students learn new words and reinforce their spelling and meaning. Teachers can add words related to current lessons or themes, encouraging students to use and explore these words in their writing and speaking. Word walls are educational and serve as a reference tool that students can continually interact with.

13. Reader’s Theater

Kids in a readers theatre

Reader’s theater is an engaging literacy activity that combines reading and performance. In this strategy, students read scripts aloud, focusing on expression rather than memorization or props. This method helps improve reading fluency, comprehension, and confidence as students practice reading with emotion and emphasis. Reader’s Theater is also a fun way to bring literature to life and encourage a love for reading and storytelling.

14. Dramatization of Text

Kids dramatizing text

Dramatization of text involves bringing stories and texts to life through acting and role-play. This strategy allows students to interpret and enact narratives, deepening their understanding of the characters, plot, and themes. It’s an interactive way to engage students with literature, encouraging them to explore texts creatively and collaboratively. Dramatization can enhance comprehension, empathy, and public speaking skills.

15. Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry based learning wallpaper

Inquiry-Based Learning is a student-centered approach that promotes curiosity-driven research and exploration. In this method, learning starts with questions, problems, or scenarios rather than simply presenting facts. Students are encouraged to investigate topics, ask questions , and discover answers through research and discussion. This strategy fosters critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a love for learning .

These literacy strategies for teachers offer a diverse and dynamic toolkit for teachers to enhance reading, writing, and comprehension skills in their classrooms. By incorporating these methods, educators can create a more engaging, inclusive, and effective learning environment , paving the way for students to become confident and proficient learners.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the key benefits of using literacy strategies in the classroom.

Literacy strategies enhance classroom engagement, improve comprehension, and foster critical thinking skills. They make learning more interactive and meaningful, helping students to connect with the material more deeply.

How can teachers effectively integrate literacy strategies into existing curricula?

Teachers can integrate literacy strategies by aligning them with current lesson objectives, using them as complementary tools for existing content. Start small, incorporate strategies gradually, and tailor them to fit the lesson’s context.

Are these literacy strategies suitable for all age groups?

Yes, these strategies can be adapted for different age groups and learning levels. The key is to modify the complexity and delivery of the strategy to suit the developmental stage and abilities of the students.

How do digital literacy strategies for teachers differ from traditional ones?

Digital literacy strategies incorporate technology, focusing on skills like navigating online information, digital communication, and critical evaluation of online content, which are essential in the digital age.

Can literacy strategies be used in subjects other than language arts?

Absolutely, literacy strategies can be applied cross-curricularly. For example, graphic organizers can be used in science for hypothesis mapping, or story mapping can be used in history to outline events.

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    Write & Improve helps you practise different types of writing by encouraging you to think about how you can improve. It gives automatic feedback and hints to show you where you need to make changes. Make changes and see your progress straightaway. See how your writing is improving with a progress graph

  15. How to Improve Writing Skills: 18 Tips to Become a Better Writer

    Feedback will help you improve your writing skills by pointing out areas that need improvement. It's also a great way to learn from other writers and get different perspectives on how to approach writing. Visit some of the top writing websites and forums and sharpen your writing skills. 12. Use Contracted Word Forms.

  16. 16 Easy Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills

    Ways to improve writing skills quickly. Start following these exercises to improve your writing skills fast: 1. Brush up on the basics. Before you can start writing incredible content, you'll need at least an intermediate understanding of the basic principles of writing.

  17. 24 of the Best Writing Exercises to Become a Better Writer

    Among both exercises to improve writing skills and fun writing exercises for adults, writing metaphor lists is one of the best writing exercises out there. A metaphor list is simple. On a notebook, create two columns. In one column, write down only concrete nouns. Things like a pillow, a tree, a cat, a cloud, and anything that can be perceived ...

  18. Writing

    You can improve your writing by understanding model texts and how they're structured. The self-study lessons in this section are written and organised by English level based on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR).

  19. How to Write Better: 7 Tips for Writing Engaging Prose

    How to Write Better: 7 Tips for Writing Engaging Prose. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Aug 10, 2021 • 2 min read. If you want to improve the quality of your writing, the best place to start is with the fundamentals. These valuable tips can help you learn how to write better and elevate your creative output. If you want to improve the ...

  20. The Writing Process

    Step 1: Prewriting. Step 2: Planning and outlining. Step 3: Writing a first draft. Step 4: Redrafting and revising. Step 5: Editing and proofreading. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about the writing process.

  21. [2024] 180 Free Online Writing Courses to Improve Your Skills

    1700 Free Coursera Courses. Ivy League Online Courses. 175+ Free Writing Online Courses. Class Central aggregates courses from many providers to help you find the best courses on almost any subject, wherever they exist. The Report by Class Central, is your source for the latest news and trends in online education.

  22. 100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises

    Writing practice is a method of becoming a better writer that usually involves reading lessons about the writing process, using writing prompts, doing creative writing exercises, or finishing writing pieces, like essays, short stories, novels, or books. The best writing practice is deliberate, timed, and involves feedback.

  23. Write Better Sentences: 9 Tips That Pro-Writers Swear By

    9 tips to continually improve your writing 1. Read as often as you can. Good writing gets stored in your brain and finds its way out when you need inspiration. But also notice what you're reading—that's how you improve your writing. Summarize articles, rewrite bad sentences; over time, you'll become so good at self-editing that it'll be ...

  24. What Are AI Text Generators? 8 Best Tools To Improve Writing

    Robot typing on keyboard. AI text generators. getty. Writer's block might be a thing of the past thanks to a wide variety of AI text generators that can research works, help find the right ...

  25. Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

    A recent study in Frontiers in Psychology monitored brain activity in students taking notes and found that those writing by hand had higher levels of electrical activity across a wide range of ...

  26. About DeepL Write

    DeepL Write is an AI-powered writing assistant that can improve your written communication. It will help you with your writing by correcting the grammar, spelling, and punctuation, as well as providing suggestions for alternative words and phrasing. Please note that this product is in beta, and we are continuously working to improve it.

  27. 15 Best Literacy Strategies for Teachers to Use in Classroom

    It's an interactive process where students learn to develop their writing style, voice, and technique. Writing Workshops encourage creativity, critical thinking, and peer collaboration, making them a vital part of literacy development. Related Reading: Amazing Writing Prompt For Kids To Improve Confidence 10. Literature Circles Source: @amle.org