How to Improve Writing Skills

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How to Improve Writing

If you really are in love with any art, then congratulations - it won’t take you long before you find yourself progressing with the speed of light at it. This is because love rules, and it compels you to rule as well. This neatly clarifies that, in order to excel at any art, the condition is love - writing skill is no exception.

Some tips

In order to improve your writing, reading the best books and keenly observing the style is a must. Take a proper care to choose the topic which pleases, gladdens, and cheers you up. Beware, This is a very delicate stage where lot of us slip. The material you choose shouldn't be misleading or indecent. Never seek guidance of anybody in asking which books will be the best for you because nobody would be able to answer this question better than you.

Simply read what you like. For example, if you are interested in science fiction, pick it up. Sit easily, take a cup of coffee and just go on reading for pleasure. You will enjoy reading more than anything else. This is really that place from where love for language enters your life.

To my amazement, many educated people give a lot of importance to grammar and spellings. Agreed, mastering the rules of grammar and spellings is good. However, deeply stamp it in your mind that these things aren’t of foremost importance - since they might well make you correct writer and speaker; but your skills might lack taste and your readers will be happy to take flight from you.

Reading great books like Hamlet, Paradise Lost, Origin of Species etc. sounds great. But if they don’t interest you, don’t force yourself to read them. Your writing will be your reflection and if you learn from dullness and disinterestedness it will be mirrored. I must remind the condition is love, not bookishness.

Well, now the question comes up that what and how to write.

Beginning with writing is very easy: start with the topics you are well aware of and which interest you. If your favourite topic, for example, is empowering the poor farmers of India - write on it. At first, you might find it difficult to clearly express yourself - but no Problem. Even if you aren’t able to write clearly, leave it.

The secret is breaking the block into little pieces, so begin with small steps. Think small, write small. Write how you feel when it rains. A fresh cup of tea. How you felt when your exams were over? Death of a friendly neighbour. The rudeness of the shopkeeper. Did you enjoy the picnic? Meeting a curious person. The topic list is huge, you don’t have to go hunting.

Be original, expressive and creative at your writing. Never try to go beyond the limit of simplicity. Your writing should be direct, simple, precise and you must write what you really feel and want to say.

For simple, clear and refine style you may refer to the Coverley Papers of Joseph Addison. I feel, he is the master of writing on small topics, and after reading his essays you will get a better understanding of what is being said in the two aforementioned paragraphs.

To be informed of the present English I will suggest news analyses of Vir Sangvhi and Rajdeep Sardesai as their communication is excellently easy. You can find them on the edit pages of the Hindustan Times.

English is a language which, is exploding all over the world with a whooshing pace, and it is, as well as being a sedate language, is also very useful in the present modern era of technology, and can be used almost all over the world at the present time; but for many it is just a language to show off their superiority over other people. The aforementioned sentence is wordy, tasteless and leads you nowhere - so never attempt to write such sentences. But a beginner often tries to adopt such a style and uses big words and resultantly sounds pedantic. Remember, big words are only used when the small ones cannot convey the meaning like the usage of “pedantic” in the previous sentence.

Importantly, English is a very humble language. Never miscue it to be fashionable or glamourous, because whoever does it, he miserably fails.

Lastly, the beginning of your piece must appear curious to your readers; middle should be in a clever order and tasteful so as to seize the complete attention of the readers throughout your piece; and end, solid.