Writing is challenging for many people, especially those who don’t write for a living. It’s encouraging to learn that writing does not have to be problematic. Everybody can up their writing skills with little effort and willingness. Acquiring a set of tricks to enhance your writing skills is not as challenging as you may perceive.
Becoming a writer requires practice, and I am sure you are already doing it. Even if you don’t see yourself as a writer, you put ideas into writings more regularly than you think. I have gathered a list of tactics to assist you in strengthening your writing skills.
1. Brush up on the Basics.
Before you are set to write great content, you need to better understand the basic writing principles.
This doesn’t translate to joining an esteemed creative writing program in a reputed university. Instead, internalize the basics of spelling and grammar.
2. Ensure You Create an Outline of the Concept You’re Writing About.
One of the best ways to improve your writing skills is by having an outline of your topic. Readers need complete and coherent content. Creating an outline will ensure you touch on everything readers want. Have subtopics and the main ideas under each sub-topic.
Before you start writing, get a “you” moment. Use the moment to expound the content to the five-year-old who resides in your head. If your writing aim is to realize a specific outcome, evaluate what that outcome should be. Set a clear goal for your writing and then adhere to it.
3. If Your Message Is Complicated, Summarize It.
It does not require deep thoughts to compose a basic text message. However, if you are writing a complicated story with many questions, characters, and angles, find solutions to all these before you start writing. Summarizing the main points on the topics you want to write about is time-saving. Avoid being too wordy when describing your ideas.
With such clarity, it is easy to answer the topic’s questions eliminating confusion. You can consider having a rough draft, which you can tune into a fine last draft. This may involve removing entire paragraphs or rectifying ideas throughout your piece.
4. Don’t Over-Expound Everything.
If you have had your moment to arrange your ideas earlier, you should write simple points. The goal is to allow readers a quick understanding of what you are conveying.
Don’t burden your readers with less important information. If you find yourself putting down unnecessary information, evaluate each piece of the content, and determine whether it’s essential to help your readers get your message. If you find it less important, remove it.
5. Go Easy on Prepositions.
Incorrect use of prepositions can make your content unnecessarily complicated and wordy. However, they are not problematic to understand as they do not require intense explanation. You need to be tactical and simplify them when required. This will boost your content clarity.
6. Get Rid of the Filler Phrases and Words.
Some words and phrases frequently appear in your writing, yet their contribution is minimal. Even though they sometimes put in more color and meaning, they are most confusing and less necessary. Removing them makes your content clearer and concise. Examples of these filler words are really, just, very, that, etc.
There is no reason to have extra of these filler words in your writing unless with clear intentions. Learning how to maintain a balance of necessary words to communicate your message requires time and practice. But once you master this, nothing can stop you from becoming that great writer you’ve always wished to be!
7. Don’t Pad Weak Words With Adverbs.
Adverbs are those words that usually end with (-ly). They are mostly modifying verbs and rarely adjectives. They are useful when used in limitation.
When you find yourself using them frequently, your choice of words is probably poor.
8. Stick With Simple Words.
There are a set of words we know and those we should know and those we don’t know. You may think you appear smarter by using jargon. However, that’s not true.
There is a difference between commanding a rich vocabulary and using a lot of jargon in your writing to show off.
Unless you are doing poetry or writing a thesis paper, ensure your language is direct and straightforward. Ensure your piece can be read by someone with grade four education. Getting rid of tricky words will ensure you write like you talk, making your set of words effective.
9. Write Short Sentences.
Veteran writers can write long, complex sentences and still achieve a nice flow. But for a beginner, straightforward, less complex sentences are easier to construct.
Ensure to keep your writings simple, but at the same time, vary the length of your sentences. This will give your writings a great flow. ProWritingAid is an excellent tool to check the distribution of your sentence lengths.
Most readers don’t have much time to read your content thoroughly, so let your writing appear easy on the eyes!
10. Read Your Piece Out Loud.
Regarding the flow of your writings, reading out loud can help you evaluate whether it flows nicely. Sometimes your piece may appear jerky with quick short sounds.
To correct that, construct a few longer sentences and break the monotonous rhythm. If you find yourself tripping, you’ve probably come across a complicated sentence that requires rewriting. Reading your piece out loud works magic!
11. Introduce Your Personality Into Your Writing.
Allowing your personality in your writing is a perfect way to acquire a writing style. Add slang and phrases you would typically use (with necessity). When there is a need, throw in an appropriate personal incidence. Be yourself in every writing but majorly the formal ones.
12. Read What You Intend to Write About.
Well, reading can assist you in improving your writing skills, as most of you know. If you read about your writing niche, then you will quickly become a great writer from all angles. To be a great writer, you will need to be a keen reader. This is because you will get to familiarize yourself with your niche better.
You will also learn how other writers in your niche construct their sentences and choice of words. Expand your reading to more challenging materials around your niche. This will give you more chances of mastering what makes content useful and which mistakes to avoid. With this, you’re equipped to choose the right language for your writings.
13. Write Like It’s Your Job.
Achieving perfection in anything requires practice. Shaping your writing skills is no exception!
There are no shortcuts you can use to become a great writer rather than practice. Even the most renowned writers had to perfect their skills for many years through practice.
Practicing will not only help you overcome your fears, but it will also ensure you acquire a unique style of writing. Even if your content has no readers, don’t give up! Practice, practice makes perfect!
14. Dissecting Pieces That You Like.
Many readers read the same content regularly because the content appeals to them. Get multiple writing materials you admire and print them out. Then get to work and highlight things that appealed to you. They might be entire paragraphs, phrases, or specific sentences. Evaluate why you admire these elements of the content.
Determine whether there are similar threads in your selected reading materials. Take note of the writers’ transition from one subject to another, then use these tactics in your writings.
15. Imitate Writers You Admire.
Before I can expound on this, a disclaimer- imitation does not translate to plagiarism. Do not copy someone’s work.
Most likely, you have a list of materials you read regularly. Determine what it is that you love about writers of these materials. Try to evaluate if you can use it to shape your writing skills.
Do your favorite writers add humor to spice up basic topics? Try it. Over time, you will develop your writing style. Reading these pieces and learning how your favorite writers sketch their writings helps you as a starter.
16. Edit Your Writings Thoroughly.
Well, you’re writing regularly, and you’re now becoming more confident about your writings. Nice! You’re now set to being your own unkind critic.
Editing is a hard skill to acquire for novice writers. Starters only focus on the efforts and time they have put forward in writing. Unfortunately, writing usually requires rewriting, and this is where editing comes in.
Strive to have the discipline required to get rid of unnecessary words in your pieces. Restrain from beating around the bush and get directions to the point. Confused whether a paragraph fits in? Most likely, it isn’t. Be harsh on yourself and determine when to rewrite or delete paragraphs or sentences. This will make your writings more powerful!
17. Do Your Research.
Besides plagiarism, failure to research your writing niche mess up your credibility a great deal.
When writing, you are eager to finish and end up taking shortcuts with the facts. This can include unknowingly fudging a statistic out of speed or being lazy in gathering your facts. This can render you an unqualified writer. Everyone makes mistakes, and you shouldn’t be afraid. Avoid picking so many phrases from other publications.
18. Keep in Mind Done Is Better Than Perfect.
You should set aside enough time to write as correctly as you can. Skim through and edit your piece ruthlessly. Make sure all paragraphs in your writing assume a logical flow from the start to the end. However, this does not mean you should spend weeks writing a piece.
Learn when it’s time to get done, as no piece of content will ever be perfect. As you gain more confidence, writing will become more simple and more effortless for you!
How Can Grammarly Help Improve Your Writing Skills?
Grammarly is one of the best grammar checking tools. Apart from its impressive features and accuracy, the tool gives writers a chance to shape their writing skills with constructive feedback. General mistakes can be made away with frequent use of Grammarly. It improves you as a writer and allows you to familiarize yourself with your writing niche.
The following are some ways through which the tool can help you improve your writing skills:
Grammarly Gives You a Chance to Learn From Your Mistakes.
By now, you’re already aware that Grammarly is a grammar, spelling mistakes, punctuations, and readability checking tool. Grammarly’s uniqueness from other tools is that it answers both “why” and “what” questions.
The free trial gives you suggestions and informs you of errors in your writing. It identifies your mistakes, makes them known to you, gives the reason for it, and offers you the chance to correct them.
As a writer, you can improve your skills based on the various Grammarly correction suggestions. You can grade and rate your writings regarding grammar through the tool.
It Enables You to Remove Common Mistakes.
Basic mistakes in writing can sometimes go unnoticed. It is no surprise that you fail to notice the pattern of errors you are making.
Grammarly identifies these patterns of mistakes and enables you to remember them in your next writing. The most common mistakes include spelling mistakes or leaving out articles.
The more you use, the more likely that you will learn your common mistakes and set to eliminate them. In the future, it will grow you into a writer with zero common mistakes. Once you’ve perfected this, you can focus on the advanced skills.
Grammarly Will Help You Identify Repetition.
Repetition shows the lack of conviction and vocabulary in a writer. Grammarly frequently identifies the words you repeat more often. It brings it to your attention to change the words and give you a list of synonyms suggestions.
Grammarly makes your writings vocabulary-oriented and more powerful.
It Improves the Quality of Your Writing.
Naturally, writers want to see progress in their content in terms of quality as it increases their worth. Grammarly makes it possible to improve your writing through a learning curve daily. Aggressive practice and frequent use of Grammarly will enhance your writing quality within a short time.
You will be impressed to learn that you’re only left with advanced grammar mistakes. You won’t come across more of the common mistakes like before!
Grammarly Checks Plagiarism.
As a professional writer, you know the importance of a plagiarism checking tool. Despite how excellent your writing is, if part of it is plagiarized, your credibility is degraded. Grammarly concentrates on this to save you from such trouble.
It enables you to master the art of plagiarism-free writing. The tool highlights the sections of your content that are plagiarized so you can correct that. However, the plagiarism-free tool is only available for premium users.
Conclusion
Without proper skills, you cannot realize progress in your work as a writer. The improvements in your writing skills need you to have patience, discipline, and willingness. You have to strive, work hard, and smart to polish your skills. Only with experience does your content get the attention it deserves!