Becoming a Good Writer

bjkmom
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 19:44:04 +0000

I’m not sure I agree with the blog or diary suggestions. Simply increasing the volume of your writing does nothing to improve its quality.

What kind of writing are you hoping to improve? Essay? Creative/ fictional writing? Research papers? Each has a different flow, and being good at one doesn’t always translate well to the next.

I think that, if there’s time before school ends, my first stop would be with my current English teacher. Take a look at the writing you’ve done in class this year, and pay particular attention to any comments you’ve received. Then go back and rewrite those assignments, trying hard to improve where your teacher has found weaknesses. (Yeah, school ends for us tomorrow. So the timing may be wayyy off.)

How’s your grammar? I don’t know a preposition from a participle, but I can hear bad grammar. Grammar might be a good place to start; I’m sure you can find lots of books at B&N or Amazon that will get you started.

Oh, and turn the spell check/ grammar check off when you begin to write. You need to learn to self-edit before you let a machine do it for you.