since y'all are such great writers i was wondering where you learned to write as well as you do

<p>ITs like the age-old question: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? " Practice, practice, practice.</p>

<p>Some of it is innate. I have found few people, native speakers or not, that can out-write me, and English is not my first language. I also did not benefit from writing classes in high school or college in my native Elbonia. The first term paper I did was in college in the USA and I had never seen what an outline was before that, nor had I ever written anything over a page or two. </p>

<p>In my many years of engineering and science education I never once recall having to struggle with writing, even in electives ranging from Medieval British Literature to Cultural Anthropology. I’m a voracious reader but I am not sure it mattered much, a lot of what I like to read is not conducive to proper writing (say, Ray Bradbury). </p>

<p>My younger daughter read the Harry Potter series at age 7 and has no problem composing Stephen King length school papers going back to her middle school days. Her sister, attending the exact same schools, is a competent writer but not the person who will crank a 30 page paper in a weekend - especially when the teacher asked for 5-7 pages L-) </p>

<p>Read, as has been said, but also write…and then edit. Ask yourself, is this related to my point? Am I repeating myself? Is that a whole sentence? Does my paragraph belong here? Have I stuck to my point and supported it? do I even know what my point is? </p>

<p>Ruthless , honest editing and re-writing is important. Think of photographers — every shot isn’t perfect, so they discard them, leaving only great or useful captures. Writing is much the same. Start with journal and write a little something every night.</p>

<p>My brother, a newspaper man, believed some of the best writers were in Sports. They make the same game sound interesting, day in and day out. I have no interest there, but read to see what he meant. Sure enough, they roped me in to the story behind the games, and used colorful vocabulary. Teams don’t just “win” or “lose.” They stomp, trample, or decimate the opponent. They triumph, glory, or smirk their way to victory. </p>

<p>That’s another example of reading many genres for style. Break it apart. Why does it work there? Flowery vocabulary isn’t helpful for a technical report, but maintains a news reader’s interest.</p>

<p>Brother summarized his own news reporting style this way: " I write what they need to hear, not what I want to say." He was pithy. </p>

<p>He took a masters degree in nonfiction writing, where he was trained professionally to harness his strengths into a specific format. He was someone who loved “the real world” much more than fiction or poetry. There’s a place for everyone.</p>

<p>I feel that my son’s 500 word college essay was far better than his 700 word essay because the editing removed weaker ideas. It’s too bad some colleges he applied to never had the chance to read the shorter edited version. </p>

<p>Surround yourself with smart people. Engage in whatever interesting discussions you can. Go to lectures and book readings, listen to TED talks, watch movies and TV shows that don’t dumb down their dialogue to typical American audiences. The best writing is straightforward and conversational.</p>

<p>I also agree with the recommendations on ruthless editing. When I was starting out as a writer a wise person told me “don’t fall in love with your own words.” This is really good advice. Look critically at what you are trying to say and find ways to pare it down. Unfortunately, the way schools teach writing causes a lot of people to be more verbose than they should. Another trick that helps some people is to read their writing aloud.</p>

<p>Reading, reading, reading. I read a hundred books a year. And speaking. I gave a LOT of case presentations and mini- and real lectures in med school, residency, and in my job and I became comfortable with, and good at, public speaking. You can’t speak well in public without learning about grammar, vocabulary and syntax. That (usually) translates into writing well.</p>

<p>I learned the mechanics of writing in 5th grade. I was unbelievably fortunate to have an amazing teacher. And I wrote every day of my professional life. Sometimes all day :)</p>

<p>As stated by nearly every poster above, reading is important. But if you want to be a better writer, write. Every day. And be a ruthless editor. Write, rewrite and rewrite again. Once you have what you believe is a final draft, read it out loud. </p>

<p>I think “VeryHappy” & "jym626 are right! My son got 5 on AP Lang & Comp because of his teacher, who INSISTED on re-writes, LOTS of REWRITES! And I also think that everyone that posted up-thread about reading a lot = writing well is also correct. Happy Pulitzer Everybody!</p>

<p>Writing experience, over and over and over. My high school required weekly papers so I learned to write and self-edit. Good writing involves tight structure and clear phrasing. So edit your work for structure – is each paragraph framed in terms of a specific point – does each sentence in that paragraph support that point. If not, revise or delete. On phrasing, read it aloud – is there variation in sentence structure across the paragraphs. use dependent clauses, transitions, to make the writing more interesting. Use clear, straightforward words. </p>

<p>Repeat, repeat, repeat. I had to write a lot in high school, and in college, and in my work. </p>

<p>Reading… it builds your vocabulary and also helps you know what “sounds right”. </p>

<p>When writing papers, I had to develop my own method in college to collect together relevant facts and quotes, then organize them into a logical flow for the paper. At the time I used note cards… now I start typing thoughts and quotes into a Word doc, and then sort/ rearrange them before actually writing. </p>

<p>And editing is important; your great ideas and phrasing lose their impact if you have typos or mistakes. Editing is boring (IMHO) and takes self discipline, but very important.</p>

<p>Read. My grandfather used to read the newspaper with me on his lap (so that’s how I learned to read). I read the newspaper, yes, cereal boxes, my brother’s college books, so by the time college came was a decent writer. Didn’t finish college until very recently but could still crank out a usable paper in a couple days. I think the only way to learn how to use words correctly in your writing is to read a lot.</p>

<p>Good readers make great writers.</p>

<p>or what about great readers make good writers. there’s more great readers than great writers and not all great readers are great writers (maybe they’re okay or decent but not always or even usually great) but you can be more certain that behind each great writer is an equally great reader. </p>

<p>Editing is SO much easier nowadays with software. Remember using a typewriter in the Jurassic and having to re-type an entire page because of just one typo?</p>

<p>I learned to write well in elementary school, but I really perfected my writing in my senior English class (Project Advance, affiliated with Syracuse). My kids learned to write well in their parochial school. They first learned to write properly constructed sentences, then paragraphs, then essays. I also believe that reading well-written books is helpful.</p>

<p>I recommend the Little Red Schoolhouse method for academic writing. </p>

<p>Very Happy has it nailed. Get SOMETHING written if you have to produce a written product, and do it far enough in advance so that you can look at it fresh and re-write it. I have found in my adult life that I’m a much better re-writer than a first-time writer. You will be too.</p>

<p>It also will help a great deal to order a copy of the Elements of Style, by Strunk and White (both of whom must be dead by now, but who had great insight into writing that they condensed into a very short pamphlet-type book. Find it on amazon and buy it. You’ll be glad you’ve read it.)</p>

<p>Also, you’ll find that you’ll get better at both reading and writing through your adult life. I’m much better at it than I was in college, IMO.</p>

<p>Elements of Style is really helpful. I learned a lot from it. </p>

<p>I sold it, though…probably shouldn’t have…</p>

<p>I’m going to take a rhetorical approach to this since my major is Writing and Rhetoric.</p>

<p>As we learned in class, one theory floating around is that the main difference between student writers and experienced writers (according to a study done by Nancy Sommers) is that experienced writers consider their AUDIENCE and take time to actually REVISE instead of merely editing. To most students just starting out in college (according to Sommers), revising a paper is a very sentence-level, rudimentary thing. They place more emphasis on their vocabulary and grammar and treat their work as more permanent; they don’t try to “divorce” themselves from their papers and consider how their paper actually comes across in relation to how they intend it to come across. Experienced writers, meanwhile, were quoted to never stop thinking and improving their papers and are generally more prone to omit full sections of content and completely rephrase, reword, and rethink other sections.</p>

<p>In the end, from what I’ve learned and experienced myself, one becomes a better writer when they stop going about it in an egocentric way. It’s hard and is certainly something that understandably takes some getting used to, but it truly makes the difference. Not everyone is going to like or understand what you say, and it’s difficult to not take that as a personal attack, like when you get a less-than-ideal grade on an essay. When it comes to writing at a university level, you have to learn how to write for your various discourse communities, and you have situate yourself into the appropriate social discourse and take on authority, which is also hard.</p>

<p>In sum, it’s not easy, and I don’t feel you’re ever done improving. But like everyone else has said, reading is also very, very important, and while I would disagree with a concentration on writing textbooks and an emphasis on the formal study of grammar (I know, I know; this is a big political issue in the field of English and Rhet-Comp), I think it is important to just keep writing and to always try out new things.</p>