Writing is intimidating, but ultimately one of the best skills to take with you wherever you go. Whether it is for personal development or for school or for making money, writing skills can never fail you. An important thing to remember is that writing is like thinking, just far more coherently. People who are great writers are often great thinkers because they are able to transcribe a mess of thoughts into coherent arguments and pieces of art, ones that will influence and guide other people towards their train of thoughts. That being said, let’s brush up on some great things that you could do to improve your writing skills:
1) Find a writing partner – this is one of the number one strategies I would recommend. Finding somebody to read your work is often time consuming and difficult, but if you find a friend who is at the same level of writing as you, you can often give each other feedback and catch different errors in your writing pieces. This will also help you do one of the best things that writers need – develop a voice. Developing a voice means being able to synthesize a coherent argument from a distinct point of view, and by reading over other people’s writing and giving them feedback, you simultaneously grow as an editor and become more adept as a writer.
2) Join a workshop. This doesn’t mean that you have to learn from somebody (though it can often help, see our writing classes 😊). Oftentimes, just the habit of writing continuously and making your stream of thought accessible can make your writing tenfold better. Getting in the habit of writing fast and writing well can make you so much better at thinking quicker.
3) Dissect the best pieces of writing. One of the coolest things that is available in our generation is the mass accessibility of so many excellent pieces of writing at just a click away. Find an author who you deeply admire or who is known for writing well. The thing is – make sure that the author is coherent and understandable. Don’t find somebody who uses overly confusing language to make complex points, but find somebody who is famous at writing but writes simply and at your grade level. Put focus on the words that they use, the ways they vary up the sentence structures, and how often they shift the focus of their writing. Grab a pen and paper and get messy with the analysis. It will help you a lot!
4) Outline everything. Before you can become a great writer, you need to become a great outliner. This means diagramming everything you write. This also means making connections between your points. This will help you immensely when you’re trying to make a messy piece of work become a lot clearer, and it will add many layers of nuance to an otherwise simple work. Trust me, outlining before writing is a must, and can help you take your writing to the next level.
That’s it for now. Send us an email and let us know if you have any questions or if you found any of these tips helpful. Stay safe!
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