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Who Else Wants To Write Better English? Writing better English means writing clear English, correct English, and persuasive English. 1. Improve Your Vocabulary A good writer has a good vocabulary — one that is both broad and deep — because a good vocabulary is essential to clarity, power, and precision. If you have a large stock of words, you can choose the most effective word. The more words you know, the easier your words will flow. Improving your vocabulary can come from incidental learning from context, direct learning, or a combination of these. The best incidental learning comes from reading good books and associating with people who have a good spoken vocabulary and written vocabulary. Direct techniques include looking in a dictionary for unfamiliar words. Another direct technique is to record definitions of new words in a notebook, which you review whenever you get spare time. You should try to learn at least one new word a day. These days, the quickest and easiest form of direct vocabulary learning is through vocabulary-building software. For more on how to improve your vocabulary, read our knowledgebase of free articles (from the top menu, Resources » Articles » Improve your vocabulary). When purchasing software, you should always be sure to read credible online reviews before you make your decision. Here is a site that provides excellent objective software reviews. 2. Improve Your Spelling Learning to spell is integral to good writing, because correct spelling ultimately helps you communicate your message to others. Since language is shared, then your spelling must follow the accepted standard pattern. And, crucially for persuasive writing, correct spelling gives writing credibility. These reasons are why we have dedicated a lot of this website to providing free articles on how to improve your spelling. 3. Improve Your Reading Skills Better writing usually comes from doing — that is, through practice. But reading other people's writing also plays an important role in improving your own writing. For example, reading helps you develop your vocabulary and improve your spelling, which in turn helps your reading, which in turn continues to improve vocabulary and spelling. The cycle goes on. Reading also gives you writing styles to emulate. You can improve your writing by not only doing, but also seeing how others do it. This is why we have uploaded quite a number of free articles on improving your reading, including improving your reading speed, so that you can read more in less time. 4: Improve Your Grammar Good grammar prevents ambiguity. By contrast, bad grammar confuses your reader, slows their reading, and shows your ignorance, which can lose you respect, influence, and credibility. * Make sure you at least know the parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Find fun ways to learn the parts of speech. * Know the difference between the active voice and passive voice. Using the active voice is one of the best ways to give power to your writing. * Also, learn the basics of punctuation, especially when to use a comma. Active voice and passive voice. "Active voice" and "passive voice" basically refers to the order in which you have placed the subject, verb, and object. The active voice goes: "subject, verb, object"; but the passive voice goes: "object, verb, subject". The sentence, "The cat sits on the mat" is in the active voice because the sentence is in the form of "subject ("the cat"), verb ("sits"), and mat ("object")." Put in the passive voice, the sentence becomes "The mat is being sat on by the cat". Clear writing usually comes from writing in the active voice. This is because the active voice usually conveys your point more quickly than the passive voice and prevents ambiguity by making it clear who did what to whom. Reasons to use the active voice: * The active voice is shorter and more direct. * The active voice is less awkward and clearly states relationship between subject and action. |