Tips for Improving Your Writing

How many words did you write today? 10? 100? 1000? Though your classes might not involve writing pages of reports and essays (or maybe they do), we all have to write as part of our everyday life.

But what does it take to become a great writer? And what can we do to make our writing the best it can be? Here are some simple tips on how to write with confidence and flair:

Keep it snappy
Anyone who’s met me will know I love to talk. In fact, one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced as a writer is keeping my writing short and sweet. I just have so much to say! Next time you finish a piece of writing, go back through and edit it to these rules:

1. Keep all sentences around 20 words or less. If you can’t cut it down, try breaking it up into two!

2. Keep all paragraphs to 4 sentences or less. This will make sure that your paragraphs aren’t too much for the person reading it.

Ultimately, these are just guides and there will always be an exception to the rule, but it’s a good place to start when cutting down your document!

Simplicity is best
Don’t use words or punctuation that you don’t fully understand. It sounds obvious but it’s always tempting to throw in a ‘hence’ to sound clever. Ultimately, simple language used correctly will always look better than ‘clever’ language used incorrectly. No one will care if you haven’t used long words, this isn’t Countdown!

Grammar. Huh. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
Ok, so while that may not be quite true, English grammar is not as important as it once was. While knowing your you’res from your yours will help protect you from the grammar police, understanding the nature of a split infinitive is the be-all and end-all. There’s an artistic beauty to wonky grammar that cannot be underestimated. So do your best and have confidence in what you write! You got this.

Always ask for help
When you’re writing something important, the best thing you can do is get another pair of eyes on it. Ask a few people to proofread it for you, the more the merrier! Another great tool to use is Grammarly and other proofing apps. What have you got to lose?

Hopefully, these tips will help make your day-to-day writing zing. Above all, your best writing will happen when you’re feeling most confident in yourself and your abilities. You can do it! I believe in you!