Writing is a skill that can benefit you in many ways. Even if you don’t write for a creative reason, a time may come when you need to produce a good standard of writing. This could be a presentation, a report or a blog – anything that requires you to put your thoughts on paper (or a screen). There are many ways that you can improve your writing style, and even the most skilled of writers can benefit from some re-training now and then. Take a look at these nine practical ways to improve your writing style and have your way with words.
1.Write about your day
Writing about your day is a simple way to get into the habit of having to get your thoughts out in writing. Don’t focus on having too much creative flare at this point – just use it as an opportunity to practice. Writing about something that has happened to you, no matter how mundane it is, will help you to get into the swing of writing and stop that feeling of writer’s block. Read through your work and check that you’re using the correct spelling and grammar and make corrections where needed. You may find that you enjoy doing this regularly and start a blog or journal as a result!
2. Rewrite an existing piece
If you struggle to write from scratch, why not try rewriting an existing piece? Pick a newspaper article or a paragraph of a book and try to rewrite it in your own words. This is a good way to discover your own style of writing and helps you interpret information should you need to do this in future.
3. Do grammar drills
Think you know your first person from your third person? What about the past participle? After leaving school, many of us will forget the rules of grammar. Grammar is crucial for good writing, and a top way to boost it is by practicing it. You can find a number of grammar exercises to help remind you of the basic rules of grammar and make you a better writer for it.
4. Practice writing for different audiences
This can be quite a fun exercise for improving your writing. Set yourself a short writing task, such as explaining the rules of a sport or a short biography of a famous person. Then choose three different people to write it for. These could be children, fans of the sport/person and those who have no knowledge of the subject whatsoever. Practicing writing for different audiences will teach you to change your writing style when needed and make it much easier for you to write for work or for academic purposes.
5. Learn to write for different platforms
As well as different audiences, there are also different platforms that you have to consider in your writing. Social media requires being able to write short, snappy posts that hook people in immediately. Press releases have a more informative style of writing. If you’re writing for web pages, you’ll need to factor in elements like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to be able to drive people towards your content. Signing up for some training courses such as a well-known SEO course could help you to develop these new writing skills that will benefit modern workplaces. If you include it in your professional development plan, your employee may be able to cover the costs for this.
6. See what others are doing
The internet is a great place to learn about how others are tackling content. It’s also a fantastic way to generate inspiration for your own ideas. Seeing what top brands are doing with their creative copywriting to help you learn from the best. Big brands might have big marketing budgets, but writing well is something that anyone can do if they put the time in.
7. Get your writing assessed
If you’re serious about improving your writing, one of the best ways to do this is by having your writing assessed. This is common for those in college or university who have their writing assessed to improve it for academic purposes. Find an agency that will analyze a piece of your writing thoroughly and give you valuable feedback on how to improve it. This is a good way to work out where you’re going wrong and change it to make your writing better.
8. Read books about writing
If you want to learn to do something better, study it. The same goes for writing. There are hundreds of books out there designed to help you improve your writing. Understanding Your Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing is one, while other books about writing skills can help you tackle more specific elements of writing. It’s worth investing in a couple of these and keeping them to hand so that you can reference them when you need to. Many of them contain useful exercises to help you with your writing and make you consider new approaches.
9. Ask for tips and advice from writers
The internet is full of writers. Bloggers and journalists can be found easily, and most are willing to share their wisdom with you. If you find a piece that you have enjoyed reading, why not contact the author and ask them some questions? As well as this, you’ll actually find dedicated blogs about writing that talk about the craft. Subscribe to them and if you ever need a helping hand – you can turn to them and get some useful information. It’s also worth talking to friends and family who you know are good at writing and see if they can give you some good pointers.
Improving your writing is something that will take time and effort to get it right. Fortunately, there many excellent resources out there to help you out. This great list of writing tools for content marketing is an excellent resource to bookmark for future writing projects and give you some tips too. Good writing takes practice, but you can get there if you’re willing to learn.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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