Buy a ticket for the bus, go to the doctor, look for a flat or simply open your mouth to have a normal conversation with someone; Most English students are eager to talk. After all, they study English to communicate.
But do not forget that writing is an extremely important aspect of communication; even in the Snapchat and Instagram era. To help you, we have compiled seven practical tips to improve your written English.
-
Read, read, read
Are you experiencing a déjà vu? You are not the only one. When it is often recommended that you read more to write better, it is because it works! As you read, you learn new vocabulary, interesting choices of words and excellent phrases that you can use in your own writing. Do not worry about what you “should” read. The important thing is to read a lot and often. Fiction, non-fiction, blogs, news articles, magazines; if it is written (and well written), read it!
-
Using of adjectives
To take your writing to another dimension, expel these villains from your work: very, really, quite, good, got, stuff and things. You may wonder how eliminating a few simple words will help you improve your writing. Well, the fact is that they are useless words. They do not communicate much and, without them, your text will mean the same thing, and it will read much better!
An additional suggestion: replace “very / really + adjective” with a more intense adjective. Instead of very hungry, ravenous. Instead of run really, sprint. Instead of really dirty, filthy. There are hundreds of adjectives that you can use when writing.
-
Use a thesaurus
Once you have eliminated useless words from the text, you can start looking for better ones to replace them. This is where your new friend comes in, the thesaurus. Use it to replace the words you use too often with more interesting ones. (For example: cloth> fabric; money> cash; change> alter; happy> glad; decorate> embellish; improve> enhance). If you avoid common or beginner vocabulary, the text will be more distinctive and refined. But be careful not to overdo it! What you write has to be natural and make sense for those who will read it.
-
Use placements
Placements are words that tend to go together, even though other combinations of words may be grammatically correct. As, for example, the English placement «heavy rain». Grammatically, it would be correct to use “strong rain”, but it sounds strange to those who are accustomed to the first expression. Other placements are, among many others, weak tea (no feeble tea), excruciating pain (no excruciating joy), tall trees (no high trees), buy time (no purchase time), and fast cars (no quick cars). If you become familiar with the usual placements, your writing will be more natural.
To familiarize yourself with placements, start with some base words-for example, make, do, get, break, tell-and look for placements that include them. You can also start with a “type” of placement and memorize some examples. To get more info about quality essays you can get, clicking on https://essayshark.com/ is recommended.
-
Know your audience
When you write, it is very important that you write for your audience. Think about it. You do not use the same language to update your resume as to write a university paper or an article for your personal blog. Basically, the difference is in the tone and in the choice of words. So, before reusing any text, ask yourself.
