"HOW TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL"
Learning a
variety of writing skills isn’t as difficult as you may think. We’ve put
together a list of steps to help you make dramatic improvements to the quality
of your writing in short order.Becoming a better writer takes practice, and
you’re already practicing. No, seriously—you write a lot. Even if you don’t
think of yourself as a writer, you put thoughts into text more often than you
realize. At the very least, you write emails—a lot of emails—post on
social media, make updates to your résumé and LinkedIn profile, and
message your friends. If your job requires it, you also create things like
reports, presentations, newsletters . . . it’s a long list.
So, you’re
already writing. Now, improving your writing skills is just a matter of
becoming conscious of the things you can do to give your text more structure
and make your copy crisp and readable with a conversational style.
·
Give Your Writing Structure
It’s fine to
rattle off a stream of consciousness when you’re writing in your journal, but
if you actually want to communicate with others you’ll need to bring some order
to those rambling thoughts. Here are some tips.
1 Make sure you’re clear on the concepts you’re writing about.
Albert
Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand
it yourself.” Before you start writing, take a moment to mentally explain the
concept to the six-year-old who lives inside your head. (We all have one, don’t
we?) If your writing goal is to achieve a specific result, ask yourself what
that result should be. Before you dive into writing, have a clear purpose. Then
stick to it.
2. If the
message is complex, outline it.
It doesn’t
take much thought-organizing to compose the average text message, but if you’re
writing something more complex, with multiple angles, questions, or requests,
get all that stuff sorted before you sit down to write. Making an outline, or
even just some quick notes about the topics you want to cover, can save you
time answering clarifying questions later. And speaking of questions .
3 Anticipate your readers’
questions.
Put yourself
in your readers’ shoes. Do they have enough context to understand what you’ve
written for them? If not, fill in the blanks. But . . .
4 Don’t over-explain everything.
If you’ve
taken the time to organize your thoughts in advance, you should be able to keep
things simple. The idea is to give readers just enough to understand what
you’re communicating without overwhelming them with trivial details. If you
find yourself getting in the weeds with more details than you need, look at
each piece of information and ask whether it’s essential to help your reader
understand your message. If not, get rid of it.
Tighten Your
Writing
We sometimes
write like we talk, and that can be a good thing. It keeps our writing
conversational (more on that in a moment.) But rambling, wordy writing makes
your text hard to read, and it can make you sound as though you lack
conviction. Start practicing these skills to streamline your writing.
5 Go easy on the prepositional phrases
When I was a
neophyte writer, someone showed me how prepositional phrases made my writing
unnecessarily wordy and complex. It was an epiphany!Prepositions aren’t
difficult to understand, but the concept does require some explanation. Get smart about prepositions here, and then
try to simplify themwhenever it
makes sense. Your writing will get a much-needed clarity boost.
6 Eliminate the filler words and phrases
Some words
show up in our writing all the time, and yet they don’t contribute much of
anything. Although these filler words and phrases sometimes add color or even
meaning, most of the time they contribute nothing but clutter. Here are thirty-one of them you
can eliminate right now.
7 Don’t pad weak words with adverbs.
Adverbs—those
words that often end in -ly—modify verbs and sometimes adjectives. They’re okay
once in a while, but when you find yourself using them all the time, you’re
probably making weak word choices. Instead of “ran really fast” write
“sprinted.” Was something “extremely funny”? Nah, it was “hilarious.” The
scenery may have been “very beautiful,” but your writing’s going to shine if
you refer to it as “gorgeous,” “lush,” “verdant,” or “bucolic.”
8 Stick with simple words.
Bestselling
author John Grisham said, “There are
three types of words: (1) words we know; (2) words we should know; (3) words
nobody knows. Forget those in the third category and use restraint with those
in the second.” There’s a difference between having a rich vocabulary and
dropping million-dollar words into your writing just to show off. Unless it’s
your intent to be poetic, keep your language simple and direct.
·
I’m certain sure you are able
to can deliver the quality of work we’re looking for. Let’s discuss talk
about it in our meeting next week.
9 Use contractions.
English speakers use contractions—you’re, I’m, we’re, they’re, can’t,
didn’t. Your writing will sound stiff and formal without them. For example:
·
I am sure you are able to deliver the quality of work
we are looking for. Let us discuss it in our meeting next week.
·
Now, let’s add some contractions. Doesn’t this sound
less stuffy?
·
I’m sure you can deliver the quality of work we’re
looking for. Let’s talk about it in our meeting next week.
10 Try transcribing yourself.
Record yourself talking. You can
learn a lot about conversational writing using this one weird trick! (Sorry,
Buzzfeed, we tease because we care.) Try transcribing a conversation you’ve
recorded (with the other person’s permission, of course). Transcribe a couple
of minutes of the conversation word-for-word. Then, fix or remove any false
starts and remove filler (um, uh, like, you know)—et voila!—you’ve got
yourself some conversational writing. The process of transcribing and editing
will help you learn what to do and what not to.
11 Throw away the grammar rule book . . . within reason.
We, the Grammarly team, give you
permission to start sentences with conjunctions. And (see what we did there?)
unless you’re writing something formal, we’re perfectly okay with you ending
some sentences with prepositions. Write naturally, human! It’s all good.
12 Keep your sentences simple.
Literary greats can write long,
complex sentences with flair. Why not you? Well, for starters you’re probably
not trying to write like Tolstoy, Nabokov, or
Faulkner. Short, less complicated sentences are easier to read. Keep it simple,
silly! But do vary your sentence length so your writing has a nice flow.
13 Read it out loud.
Speaking of
flow, reading your writing aloud can help you determine whether it flows
smoothly. If it sounds choppy and clipped, add a few longer sentences to break
up that steady, monotonous beat. If you find yourself stumbling over parts,
you’ve probably found an overly complex sentence that needs rewriting. I always
recommend reading your work out loud . . . because it works!
14 Infuse your personality into your writing
Letting your
personality shine through is the best way to develop a writing style. Use the
phrases and slang that you would normally use (within reason). When it’s
appropriate, throw in a relevant personal anecdote. In all but the most formal
or professional writing settings, be yourself when you write.
15 Practice, practice, practice!
The ultimate
way to make your writing better is to learn what weakens it in the first place,
and then set your mind to fixing (and eventually preventing) the glitches. The
more you write, edit, and proofread, the better you get at it.
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