Improve Writing
I have been an English teacher for several years, and I am a pretty good one. You see, I'm a natural at it. I've always had skills at writing. I never had to work to improve writing very much. It always came easily to me and, when there were weaknesses, I was able to correct them. It was almost like I was born writing.
In many ways, this has worked to my advantage as an English teacher, but in at least one respect it hasn't. Although I have good writing instincts, it is hard for me to teach others how to improve writing. I can look at your writing and tell you at a glance what you need to improve. Some of my students need to improve grammar skills, others need more description, and still others have problems with organization. Coming up with exercises to improve writing, however, took a lot of work.
One thing I have found is to try to put myself in the position of one of my students. I pretend that I have some writing difficulty that I have to get over. For example, I imagine that I have trouble with correct grammar or that I want to improve my description writing. Then I logically go through the steps that I might take to do it.
Another thing I do is to hold private writing tutoring workshops with some of my students free of charge. This is a great help to them, but it is also help for me. I get a lot of the hardest students in my private workshops, and I can try out my ideas to improve writing on them. Sometimes they are successful and other times they aren't. Either way, both me and the student learn something from the session.
There is no easy how to improve writing skills guide, but that doesn't mean that improving your writing is out of the reach of most people. The key is to get the help you need. For some people, just a good book on how to write is enough. For other people, a writing course or professional tutor is necessary. Either way, if you persevere you are sure to develop your writing to a much higher level. You may not come out of your writing courses as a Shakespeare, but practically anyone can aspire to be a Stephen King. All it takes is hard work and a modicum of linguistic competence.
