10 Tips on How to Improve on Your Writing Skills

Writing is an inevitable part of our life and anybody who has written regularly to become a writer knows a writer’s barriers to writing.

Whether you are a student, a business professional, a blogger or a marketer or someone who makes a living out of writing you would know the importance of your writing skills.

Whether you write a thesis, technical documents, research reports, business emails, presentations, emails for marketing, social media copies, blogs, Video scripts or content of any kind to engage your audience you would understand the importance of good writing.

While there are many strategies you can implement to improve the style and quality of your writing, most of us do not have the patience to write and keep writing for a long time without seeing any visible results.

It is important to thus know how you can improve your writing and ensure that not just your writing is great but is captivating to hook on your readers and keep them engaged throughout till the end.

So how do you make sure that your writing is great? How do you make sure that you’re writing is easy to understand and is easy to comprehend for everyone interested?

How to Improve on Your Writing Skills?

Below are some of the top tips that can help you improve your writing. By using these tips and tricks you can make sure that you write for your audience which is not just informing but also engaging.

1. Practice writing daily

What we practise every day we get better at, it’s a known fact. Writing is no exception. When you write every day you start to engage your brain cells and exercising those big muscles. By writing every day, you start getting into the flow, learn more vocabulary and use it actively in your writing. You also gain more confidence as you write and practice every day. 

But, if you are thinking about what you should write every day or where you should get so many topics to write on, then you don’t have to worry. It can practically be anything. You may write offline and journal your thoughts in a diary including vivid details of the day or you may want to write online in your blog or even email your friends. No matter what you decide to write, it’s important to write every day. For intermediate to advanced writers, it’s a good idea to look at online writing opportunities.

It only needs you to create your blog where are you can start writing on areas that are of your interest. You can call it your niche. Your niche would be that area that you are passionate about and would like to write about content that your audience can read, relate and benefit from. And how would you find your niche? Well, that depends on your previous interests, your passions or it could also be related to your current work or profession.

If you are into marketing you may want to write articles or blogs that are related to the marketing field for a specific sector that could benefit the people looking for advice and guidance in that area. If you are an e-commerce seller you may want to write your blogs related to a particular area or niche of products that you sell which could also inform and help buyers make decisions.

There are more than one ways that you could think about incorporating writing into your everyday routine. You may also take it to the next level by writing online and sharing content with your friends and family on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

2. Write using simple words

Instead of using technical jargon, ensure you use simple words that are understandable by anyone with a reading level up to Grade 12. With that, you will be able to make sure that your content is readable and enjoyed by the majority of the population interested in the topic. You can use tools like Grammarly to check and improvise your writing. While it is absolutely fine to use technical words that need to be which are related to the niche, you should avoid unnecessary use of heavy words that would need the reader to pause the reading to grab the dictionary and look for the meaning of the word online before they could continue. This stops the flow of the reader and could make them abandon or exit the reading without completing the blog or article.

You should always ensure that you keep your writing simple and sweet. While you may want to go into a lot of detail in your article, avoid unnecessary heavy words to keep your reader interested and engaged throughout.

3. Use no filler words

Do not use filler words using filler words in your writing. Words such as just, that, even, seem, very and really are considered filler words and must be omitted. Since we use these words a lot in our speech in conversation, they can easily creep into our writing as well. So it is important to be mindful of the words that you are using. It is also a good idea to keep an eye on the repeated words.

Many of us are prone to using repetitive words in writing which makes the content boring at times. While editing the work it is important to ensure that you check for any filler words or any repetitive words in your writing. Identifying and removing them from your writing will ensure that your writing is smooth and engaging.

4. Cohesion in paragraphs

Cohesion refers to the binding of the paragraphs and flow of sentences and paragraphs from one to another.

Maintaining cohesion in paragraphs is a great way to ensure that your writing is great and the readers enjoy it. While writing your content, you must ensure that the paragraphs are well connected. Also, focus on only one idea per paragraph. This helps the readers to understand the key point or take from the particular paragraph and tend to remember the learnings for a long time.

Inserting a lot of ideas in a single paragraph makes it tough for the readers to retain the information. On a minute level, there must be cohesion between the sentences. That way you make sure that your sentences flow easily from one to another, and that makes it easy for readers to understand the context.

5. Read more

Another great way of improving your writing skills is to read more books by great authors. When you read books of different genres you understand the different styles adopted by the authors. If you especially read the books in your niche, you’ll start developing the writing styles and able to convey your ideas to your readers and keep them engaged throughout.

You will also learn to write the styles that are adopted and appropriate for the readers of your niche. It will help you to learn any key terminology and technical words that may be required to get your ideas across and convey the message in a simple yet powerful manner.

Make it a point to read at least for 20 to 30 minutes every day. Consider making book reading your daily habit and invest time in such a habit that can help you transform from a good writer to a great writer.

6. Edit your work thoroughly

While it is important to consider writing to be a mindful exercise it is also very important to spend time editing your work after your writing. You must read through your paragraphs as you write and also do a thorough check after completing your work and see that there is cohesion between the paragraphs and the ideas flow very well. It is particularly important to check your work for any errors in grammar, spellings, tenses and contractions.

You can also check for passive and active voices and make sure your writing is informative, not repetitive and error-free. While you want to give your readers a thorough idea of the subject that you have chosen to write you also do not want to overload them with information going too deep into the topic.

7. Create a structure for your writing

It is a great idea to start by creating an outline or a structure that you would like to adopt for your write up or article. You can call them as ‘Mind Map’. While creating a mind map, you can identify the main topics and the subtopics that you will cover in your writing. You can also briefly write down the points you will touch upon in every paragraph.

As mentioned earlier relate to only one key idea in every paragraph. Creating the mind map will help you organize your ideas, help your audience understand the key takeaways from each paragraph and help them remember the ideas better.

There are several tools available to create your mind maps and assist you with your writing. Tools like mind note and Evernote are great where you can structure the outline of your article and it will help you prepare and give the confidence to begin your writing.

Creating the structure in advance also helps you in saving time as you have all the ideas and information ready before you start writing. So every time you decide to create a writeup or an article, remember to organise your thoughts as a mind map and you will be amazed to see the ideas transform into great writeups.

8. Just get started

You should know that every popular writer now, had a starting problem then. Every great writer you see or hear about has started writing at a beginner level at some point in time. It is with great practice and regularity that they achieve great milestones. If you haven’t written much yet, but considering writing as your source of earning, know that you will have to start somewhere to be great at it. And that day could be today.

Don’t overthink and just get started. Do not judge yourself and do not think about how others will judge you by reading your work.
Remember that you are responsible for your growth and you are not responsible for others thoughts and opinions. So, instead of worrying too much about what others will think, you should start thinking about the next topic that you would like to write about and devise the strategies you would use.

9. Find your niche

If you haven’t found your niche yet, don’t worry. Your niche will find you. Until then you can get started with any topic that you’re comfortable with. It could be a topic related to your occupation, something that you’re passionate about or something that you really care for. For example, if you are working as a psychologist, you could write various write-ups to inform people about psychology. If you are a child psychologist, you can especially write about it and this can be your niche.

Since you will write about your interest or your area of specialisation, you wouldn’t find much coercion in writing the topic. Instead, it will be easy for you to write on it and you’ll get better at it and take less time every time you write a topic of your interest.

Similarly, if your hobby is gardening you can get started writing blogs on gardening and choose specific areas within it. So that way you are writing things that you love to and it will help you maintain regularity in writing something about it every single day. In the beginning, do not worry too much about the number of words that you write because the primary motive is to just get started.

As you grow and develop a habit of writing every single day, you can start focusing on the length of your right up as well. When you have developed a deep interest in writing, the next step would be writing well-researched topics that will help you gain more authority in the area of your writing.

10. Set a schedule

In addition to starting to write every single day, it is also important to set an everyday writing schedule. This will help you write something every single day at the same time. This helps your brain develop a sense of time and that helps you in getting into regularity.

As it becomes a part of your daily routine, you will also start enjoying the process. Linking your writing schedule to another daily activity of your life can help you remember to do the task every day without fail. For example, you may want to link your writing schedule with your breakfast, so you may want to write every single day soon after you finish your breakfast. This way you will remember about the writing activity and will never miss it. So linking your writing time with another daily activity will help you remember about your writing task and will help you attain regularity.

So we have mentioned some of the best ways with examples to improve your writing by incorporating it into your daily life.
We would like to know which of these tips are you following regularly to improve your skill. Consider sharing this article so others can also benefit.