In this article, we discussed the tips on how to become a better writer, we kicked off by explaining the meaning of a writer.
Definition
A write a person who writes books or article to be published. It can also be seen as a person who has written something or who writes in a particular way.
How to Become a Better Writer
Develop a daily writing habit.
Practice makes perfect, so set aside just 10 or 15 minutes each day to free-write. Free writing is a healthy daily habit that allows you to get your thoughts down on paper (or computer) without worrying about outlining or proofreading your ideas. Think of it like a journal, but focus your daily entry on personal growth or a subject in which you want to become — or be seen as — an expert.
Once you’ve finished writing every day, you can then use a tool like Grammarly to help spot mistakes and remember them for the next day.
Try to read every day.
In addition to writing each day, a daily reading habit is also vital to increasing your vocabulary and expanding your writing selection.
Be selective about your reading choices, though. While reading in general does help you take on new points of view, the content you’re reading can have the biggest impact on what you get out of it. According to a study by the University of Florida, reading academic journals and literary fiction can actually make you capable of more complex writing projects than reading simple, curated, or pop-culture web content could help onme to be a better writer.
Capitalize when you’re supposed to.
Notice how the University of Florida published that study referenced in the previous tip. And notice how the “University of Florida” is capitalized.
It might seem obscure to school you on basic rules of grammar, but it’s not always clear what deserves to be capitalized and what doesn’t. Here are two types of writing you should always examine closely when uppercasing your words:
Proper nouns. If it’s an official name of a person, city, company, product, book, publication, country, continent, government job title, or school (we’re likely missing some on this list), capitalize it. These words refer to specific people, places, or things, and should be capitalized to reflect it.
Title case. Whenever you’re titling a new story, book, article, or even a new section of an article, you’ll need capitalizations to distinguish it. This means email subject lines, blog post headlines, and even report titles should be capitalized. Check out the Associated Press Stylebook to learn a popular way of doing so.
Avoid using exclamation points.
Often, we rely on exclamation points too heavily as a support.
“Don’t ask punctuation to do a word’s job, “warns Beth Dunn, chief writer and editor on HubSpot’s product team. “It reduces your message.” Instead, she suggests working on making our words convey more precisely what you want to say. When in doubt about whether to use an exclamation point, consult this flowchart.
Always think about your audience.
You can be casual with your colleagues and peers, but when communicating with management or clients, it’s a good idea to write using more formal grammar.
Keep in mind that “formal” doesn’t necessarily mean stilted or old-fashioned. Rather, it asks that you use contractions sparingly (“it is” instead of “it’s”), pick your greeting words carefully (“hello” and “hi” are more formal than “hey”), and choose your humor wisely.
It’s much harder to take tone in the form of words than it is in person — the types of formality described above are how you can compensate for this and ensure your audience doesn’t feel disrespected.
Cut the filler phrases and buzzwords.
Wordy phrases such as “due to the fact that” should be changed out for their simpler, more straightforward synonyms. (In this case, “because” gets the job done.)
Some slogans may be trendy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re effective in communicating ideas clearly. Remove them from your business communication unless you’re sure that everyone understands exactly what “interaction” means.
Sign up for a free writing course online.
You’d be surprised what you can learn from a free online writing course. Tremendously open online courses (MOOCs) are only multiplying, and you can find free courses offered by Coursera, Udemy, and edX, as well as universities such as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.
Use writing templates.
Templates can save you some serious time and effort. If you have to send out similar letters or memos on a regular basis, create a template with customizable fields. You can always personalize your communication with a sentence or two.
Here are 78 free content creation templates for eBooks, press releases, SlideShare’s, infographics, and more to help you get started.
Make sure you address people correctly.
Avoid accidentally insulting someone by triple-checking names, gender, personal pronouns, and titles.
“If you’re not positive about the spelling of someone’s name, their job title (and what it means), or their gender, either a) check with someone who does know (like their assistant), or b) in the case of gender, use gender-neutral language.
. Drop the word ‘very’ from your vocabulary.
Florence King once wrote, “‘Very’ is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it always weakens what it is intended to strengthen.”
You’d be amazed at the difference removing the word “very” makes in your writing. Here are a few examples:
The software was built by a very passionate group of engineers.
I’m very excited to get started on our next project.
The data that the marketing team received was very indicative of the website traffic from last month.
In all three sentences above, “very” dilutes the strength of the word that comes after it. Now read each sentence without “very.” Don’t they sound so much better?
If you want your writing to speak volumes to your audience, don’t add “very” — add a better adjective. Once you attach “very” to it, you’re giving the adjective a grade that it doesn’t need.
Read your writing out loud.
Before you send anything important, read through it out loud quickly. It may seem a little strange, but reading your writing out loud is one of the most effective ways to catch typos, grammar errors, and awkward phrasing.
Ask for feedback from your peers.
This is perhaps the most important tip of all for becoming a better writer. If you read your own writing enough times, it suddenly becomes just a wall of words, playing in your head with no real meaning. The best way to find out how your writing will hit the ears of your readers is to have someone else read it.
Set specific goals
Before you begin writing, it’s important to clarify your objectives for improvement and determine your goals. Maybe you want to work on your spelling and grammar, prose or technical expertise. With clear goals in mind, you have something tangible to work toward and measure progress, where you can achieve specific milestones to mark that progress. Set each goal in accordance with your skill level and give yourself a time limit for each
Take notes
As you read others’ work, take notes on their style, structure and word choice. Taking handwritten notes can help you highlight the things you like in writing and discover where you might need more practice.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a creative or technical writer learning to simplify your language may help you not only improve your writing quality but also your efficiency. Consider using simpler words and sentence structures and eliminating “fluff,” or extra words in sentences and paragraphs that don’t add direct value to the writing.