I'm a fairly poor writer, and am hoping that some of you could recommend resources that will help me improve. I'm hoping it's mostly reputable websites or other free materials, because I can't afford to spend any money on books right now. I started reading Strunk's "The Elements of Style" recently, but think it's too advanced for me. He refers to a lot of things I'm not familiar with. It's sad, because I don't even know the basics, like what an adjective is or the components of a sentence.
A little background may help you give me advice. I'm a 24 year old that recently graduated from college. I was born and raised in the US, so English is my first (and only) language. When I try to search via Google, I keep finding ESL resources, which don't seem to be what I'm looking for. I'm looking for resources that will start at the basics, yet are written for someone who's got some knowledge of the language and vocab.
It's sad, because I don't even know the basics, like what an adjective is or the components of a sentence.
When you took basic composition in college, you must have used a text that explained adjectives and the like. Did you hang onto it? If not, go online and get yourself a used copy of just about any handbook written for college composition students.
For online grammar guides and similar resources, I recommend the OWL on the Perdue university website.
I was going to suggest the Owl at Purdue as well! Here's a link: owl.english.purdue.edu
They have a section for 7th-12th grade students that might be a good place to start.
I also enjoyed a book called "Eat, Shoots, and Leaves" by Lynne Truss. It is a quick and funny read. Your local library might have a copy. My library also has a used book section where you can pick up books for a nominal donation (a buck or two). There are always a lot of writing texts in there.
I think that you know a lot more than you think you do. Your writing on this forum is intelligent and easy to follow. I didn't know a lot of the English terms for the parts of speech until I started to learn them in Spanish. If you were to ask me to explain what a future progressive verb was in English, I wouldn't have been able to explain it until I learned it in Spanish (By the end of my senior year, I will have been taking Spanish for three years). I think that your issue is more with terminology than knowledge and application. I respect your desire to better yourself though. I am here because I share the desire to better myself!
Have you ever done Adlibs? They really helped me as a kid to understand some of the parts of speech. It asks you to fill in nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and then you read back the story with nonsensical (and often humorous) results. My parents did Adlibs with my brother and me when we were young . . . until they got tired of us saying poop for every noun, pooping for the verbs, poopy for the adjectives, and poopily for the adverbs. I guess we were just that age for the bathroom humor.
Here are a couple of websites that give you an overview of the English parts of speech and grammar:
depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/grammar/partsofspeech.html
grammar.about.com/od/terms/a/topgramterms.htm
Your problems don't seem to lie with grammar, judging from the way your post reads. Why do you say you are a poor writer? If this is something you have concluded from low essay marks in the past, then your problems may lie more in your ability to organize a logical argument than in your ability to use English correctly. Your essay writing might also suffer from issues of style that are not really problems of grammar.
Your problems don't seem to lie with grammar, judging from the way your post reads. Why do you say you are a poor writer? If this is something you have concluded from low essay marks in the past, then your problems may lie more in your ability to organize a logical argument than in your ability to use English correctly. Your essay writing might also suffer from issues of style that are not really problems of grammar.
Actually, I received pretty good grades in writing assignments as a kid. And in college, I received good writing grades on assignments for English, philosophy, etc.
I should reword my initial claim. I am a mediocre writer and would like to become a good writer. I have some intuitive sense of how to use the language, but I don't explicitly understand what an adjective is, the basic components of a sentence, etc. Before I start reading about style, I feel like I must understand grammar because Strunk uses a lot of terminology that I am unfamiliar with.
There are all sorts of grammar books that will teach you the terminology, from very basic learner's texts to more complicated tomes:
The best way to learn the terms, I found, was to start teaching writing to ESL students. Very few people who have only ever studied one language are familiar with the terminology used to discuss grammar, because they don't need to be able to describe grammar in order to use it correctly. Teaching someone else to write who is using English as a second language though, forces you to look up and learn the rules of English grammar so that you can articulate explanations of rules of usage you know instinctively to be correct.
I am not certain, btw, that the best way to improve your writing is to study grammatical terminology. It's not a bad idea, and will probably be somewhat beneficial, but you might find that writing articles, essays, short stories, and the like, and posting them here for feedback, or submitting them to writing workshops, teaches you more.
I am not certain, btw, that the best way to improve your writing is to study grammatical terminology. It's not a bad idea, and will probably be somewhat beneficial, but you might find that writing articles, essays, short stories, and the like, and posting them here for feedback, or submitting them to writing workshops, teaches you more.
I agree. I plan on doing all of those things simultaneously. I just need to know some of the basics that I should have learned long ago.
Well, beyond consulting the obvious books written specifically to teach grammar, you could also post some of your specific questions here. I'm sure you aren't the only one to visit this site who has such questions, and one of the moderators or contributors will probably be able to answer your queries.
best way to study styles of writing is to read, everything newspapers, magazines books the internet etc and you develop it through out your life.
Yes, and then write in response to what you read. Keep a journal in which you jot notes about or your thoughts in reaction to the things you read. If you like, you can use the same notebook to keep a list of new words and/or especially nice sentences encountered while reading. (Remember to put quotation marks around any passages copied from readings and to note the source, in case you want to use them as quotes in the future)
Yes, and then write in response to what you read.
That's actually a really good idea. You'll probably find over time that your entries tend to mimic the style of whatever you have been reading, a sure sign that you are learning to move between style types, even if you continue to have trouble articulating the differences between them to others.
Economist . . . you were the person asking about vocabulary building as well . . . right?
I forgot about one of my favorite resources. freerice.org. They have vocab quizzes that I enjoy (they have some in geography, art, and foreign languages too). They don't use the words in sentences, but it is still helpful to learn more precise definitions to words that you thought you knew and to recognize patterns.
