When reading can no longer improve writing
An interesting opinion I received from my teacher today. She emphasized that my writing has reached to a point where reading will not improve my writing abiliyu by a large margin. She suggested that I should lay off the idea of "read to write" practice, and get started on practicing writing rigorously instead.
I just want to ask everyone what is their opinion about this?
Hi... i think that you should read a lot.... !!!! reading is the only way to improve writing. it also helps to read difficult essays or books and write down hard words you do not know and learn these words.. so you get a greater treasury of words. :)
By reading you receive an understanding in how to write, so i do believe reading can improve your writing.
I think she meant that at least your grammatical skill is proficiency enough to write an normal essay.
However, reading is a way to brainstorm the ideas. You need some materials with deeper content.
My opinion is...reading and understanding grammar structure first, if someone already have basic English skill, should start to read some materials such as Grammar in use.
Understand grammar structure first, then it is easier to read an article and understand the whole meaning.
Every time I wrote an essay, it looks kind of hard for me. I had problems at the beginning most. Sometimes, spending too much time on revise it make me think many other issue that mot related.
i also face the same problem. i think its because i thought in my own language, then translate it to english to generate the content. that's why sometimes my sentences are not sound.
I need some help and ideas on improving my English grammar
I am a Chinese student and I am going to take a IELTS test in December .My writing and speaking always poor and I have no idea to improve it for my grammar knowledge can not help me to handle these.Is there one can give me some suggestions?
Try reading essays on this website and hopefully you grasp an idea of what to write about...
My main suggestion is that WHILE reading, you should do your best to see the type of sentence structure being used. I used to plow through books daily, and as a result of that you start to see new types of sentences that you may not have seen before. In most of the writing I end up doing nowadays, I always end up using a few sentence structures that some people don't see very often. Not to mention the Vocab that comes with it. When you read certain books you pick up words that you can use in new ways and new areas
The best thing that helped me to improve was to get the opinions of good writers on my writing. Ask your teachers, parents, peers, friends. Anybody who you feel has better writing skills than you and take all their opinions into consideration and go from there. Your writing won't get better instaneously, so be patient and work hard and it'll pay off, I promise!
I would just advise you to practice your grammar, and be yourself!
You can improve your writing by learning from the writing styles from many english materials such as magezines,newspaper,stories,novels,etc.The more you read these,the better your writing will be.Although I recommend you these,I'm very lazy :)) well,it's easier said than done.
Read a lot. I would recommend read what you like, interested. If you love playing cricket then read about it or listen commentary. The more you listen the more you gain.
Don't just think but start writing and post here or ask your teacher, parents, friends to help you in writing.
Initially, write simple sentence and they try to write compound and complex sentences with new word power.
Secondly, Read and listen news. The best way to improve speak a lot even though it is wrong and ask someone to correct your mistakes.
There are many book available in market buy it and read it regularly will gradually improve your English.
Good luck.
Read books and while reading kind of see how they express the book. Practice writing essays and then find a teacher or someone to proofread it. The most important part is to be yourself!
A Vietnamese student - how to improve writing skills? Extra classes?
Hello guys, I'm a Vietnamese student and I'm 15 years old.
I have an intention of gaining scholarship to study abroad. That's why I'm now preparing for the Toefl exam and SAT exam. However, I don't like to take extra classes because I always believe in the self study. However, i find it rather difficult for me to get a high point without specific strategy,especially speaking and writing section.
So that I write this topic to solicit you all for your help.Can you provide me some guidance to improve my writing skill and can you fix my essay?
Thank you guys so much if you can help me! :)
A very good way to improve your writing is to read but think about why the author writes the way they write. Eventually your writing will become clearer and easier for others to read.
To improve your writing skill, you can buy some books and documents about writing, or search for them on the Internet (as far as I know, there are a plenty of books about Toefl writing on the webs) and follow their instructions.And like David said, read a lot. It will help you improve your vocab and get to know about different sentence structures and expressions. Most important of all, write as much as you can.
And if you want your essays fixed, write and post them on this forum, other members will help you.
Good luck!
You have to read a lot and your writing will be better. I am trying to do this way too. :)
thank you guys so much,im very grateful to you ^^
can i have your email? If you don't mind,can you fix my essays?
Of course! To improve my writing I read a lot and tried to figure out why and how an author used specific tools to illustrate a point. It helped me to understand what writing tools I should use to present a certain effect on the reader. I also asked others to help me with my essays as well! :)
Getting your paper revised frequently is real important
In order to improve your writing skills you have to be organized
First defined the style:
Writing a narrative- Connectors of time - events connect from the farthest to the closest or the least important to the most significant
Writing a descriptive- Using the senses- hear see smell taste touch- prepositional phrases to organize space from outside inside and finally surroundings or up to down or left to right
Writing a descriptive of a person from head to toes- physical characterisitcs and hair,eyes,clothes, etc then personality traits and opinion
Writing an argumentative essay : pro and cons, opinion and offering solutions give the two sides of the topic then emphasize the balance or the possible solution
Writing a comparison and contrast or cause and effect- use adverbials and comparatives and superlatives, connetors of cause and result and round up in the final
consider each idea per topic in a separate paragraph plus at least two details or justificacions for your assumptions and give examples and try to end with a clarification sentence or rounding end sentence.
I recommend succesful writing by virginia evans proficiency or upper intermediate. It's clear and it gives clear examples you can also read recommendations from this forum on other essays, test yourself wrting some exams topics common for toefl here too
Hope this help you
watch a thousands of movies, repeat after them. write, and read. then take IELTS.
The Greatest Pleasure for a Moderator.. develop a passion for writing
I have a question I want to ask all the professional moderators. I am a college student trying to pursue a degree in English literature. As funny as it sounds, writing is my weakest subject. Although I have knowledge of writing an essay, I feel as if I have never truly learned it the correct way. I feel as if I am just starting to understand how to do certain things such as structuring sentences in different styles and patterns. However, when it comes to the content of my essay, I feel that it lacks so many things to make it a good and SOLID paper. I know basic grammar and sentence structure but how can I excel to become a more advanced writer? How can I write an essay that will impress my professors and not make them look down on me as a simple, uncreative writer. As a novice in this area, I would like to ask for serious help and advice. Not just something vague like "read more books" or "keep writing" but something that is more specific. How did you guys get to where you are right now? What methods and what procedures did you go through to make your essay writings solid and good? Moderators, if you guys can please help me out I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time if you did read this!
Just read and lot of books and concentrate on how they have written each paragraph and developed a point
Read a lot. Exactly that, even though it's vague, that's what you do. Read magazines, editorials. News articles. Classic novels.
Read speeches, like those of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. I'm sure there are lists of like, "10 greatest speeches" and things like that. Read them, analyze them. What parts were good? Why is it good?
Before you develop your own style of writing, figure out who you want to write like, then just copy them. It's like how painters copy the masters first; you become good by copying who is already good.
About content:
Elaborate on things. Ask yourself "why?" or "so what?"
Don't be shallow on topics. Stay focused.
I hope I helped some, good luck!
Well... I think creativity comes with passion and confidence. That is something another person cannot teach. However, with what you've written above, I feel you can easily be a prolific writer. You have expressed your problem very effectively and of course creatively :D
Just don't bother about your it. Let your ideas flow free and pen them down in rough sketches. Then organize them better. Post your writing here and we provide you with feed backs and that'll help you build confidence. :)
Bored? Lets start writing! Essay includes advantages of writing :D
writing isnt actually my favourite thing but i do love reading descriptively written books which actually have the inspiring
content in it , but today i'am actually thinking of writing . well, to be honest my cousin had actually made me to try and
start writing and i do think its a fighter to the usual boredom which you,i and all of us are victims of it atleast once a day.
i do not have a topic in my mind right now so i think i will be writing on this topic itself which is 'writing' i know it sounds
funny but trust me its fun too. yes it might not be in your list of favorite hobbies but you can actually pass your time with it
and you don't even notice because its said 'time flies'. two words but filled with truth!
i know we people are different we have different hobbies different interest and different personality, some people like writing on the other hand some doesn't but there's one advantage if you are just like me sitting with a dumb bored face and completely don't know what to do and is also not that good in writing essays.etc you can TRY.yes you CAN
you might not be the best but at least you get some company to share your thoughts to.
writing diary's is an interesting job too, i prefer writing job because you have to write each and every day to maintain your diary,it isn't that hard but its just a simple task to complete everyday and fill it with every single feeling of yours to a non living object, that sounds stupid but when you give it a try you'll not even recognize that you've been writing your deepest secrets into just papers which cant even lock them but you also do have an enjoyable time writing all the fun you did whole day,some sad days filled with emotions and surprises, some lonely days ,but every single day of your life into just some pile of papers but you do feel good expressing your feelings which is actually really healthy for your brain too!
so in the end all i want to say is that writing isn't that bad,try and you will feel splendid,just give it a try!! because many people don't even try it but starts objecting, the least you can do is to try and start writing anything which is coming on your mind just write it all, it has many plus points like creativity building, mind sharpness,improving your grammar and loads more but all you have to do is to try, write, and be proud of it..!!
|Aimen :)|
The more you read, the more you write better. You can open your own thread, and there are a lot of experts freely help you. Good luck on your journey!
How can I achieve higher marks in Reading and Writing sections?
Hi Team,
hope you are doing fine and having a great day.
I had my General IELTS Exam recently and got the following marks:
Reading 5.0
Writing 6.0
Speaking 6.5
Listening 7.5
Overall 6.5
it is required to get 6.5 at least at each section for me to be eligible for the migration.
based on the above marks, sadly I missed Reading and Writing sections :(
Actually in the Exam once I reached the last Paragraph in the reading section, time was almost over so I have filled all options there as " A " the first option!
Needed Assistance
=================
I will have my next IELTS Attempt next November.
can you please advise how can I achieve higher marks in Reading and Writing sections?
do you have a prep book for the IELTS exam? prep books help a lot because they outline key instructions for each section of the exam. they also give every helpful examples and practice tests too see how well you are doing. if you practice at least half and hour everyday with the prep book and going over the reading and writing sections, i am sure you will bump up your scores. good luck!
i just getting a barrons or princeton prep book!
Help in Essay
hello i am new at this page.plz help me after some days my exams are coming .i am bit weak in essay,prscie and composition plz sugesst and teach me
Regards
Read a lot of newspapers too! change your social media accounts to English. Write once in a while about a topic (it doesnt have to be a large article) and give it to someone so they can correct it for you.
As for improving your vocab in your writing - it can also be helpful to use thesaurus while you write an essay. Whatever you write, make it your mission to repeat as few words as possible! For example, if you would use the word "difficult" three times, go back and replace two of them with "demanding" and "laborious"
However, bear in mind that not every word a thesaurus will provide is exactly interchangeable in every scenario; you'll need to make sure the word you're trying to use actually fits.
Use the thesaurus for word ideas, and the dictionary to confirm that your choice actually works in context.
Resource: "grow your vocabulary and become a better writer at the same time" by Mike MacClenathan
read, write and watch shows or movies in English. Listening and understanding what you hear is different than understanding what you read.
Also, I agree that you have to learn to think in the language. When I was learning Japanese, I did not get very good until I lived there and was surrounded by Japanese people and could only communicate in Japanese. Fortunately, English is a much more common language to speak, so I am sure you can find native speakers to speak with as well. The more you speak with native speakers, the more you will be able to think in the language. But watching movies will help too. You still have to think in the language to be able to keep up with the movie.
Good luck!
I highly recommend watching a lot of documentaries! Learning is best done when it happens in an interactive and fun environment! Look up documentaries about subjects that you're interested in. Personally, I watched Crime documentaries. Also, application is key. It's not enough to just memorize 100 flashcards. Buy a vocabulary notebook that is small and portable. Whenever you learn a new word, write it down. Continue practicing by using it in your everyday writing and speaking. Hope this helps! Good luck!
Hi,
I am here, too be a omniscient(being very optimistic so take with pinch of salt) in English.
I find foremost to do is to improve vocabulary, which will help you in all aspects of English.
Try to learn root words, common suffixes, prefixes. that way can learn expeditiously and efficiently.
incorporate vocabulary in daily usage.
Best regards
I think one way to improve English writing skills is to get help from social media like face book and twitter. instead of fowling your friend ,brother , etc follow news agency, Tv channels, Sport channel , etc.read them ,put some comments ,argue with others about one specific idea and etc. Although it does not help you to improve your academic writing skills but still it helps to learn how to use right verb or sentence in right place.
