Today’s topic is about writing skills to understand what is the best strategy for perfecting your writing skills. After extensive research, we have concluded that by following these five tips, we can generally hone our skills when it comes to writing. Let us arm ourselves of paper and pen and get ready to surf the rivers of ink.
How To Read
“By reading, we are not looking for new ideas, but thoughts already thought by us, which acquire a seal of confirmation on the page. We are struck by the words that resonate in an area already ours - which we already live - and by making it vibrate, they allow us to grasp new ideas within ourselves.”
The first rule to improve your writing style and equip yourself with a greater linguistic variety is the one that they have always repeated to us in school until exhaustion: read.
It may be that the readings that were imposed on you at school did not correspond to your interests and that, at times, they were perceived as an imposition to be faced with suffering. However, it would be best if you were not discouraged: with all the possibilities we have today, at a technological level, to access the most varied texts and contents, it is impossible not to find something to read that even minimally reflects your interests and passions.
Reading Through Books
By purchasing books online, we have access to an almost endless catalogue and the resources that the web itself offers is many and valid. Whether you have a passion for photography or a particular historical period, there are many online and offline sources from which you can draw to fill your curiosity and the desire to learn. Reading, we can say, has never been easier. Even financial resources are no longer a problem: the resources available online, such as blogs, are often free and many books are available in electronic format at low prices.
The variety of sources available today is not only a benefit for accessibility but also variety; to have the variety you need contamination. Keep in mind that it is essential to broaden the type of content read. Get inspired by reading on different themes, explore different writing styles and linguistic registers.
Different Style of Writing
A diverse repertoire of styles helps to write with the most appropriate approach depending on the topic or tool chosen to communicate. A journalistic technique is beneficial in some cases but not suitable if, for example, we want to convey emotions and release the poetic charge of the narration.
In addition to spending whole days in bookstores and libraries, you must not forget that the final goal we have set ourselves is to improve writing skills. So try your hand at writing. Write about the events of the day, about a particular event, about a person you met, about a memory of yours, write with the utmost freedom on any topic you find interesting and stimulating and try to do it, even if only for a half hour or a now, every day. By keeping some regularity you can see important improvements as happens when you train for any discipline.
“Gutta cavat lapidem”, went a famous Latin saying. It means that the drop digs the rock, albeit little by little, with tenacity and constancy. The simplest trick is to keep some sort of diary that allows you to engage in writing regularly. Don’t be afraid to write down your thoughts spontaneously. You can start with a sentence or a thought to develop a more articulated speech and broader considerations about it. You can also choose to go deeper into a topic you’ve come across or that intrigued you. If so, document and read more about that topic so that as long as you write you can enrich your reasoning with more details.
EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY
It is estimated that the Italian language is made up of between 210,000 and 270,000 words. The calculations can vary a lot depending on the criteria adopted (use of neologisms, etc.) but one thing is evident: we have a very wide vocabulary that we can use to transport our thoughts to paper, with accuracy and effectiveness, and give written form to our creativity.
To expand the vocabulary it can be useful to write down all those words we run into either by reading books or listening to the radio, in order to have a sort of handbook that we can consult every time we want to reuse those words. A bit like when you are studying other languages. After all, even our own language needs to be deepened and studied given its richness and complexity.
Another technique is to take the dictionary and find new words that we do not know. Write these words down somewhere along with their meanings and make a commitment to use them regularly in your writing sessions. Using these newly learned words will help you get used to their use and you will see that after a little practice you will spontaneously use them.
A curiosity: did you know that rapper Eminem, according to a Musixmatch estimate made on 100 songs, used almost 9,000 different words in his lyrics? It is said that he spent hours studying the dictionary just to learn new terms that he could use to write his passages.
LESS IS MORE
In English this phrase is used, invented by the famous German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, to express the concept that simplicity adds value to complexity.
Very often the risk is to be verbose and linger even when not necessary. Rivers of words with complex sentences that climb the paths of syntax.
Try, in your writing exercises, to use the essential words to express a concept, without too many trappings that weigh down the speech.
Use short sentences. Write effectively, try not to dwell too much on irrelevant aspects of the speech. If you have to digress, make sure that it enriches the story and develops coherently with what you are narrating. The reader should never have the feeling of getting lost in a maze of words. He shouldn’t feel confused or have the feeling that he is wasting his time. If you are concise and lively, the reader will be more easily engaged and will get carried away by the reading.
READ
We started the article by emphasizing the importance of reading. No less important is reading what you have written. Indeed read it and reread it.
You can have written a beautiful piece in one go, conveying all your emotional charge and your stylistic code through the pen. However, if you don’t pick up what you wrote, if you don’t read it again, you will hardly be able to improve your writing skills. If you really can’t reread what you’ve written with a critical eye, ask a friend to do it. You will certainly find someone else willing to correct your writings or, rather, to bring their own critical point of view to your paper.
You can also re-read old content you wrote some time ago. Instead of keeping them aside in a drawer, we can rewrite and improve them. This way you can keep track of your progress and at the same time put into practice what you have learned by practicing. It’s a way to track your progress and understand what mistakes you used to make while writing so you can continually improve yourself.
Final Thoughts
Remember that developing good writing skills also helps you cope with everyday life. In any field, from university to office, whether you need to speak in public or just have a chat with friends, there are many advantages you can have in following the points we have just listed: you can extend your culture, have more solid, improve reasoning, acquire effective communication skills and above all learn how to communicate in writing in a better way.
According to Research Prospect, who’s famous for their editing and proofreading services in the USA, and the UK. To develop good writing skills, you should read a variety of writers, every writer has their unique writing style, and you can copy them or make your style.