Juan Said:

how can i improve my English writing skills?????????

We Answered:

To improve any skill means to practice, therefore the best advice is to write.

There is no one "correct" way to approach the writing process: whatever approach works well for you probably is the best approach for you.

Let's follow a writer step-by-step through the writing process.

Thinking
It may seem odd to list "thinking" as a part of the pre-writing process, but this usually is the first step.
In the first few days after John is given his writing assignment, he thinks about his subject and what he might write about it.
He does a little research on his subject. He decides that it is time to examine the subject of his essay more carefully.
The first step of the writing process can occur almost anywhere--while you are driving, while you are taking a shower, while you are mowing the lawn. The first step simply is to think about your subject.

Questioning

As suggested by John's thoughts about his subject, asking questions can be an important early step in the writing process. In a sense, we could even say that an essay answers questions about its subject, so a good early step can be to ask questions about the subject of the essay.

Freewriting

You have a writer in you and an editor in you. The writer just wants to write. The editor, on the other hand, likes to critique what you write. In fact, the editor can be overwhelming at times, interrupting your writing with constant questions, making you doubt almost every sentence that you write.
The biggest challenge for John during the ten minutes that he is pre-writing is to just let himself write without stopping to make any corrections or to read or correct what he had written. By free-writing, John is able to discover some new ideas. It is unlikely that any of the sentences in John's freewriting passage will end up in his essay, but freewriting did prove to be a good way for John to generate ideas that he might want to present and develop in an essay, once he gets to the stage of actually writing a draft.

Listing

Some people find it difficult to allow their words just to flow out on the page with a freewriting activity. "Listing" is a different technique that can also lead to many ideas that could become good material for an essay. Listing, as the name indicates, simply involves making a list. Write down the information in the form of a list, without any logic to the order of items on the list.

Clustering

"Clustering" is another prewriting technique that allows the writer to generate ideas and also suggests ways in which the different ideas might be logically related, which can help the writer get a sense of how the essay could eventually be organized. Write the words of the subject of your essay in the middle of a page, and then circle those words. From this circle in the center, draw lines out to sets of other circles of words, each representing a major idea coming from the center.

Outlining

"Outlining" is related to both listing and clustering. Sometimes, especially for long papers, outlines can be quite detailed, but even a short outline can be helpful in giving the writer ideas and a sense of organization for an essay.

Now start writing your draft.

* Give yourself some quiet time to concentrate on writing your draft. If you try to write your essay with the television on, with music blaring, with your cell phone ringing, and with three friends talking to you, you might find it difficult to focus your attention on the task of writing a draft of your essay.

* Try to type your essay in your word processor from the beginning. Some people still hand write an essay and then type it into the computer, but this approach seems to regard the computer as little more than a fancy typewriter. A word processor can be a handy tool throughout the writing process, especially during the stages when you are getting your thoughts down and trying to make some sense of them.

* Start anywhere. You do not have to start with the introduction. In fact, it might be difficult to start by writing an introduction simply because you do not yet know exactly what you are introducing. If you have at least one good idea that you can develop, you could begin your draft by writing a body paragraph on that idea. With word processors, you can copy and paste and add text anywhere, so you can begin anywhere. Start by writing something that you feel confident about. You can put the pieces together later.

* Do not be afraid of making mistakes. Most likely, no one but you will see the first draft of your essay. The draft will undergo plenty of revision before other people read it, so do not be afraid of making mistakes. Try to let your ideas flow.

* Use an outline. Even a brief outline of your major ideas will give you a sense of direction.

* Be open to discover and explore while you write. People can actually learn about their subjects as they write essays on them, so be open to discovering new ideas about your subject as you are writing a draft. If the new ideas do not fit, you could just delete them later.

* Focus on the big things: the thesis, the organization, and the support and development of ideas. In other words, focus on the content--on what you are saying--as you write your first draft. You can strengthen how you are expressing your ideas later as you rewrite sentences, find better wording, and eliminate errors. As you are writing a first draft, focus on presenting some good ideas and on supporting and developing those ideas with specific evidence.


Happy writing and good luck. :-)