Improve Your Writing Skills (Pt.1)

 

Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Like the petrol and car relationship, without solid skills writers cannot move ahead. These skills don’t come overnight, and they require patience and determination. You have to work smart and hard to acquire them. Only with experience, you can enter the realm of effective, always-in-demand writers.

Of course, effective writing requires a good command of the language in which you write or want to write. Once you have that command, you need to learn some tips and tricks so that you can have an edge over others in this hard-to-succeed world of writers. There are some gifted writers, granted. But gifted writers also need to polish their skills frequently in order to stay ahead of the competition and earn their livelihood.

1. Grammar, Punctuation & Co.

• Use English Punctuation Correctly
  A quick and useful crash course in English punctuation.
• HyperGrammar
  An extensive electronic grammar course at the University of Ottawa’s Writing Centre.
• Grammar Girl
  Mignon Fogarty’s quick and dirty tips for better writing. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules.
• Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
  This site contains some useful articles that explain common grammar mistakes, basic punctuation, basic sentence concepts etc. Worth visiting and reading. The Learning Centre contains similar articles, but with more examples.

2. Common Mistakes And Problems

• Common Errors in English
  A collection of common errors in English, with detailed explanations and descriptions of each error.
• AskOxford: Better Writing
  A very useful reference for classic errors and helpful hints with a terrible site navigation.
• English Grammar FAQ
  A list of common English language problems and how to solve them. This list was compiled through an extensive archive of postings to alt.usage.english by John Lawler, Linguistics, U. Michigan, Ann Arbor.

3. General Writing Skills

• Infoplease: General Writing Skills
  Various articles that aim to teach students how to write better.
• The Elements of Style
  A freely available online version of the book “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk, Jr., the classic reference book.
• Using English
  UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics. Browse our grammar glossary and references of irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, ESL forums, articles, teacher handouts and printables, and find useful links and information on English. Topics cover the spectrum of ESL, EFL, ESOL, and EAP subject areas.
• Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
• The ultimate cheat sheet with various Web copy resources that copywriters can use to lean the best writing tips and ideas.

4. Practical Guides to Better Writing Skills

• Copywriting 101: An Introduction to Copywriting
  This tutorial is designed to get you up and running with the basics of writing great copy in ten easy lessons. Afterwards, you’ll get recommendations for professional copywriting training, plus links to tutorials on SEO copywriting and writing killer headlines.
• Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
  The ultimate cheat sheet with various Web copy resources that copywriters can use to lean the best writing tips and ideas.