How to Improve Your Writing Skills

Friday, May 16, 2008

How to Improve Your Writing Skills

The is offered as a digital home study course so you can learn at home, in your own time.

· Many of you may have gone through the education system at a time when students were encouraged to "write first" and worry about technique later. Sadly, "later" was often a long time coming.

· Some may have been unfortunate enough to have been in a class where the teacher had to spend most of the time disciplining unruly students, instead of being able to teach those who wanted to learn.

· If you're trying to learn English as a second language, you may be finding that your written English needs improvement, even though you can speak and read it perfectly.

· Perhaps you are one of those people who can write well enough, but you just feel that your writing needs some 'polish'.

Whatever your needs, the tutorials will have you writing with confidence!

What's in the Tutorials?

TUTORIAL 1 takes you through all the fundamentals of grammar. Learn how to use the parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. You'll soon understand when to use the different types of pronouns (when to use 'who' and when to use 'whom'); how to avoid common errors of agreement and much more. There are detailed explanations of the form and function of all parts of speech, examples, exercises AND answers.

TUTORIAL 2 covers some of the essentials of vocabulary (so you can sprinkle a few more of the million words in our language into your conversation). Find out what NOT to do as well as how to make the most effective use of your store of words. You'll discover simple tips that will help you work out the meaning of new words, so you'll never be embarrassed in company again.

TUTORIAL 3 shows you how to put all the "bits" together, into sentences and paragraphs, and then deals with everybody's favourite: punctuation! Once you've worked through this Tutorial, you'll have all the confidence you need to write perfectly punctuated sentences. The apostrophe will hold no terror for you!

TUTORIAL 4 examines the best way to write for different audiences and purposes (and gives a few tips about spelling). You'll be surprised at the number of different styles of writing you may need in the course of one week. Learn how to master them all.

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How to Master the English Language

By: Dilshad Abdulla

I truly hope that at the end of this short essay I will be able to convey you some pertinent information to point you in the right direction on how to learn the English language. I trust that you will all bear with me while I will try to describe you how I, as a foreigner, did learn the English language and where I struggled most, and by doing this I hope it will stimulate those who would like to improve their language skills.

Having been born in Somalia, with Asian background and with Italian as my mother tongue, I have to admit that I have always been more prone to learn languages rather than being dragooned into doing so. Learning English, however, has been anything but easy or predictable, for when I arrived in London my knowledge of the language was, to say the least, a bit thin. Luckily enough, soon after my arrival, I was able to enrol in a Sixth Form college where I found highly motivated and caring teachers, who patiently taught me English. This, I think, was a significantly important factor that allowed me to learn the language. Nonetheless, those of you who are not fortunate enough in this regard should not despair, because, if enrolling in the right college or being taught by a caring teacher are very important and practical issues in learning a language, even more important, however, is to work hard and to be committed to doing well. I was committed to learning English; more precisely, I desperately wanted to go to university, and mastering the language was the means to achieve my goal.

Now that I have completed my Master’s Degree from Oxford University, and looking back in retrospect, I realize I was quite naïve, for I never imagined learning English was going to be so much work, and the more fluent I became the harder the language became too. English is indeed a very peculiar language: not only does it have so many grammatical rules, but, irritatingly enough, there are also hundreds of exceptions to those rules, which one can master only through years of persistence, dedication, and indefatigable energy, and earnestly speaking I have yet to reach such flawlessness in the use of English.

Some basic recommendations, which I would give to those who were interested in learning the language, are: firstly, buy a good English dictionary, for this is the most important thing that you will need when learning English. Successful English learners use their dictionaries all the time. Secondly, if you want to improve your speaking/writing ability, read the newspaper, and while doing that highlight the words you do not know, and then go and check them on your new dictionary. Thirdly, instead of watching TV, listen to the radio. Fourthly, talk, talk and talk to anyone at anytime and anywhere. And finally, learn to go with the flow while enjoying the many benefits of learning a new language; and even though, at times it may be frustrating and embarrassing to make mistakes, you will eventually learn to accept them, and only when you will focus more on understanding your mistakes rather than judging yourself, then you will start to become fluent.

Friday, May 16, 2008