5 How Do I Improve My Writing?
Savannah had always wanted to be a writer, from the time that her grandmother told her as a child that she had a writer’s name. So Savannah had always written, with an eye toward her writing growth. And grow, Savannah did. Even in grade school, Savannah had already earned the reputation of a strong writer. Through college, Savannah’s writing improved by leaps and bounds, spurred on by the training and feedback that her courses and co-curricular activities supplied her. Savannah’s writing improved nearly as much in her first few years in the workplace, where she wrote continuously, while her supervisors and clients gave her frequent feedback. Yet even in mid life, Savannah’s writing continued to mature and evolve, as she explored other writing forms, types, and genres.
Growth
Growth as a writer is possible for all of us, although we start at different points, grow in different ways and at different rates, and end up at different places. Growth is also necessary for novice writers. Few if any of us start out where we need or want to end up. The especially good news, though, is that with the right practices, growth as a writer is not merely possible but more nearly inevitable. Writing is such a reflexive practice that certain practices will inevitably influence and modify your reflexes. We don’t decide to write one way, for instance like a fifth grader, and then remain that way. Instead, as you write, the conditions under which you write, including your assignments, research, clients, collaborators, editors, readers, and writing technology, all influence both your considered and reflexive writing. You can’t help but improve your writing if you follow certain practices.
Course
Don’t expect, though, to become a great writer overnight. The course of your growth is likely to be long, indeed for as long as you write. That’s a remarkable thing about writing, as about most other crafts, that you’ll continue to add to your skills and refine your methods for as long as you practice your writing craft. You may write for fifty years, yet you’ll still notice things about your writing that you hadn’t noticed before, things that you’ll then either accentuate or abandon. But don’t expect your writing improvement to be linear, either. Your writing will more likely improve in fits and starts. You may write for a year or even years without much growth and development, while your surface skills and psychological or spiritual things deep within you ripen, before suddenly your writing takes its next leap. Examine and adopt the following practices to urge your writing forward and upward, but also be patient with yourself as your deeper roots mature.
Training
Education and training in writing can form a foundation for your writing craft. Grade school and ordinary activities in the home will form your basic writing skills but may not otherwise greatly challenge and hone them. Schools teach to standards. Once you meet basic writing standards, the required curriculum may not further challenge you to advance your writing skills. You may instead need to have chosen elective writing courses if available or, if not available, pursued co-curricular programs like a school newspaper. College undergraduate and graduate programs offer you more opportunities for curricular education and co-curricular training in writing. Majors, programs, or courses in education, English, creative writing, technical writing, journalism, media, communications, literature, linguistics, rhetoric, marketing, and publishing all require or offer writing instruction. You may find similar adult online courses. College co-curricular activities like a newspaper, literary magazine, debate club, speech club, journal publication like law review, theater, writing competition, creative writing club, and serving as a writing tutor can all supply helpful writing training and experience. You may find similar adult activities outside of any formal schooling. Don’t overlook formal or informal writing training to improve your writing.
Technology
Technology can also improve your writing. If you consistently write in a word-processing program with its spell checker and grammar checker functions turned on, you may catch most if not all of your typing errors. But you may also learn that you’ve been spelling a few words wrong or using them in the wrong places for the wrong meaning. You may also discover that you’ve consistently been adding a possessive apostrophe where one does not belong. Depending on which word-processing software you use and which functions you turn on, you may also learn that you’ve been using trite phrases too often. These automated functions aren’t perfect. Run your writing through a couple of different grammar checkers, and you’ll find that they each have their own preferences. They’ll also at times reject perfectly sound usages. They’ll also at times reject especially incisive or creative writing. Don’t let an automated function turn your original creative writing into standardized mush. But consider regularly using automated functions to correct basic errors in your writing and perhaps also subtly improve your writing flow and style.
Research
You can also improve your writing with frequent writing-research queries as you write. Get in the practice of instantly looking up the definition of any word, over the usage of which you hesitate. Your instinct may be telling you that you are misusing the word or that another word will serve you better. In some word-processing programs, a right click on the troubling word will give you an instant definition of it from the drop-down menu. When you find yourself searching your mind for a better word than the one that first comes to mind, or when you’ve already overused the right word and want to relieve the reader with an equivalent term, instantly query your web browser for synonyms. Doing so will refresh and expand your vocabulary. Your writing may also benefit when you make instant web-browser queries over questions like the usage of diacritical marks, as in the Spanish tilde (~) over the letter n, German umlaut (¨) over vowels, and Maori or Hawaiian macron (¯) for a long vowel sound. Don’t just fumble through your writing. Instead, make a quick query using your web browser anytime you have a niggling sense that your writing is missing something precise, technical, or interesting.
Practice
Of course, like most things, writing improves with practice. You don’t necessarily need an electronic or human critic to improve your writing, although they can certainly help. You will improve your own writing, the more that you write. Just write. A lot. When your work supervisor needs something technical or instructive written down, volunteer to do it. When a family member needs a thank-you note or condolence written, volunteer to do that, too. When your employer needs ad copy, website content, or a newsletter, volunteer to do that, too. When your favorite charity needs a grant application written, volunteer to do that, too. When your child’s school needs a play script with some limericks, volunteer to do that, too. It almost doesn’t matter the form or purpose of the writing. Indeed, each writing form and purpose challenges you to stretch, alter, and improve your writing. If no one needs or wants you to write, then write on your own for your own edification. Journal frequently, if not daily. Write poetry, plays, short stories, and book drafts. Write children’s books, cookbooks, travel logs, and prayers. Set your mind and hands to the joyful writing task.
Feedback
If you truly want your writing to improve, and you’re ready for the emotional and relational challenge, then write with substantial critical feedback. Writing is so personal that critical feedback on your writing can indeed be an emotional challenge. Writers can wrap their identity up in their writing, making criticism feel like a personal attack rather than helpful feedback. Don’t let that be you. If you had food on your blouse or beard, you’d want someone to tell you quickly so that you could wipe it off. The same is true with writing. If you’re consistently making mistakes in usage, punctuation, or grammar, then you should want someone to tell you quickly so that you can stop making the embarrassing error. Feedback can come from several sources. If you write at work, welcome and encourage feedback from your supervisor and colleagues. They may have opinions that they’ll withhold unless you ask. If you write for clients, once again welcome and encourage their feedback. They’ll probably tell you anyway, if they’re paying for your writing and don’t understand or appreciate it. But ask them anyway, in the form of an offer to improve your service. You can also ask family members and friends, who are already so generous as to read your writing, to give you frank feedback. Listen politely to whatever anyone shares, whether you appreciate and value the critical review or not.
Editors
If, in your writing, you work with editors, then you’ll get feedback whether you want it or not. Professional editors, employed by news outlets, journals, book publishers, writing companies, advertising and marketing firms, and others, know the conventions to which your writing must conform. You may not agree with your editors, but unless they solicit your opinion, your opinion generally doesn’t matter. Editors are responsible for conforming your writing to the standards of the publication forum. Most, if not all, of their editing may be of that compliance type, fitting your piece to publication standards rather than purporting to improve the style or content of your writing. Learn your editors’ requirements, conventions, and preferences. Don’t fight the small stuff. If, for instance, their writing standards manual is The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) instead of the MLA Handbook, then write to the CMOS style. Editing work can be that demanding and precise. Editors may have to follow one of the dozen or so different popular writing standards manuals. Don’t fight editors. Instead, learn and adjust. Your editors will love you for it.
Mentors
A writing mentor can also help you improve your writing. A writing mentor may be willing to read and comment on your writing, even to make a close and critical review as an editor would. But that’s not a writing mentor’s better role. A mentor instead inspires, coaches, and guides you in your writing interest and career. A mentor’s willingness to share the mentor’s own writing education, training, process, and career may be exactly what you need to shape your own writing education, training, process, and career. Your writing mentor may also discern things about your writing character, experience, and affinities that the mentor can share with you for your own self-learning, while also sharing how you might draw on your character, experience, and affinities to become a better writer. Your writing mentor may also offer you opportunities to co-author books, articles, or other writings, with the mentor’s writing reputation opening doors to publication, giving you a publication credit you might not have been able to earn on your own. Ride the coattails of your mentor until you have your own. Find an astute writing mentor. Support your mentor with whatever writing or editing service your mentor requests, and your mentor may return the writing favor to you.
Collaborators
As the prior paragraph just hinted, writing collaborators can also help you improve your writing. When you begin writing with the goal of publication, you may not have the skills or reputation to gain publication. Then find another writer who does have the skills and reputation, with whom to collaborate on the next writing. Writing collaborations are especially common in scholarly and technical writing fields. Indeed, in those fields, authors who already have substantial publication credit may eagerly seek junior writers without publications, to bear the brunt of the established author’s next writing project. Scholarly and technical writing can require substantial writing labor, particularly in research, citations, and citation formats. Find an established writer with substantially greater talent and skill than your own, and offer to do the grunt work for junior co-author credit. Even if your labor constitutes ninety percent of the total project work, let your established collaborator take ninety percent of the writing credit, if you owe the opportunity to your collaborator. The publication credit, enhanced reputation, and learning experience are more than worth it.
Reflection
On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate yourself as a writer, thinking of the writer that you would like to become? In other words, how far along are you in the writing journey? What practices can you adopt and opportunities can you pursue to improve your writing? What practices and opportunities have already made the biggest difference in your writing? Would you benefit from a formal writing course? Can you participate in a co-curricular or volunteer activity for which you would receive writing training? Do you use spell checking, grammar checking, or similar technology functions as you write or to edit after you write? Do you make frequent research queries to answer your writing questions and improve your writing skill and knowledge? Do you practice multiple types, forms, and genres of writing? Do you seek feedback on your writing? Do you welcome, respect, and incorporate feedback on your writing when you receive it? Do you respect and value the work of your editors? Do you know the writing standards manuals that your editors follow? Do you have a writing mentor? If so, does your mentor need your writing help, or would your mentor accept your help if you offered it? Do you have a skilled and well-established collaborator with whom you could work to improve your skills and gain publication credit?
Key Points
You can improve your writing by following best writing practices.
Your writing improvement may be long and fitful but is inevitable.
Seek and accept formal writing education and training.
Use spell checkers and grammar checkers to improve your writing.
Make frequent research queries over definitions, synonyms, and usage.
Practice as many forms of writing as you can, for as many purposes.
Seek and welcome writing feedback from multiple sources.
Respect and follow the writing standards manuals of your editors.
Find a writing mentor with substantial writing credit and experience.
Collaborate with senior writers who have publication opportunities.