How to Improve Your Grammar?

If English were a house and its words were its bricks, then, for sure, grammar would play the role of the skeleton and cement to hold the bricks together and give shape to the entire house.

If you think you need to improve your grammar knowledge, the following tips may turn out to be of great help:

1. To improve your grammar, you should study a grammar course book. This is one of the best ways to become familiar with grammar points in an academic way. There are plenty of reliable grammar course books in English such as: English Grammar Digest, Communicate What You Mean, Practical English Usage, Understanding and Using English Grammar, Essential Grammar in Use, Common Mistakes in English, etc.
2. Unlike vocabulary, grammar points are limited in number. Therefore, if you happen to learn a couple of grammar points every day, you will be able to increase (if not complete) your grammar knowledge to a noticeable degree in not a very long period of time.
3. You should also read more critically and intensively. To be more precise, at the time of reading, be ready to highlight and underline some special words, phrases and grammar points in order to raise the level of your awareness.
4. Writing personal diaries could also help you a lot to reinforce your mastery of grammar. In this technique, try to use your newly learnt grammar points in writing.
5. Paraphrasing is also a good technique for improving your grammar. When you paraphrase, you try to rewrite a passage in a different form, but with the same meaning.
6. If you are an intermediate student or above, you may like to experience teaching English grammar to elementary students. Remember that by teaching English grammar, you can maximise your own learning.
7. If you have some language partners, you can write essay on pre-specified topics in limited words. Then you can exchange your essays with each other so that you could read and evaluate your friends’ essays, too. In so doing, not only can you evaluate your friends’ essays, but also your own essay is evaluated by your friends. This technique is referred to as ‘peer evaluation’.
8. Don’t forget that grammar is rule-based; therefore, it’s somehow like mathematics by nature. As a result, do not spend so much time on grammar without any break as you may become tired.
9. Keeping a special grammar notebook is another good alternative. You can keep a record of the grammar points you learn every day and practice writing at the same time.