11 Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

Writing is definitely the most advanced skill in any language. In other words, it naturally comes after listening, speaking, and reading. The following tips can help you to become a better writer:

1. In order to write, the first thing is to have something in your mind to write about. That is, a clear message to pass on to the reader.
2. When you have the main idea to write about in your mind, you need to consider it from different perspectives. To do so, ‘brainstorming’ can help you a lot. Brainstorming is a technique in which you try to think about something in a deep and unorganised manner. For instance, in an argumentative essay, you can think about the advantages and disadvantages of too much dependence on the internet. Later on, you can put the points you have come across in order.
3. In the stage of brainstorming, it’s important for you to take a critical look at the topic being discussed. As a matter of fact, writing requires a lot of mental capacity, and you as a writer should become an even more deep-thinker to be able to write more logically and meaningfully.
4. When you know what you are about to write, it’s important to organise the message in your mind, and then on a piece of paper. In this response, creating an outline can prove to be of great help. An outline shows the main ideas or facts about something without going into the details. You can write them down on a piece of paper to get more organised. This is what Brian Tracy has referred to as ‘Think on Paper’.
5. If you are writing about something that is based on a chronological or sequential order (e.g. narrating a story), then you ought to give priority to the items of your outline in terms of time, because you are writing about a chain of events in a linear manner.
6. A good technique that gives you ample opportunities in writing is ‘diary writing’. You can write about the important events in your life in the form of English on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. Then little by little you will notice that this becomes one of your habits, which not only improves your writing but also makes you become a more critical thinker.
7. Even in your studies, you can gain full advantage of ‘portfolio writing’. A portfolio is a set of pieces of writing together with photos, documents, etc. that you develop and gather in the course of education. They can help you to become more thoughtful, critical and reflective in your studies, and even more importantly, in your life. 
8. As it is self-evident, being a good writer and having a reliable word knowledge are closely interrelated. The more words you know, the better you can explain yourself in words.
9. Apart from having a good word knowledge, in writing, which is an academic and formal skill, you need to have a reliable grammar knowledge as well. In fact, writing ungrammatically, no matter how meaningful and logical your writing is, cannot be tolerated by the reader.
10. In terms of grammar, for instance, you are supposed to know the different connectives with their special functions in English. Connectives are words and phrases that join parts of sentences in your writing. They can help you to write more smoothly.
11. Having finished your writing, it’s better to proofread what you’ve written. In proofreading, you revise your work critically and intensively, consulting your dictionary if needed. In so doing, you try to locate and solve possible mistakes or errors in terms of diction (choice of words), register (either formal or informal style), grammar, order of events, unity, logic and the meaning of your product.