Writing Skills

Some Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing

Laura

Writing is of vital importance in everyday life and it plays a central role in our communication with others. Being able to express yourself well on paper/ via electronic means can serve you well in various situations. Some examples might include sending emails, contacting companies, applying for a job, keeping a blog, completing a course for work or further education, and many more. Here are some ways in which you can hone your skills in written English to improve your communication skills: Practice. It’s true that practice makes perfect, and by writing on a regular basis, you’re going to get … Continue reading Some Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing

Education

Structuring a Dissertation

Laura

A dissertation is likely to be one of the longest academic texts you will ever produce, and it will require extensive planning to ensure that your writing is structured, well-balanced and meaningful. If you allow yourself to get carried away and write too much without a solid plan in place, your work will come across as disorganised and important considerations may be left forgotten. A dissertation is often around 10,000-15,000 words long and will be split up into several chapters. The number of chapters you choose to include will depend entirely on what you are writing about – your tutor … Continue reading Structuring a Dissertation

Education

Learning How to be a Better Writer

Laura

Being a good written communicator is very important for people from all walks of life. It can be beneficial in many different ways, helping you in your everyday life as well as at work. Here are some different ways to go about becoming a better writer: Practice as much as you can. As with anything, your writing will improve the more you do it. You’ll start to be able to write more naturally, use more diverse vocabulary and work at a higher speed. People who are good at writing tend to have done a lot of it. Learn the rules … Continue reading Learning How to be a Better Writer

Education

Does the Use of Technology Hinder Children’s Language Skills?

Laura

The integration of multiple technological devices into everyday life poses a difficult problem for teachers. Many of these devices allow people to communicate across various platforms, meaning that children are frequently writing in non-formal situations which allow for colloquialisms and non-standard sentence constructions. How will this affect their ability to write accurately? Using social media and messaging apps to correspond is an extremely informal mode of communication and the danger is that many people won’t be concerned with their spelling or grammar in these situations. It’s even possible to send images and emojis to convey meaning, giving the written content … Continue reading Does the Use of Technology Hinder Children’s Language Skills?

Career Development

Why is Writing Important for Career Development?

Laura

Having a good grasp of language as an essential life skill, and you should ensure that you can write effectively if you want to thrive in your career. Good written English will always come in useful and it will serve you well throughout your time in the workplace. You are far less likely to secure a job in the first place if you aren’t able to write fluently. Initial applications tend to be in a written format such as a curriculum vitae and/ or covering letter, and you will need to pass this first stage before being invited to an … Continue reading Why is Writing Important for Career Development?

Writing Skills

Writing an Email

Laura

It can sometimes be difficult to know how to write a good email message. It’s a much more informal method of communicating than writing a letter, but the situation may still call for a more formal tone of voice. Where do you draw the line? As a general rule, it tends to be acceptable to being an email with ‘hi’, or ‘hello’ for a slightly more formal situation. For example, if you’re writing to someone to enquire about a job or to discuss a business matter and you aren’t sure of their title, this makes for a much less clumsy … Continue reading Writing an Email

Writing Skills

Learning to Write Persuasively

Laura

When you’re using writing in a business or sales context, you’ll need to write persuasively to make your product or proposition sound compelling. The more fluently and eloquently you’re able to write, the more persuasive you will naturally be. However, there are some techniques which you can use which will also help you to draw in your audience: Use patterns of three. Give something three advantages in order to reinforce its key positive points. Write in the first or second person. This allows you to make your message personal and to address your audience directly. Ask your readers questions. This … Continue reading Learning to Write Persuasively

Writing Skills

Punctuation: the Cornerstone of Good Writing

Laura

Punctuation is inescapable if you want to produce good quality writing. The term refers to a number of symbols which are used in writing to shape its meaning by elucidating each word’s role in a sentence. Without it, a piece of writing lacks structure, form and meaning. Often, without the correct punctuation, a sentence fails to make any sense at all. Apostrophes, commas, full stops, colons, semicolons, hyphens and many other forms of punctuation play a central role in our understanding of language. They are absolutely vital if you want to make yourself clear on paper. Think about the following … Continue reading Punctuation: the Cornerstone of Good Writing

Writing Skills

What Makes a Person’s Writing Skills Great?

admin

A lot of people are adequate writers, but the number of people who are able to write really well seems to be an ever shrinking number. Most people don’t really have a comprehensive writing education any, whereby they are taught how to formulate their writing so that it reads well and means what it intends to mean; many people just sort of muddle through writing. In order to become one of those few people who has objectively great writing skills, you first need to understand what that constitutes. Writing is intended to convey meaning to the reader, and this is … Continue reading What Makes a Person’s Writing Skills Great?