How To Improve Your Written English
Steemit has helped me improve my English. If your post has poor Enligsh, it will look like you didn't spend much time on it. English is not my first language, as I'm from Norway, but I'm very interested in language and that's why I went to school to become a journalist. My Norwegian is of course a lot better than my English. I'm not saying my English is very good. It has just improved a lot.
Here is what I have found helpful in improving my written English:
1. Write
And write, and then write some more. How do you get better at running? By running of course.
I can see a big difference in my English when I look at my first Steemit post
2. Read English books
I have always read a lot of books. But when I started to write on Steemit, I decided to only read English books. I downloaded a whole lot of books on my Kindle. All this reading in English has definitely expanded my vocabulary. On the Kindle I have the option to look up words that I don't understand. I do that with every word that I haven't heard before. I can probably only remember 2% of them, but that's 2% more words than I knew before.
3. Proofread
I usually double-check my writing. The first time I read through it, I look for long and weird sentences, the second time I look for spelling mistakes and weird grammar. It's also helpful to read it out loud the second time. I look up words in a dictionary or a digital dictionary if I'm not sure about the spelling. All this proofreading has actually helped my written English because I remember the correct spelling after a couple of times of looking it up.
4. Read articles about the subject you'd like to write about
I like to write about traveling. I read tons of travel magazines and web sites about traveling. This way I can pick up on words that are relevant for that topic, and even pick up on trends or exciting new destinations.
5. Get the opinion of a friend
As a journalist, I'm lucky to know other journalists that can give me a second opinion on my writing.
Find a friend that also enjoys writing and give each other constructive feedback. This is a great way to discover if you have any bad writing habits.
6. Take a writing class
I've never done it, but I would love to try it some time. This is alsa good for feedback on your writing.
Some exciting news:
My friend, @joshstinton, just joined Steemit and has now posted his first story here on Steemit. Check it out.
Susanne
[
] Hei @susanne
Når jeg voter på @joshstinton så går det ikke. Vet ikke hva som er galt men han taper jo voter. Skal prøve senere og se om det har rettet seg.
Med vennlig hilsen
Ramta Vikingen fra Norge
Det var merkelig altså. Håper det ordner seg:)
Nå er det i orden igjen. Har akkurat votet på to av postene hans, det gikk helt normalt.
King kong det :)
This is very true and extremely helpful! Keep em coming I am for sure going to follow!
I'm glad you find it helpful. Thank you so much.
Excellent post. There's a lot of people on here that I believe could benefit from this. Thank you.
By the way your English is fantastic. There's people from the U.K. and the U.S. on here that can't write this well. :) Never stop learning!
Hi @jbaker585! Thank you, and I hope people can benefit from it. I will never stop learning.
up voted since you wrote a very helpful content for me since I am new at blogging and writing.
Appreciate up vote my newest content about me. Be free always, all ways.
Thank you @hanamana for you upvote. Just keep writing and you will surely improve as time goes by. Thanks for reading!
Susanne, your English is quite good, much better than my own in fact. haha. I will be taking this advice and applying it to my own techniques in hopes of improving. thank you for posting this.
Ha ha, thank you @bzeen. The most important thing is to write. That's the most important advice.
excellent post thank you very much for the tips will try to put it into practice congratulations
You shouldn't try, you should just do it! :) Thank you so much.
I studied literature in college so my english is proficient, but I speak decent Spanish, a little Italian, and minimal Khmer (I live in Cambodia) and I have always appreciated people who learn many languages, especially for the love of language, more so than a means to make money, so tip of the hat to you.
That's cool! Language is an exciting subject to explore. I would love to learn Spanish one day.
Thanks @susanne
My English written is no good too , So I writes lesser and drawing more here at #steemit.
Check at my Art-Work @bullionstackers
Drawings are nice too. I will check out your work, for sure!
You have excellent english for a non-native speaker! I can't write as well as you in any other language and still struggle to express myself clearly in my own language LOL!! Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much. I can always improve, and that's what I'm trying to do with all this writing. Thank you, keep Steeming you too.