To improve your English writing skills, drop a few common bad habits: choose plain words over long Latin ones, use active verbs, keep your sentences short, and check your spelling before you send anything.
English has a reputation for being hard to learn. That is true for people who learn it as a second language, but it can be hard for native speakers too. One reason is that bad habits are easy to pick up. Many writers have them, and that confuses anyone who is trying to improve.
Choose plain words
Many of these habits come from the history of the language. English takes its words from two main sources. One is Old English, also called Anglo-Saxon, the Germanic language that settlers from northern Europe brought to England. Its words are mostly short and plain, and everyone understands them. They name a person or an action simply and directly.
The other source is Latin, the language of ancient Rome, and much of it came into English through French. These are the words that cause learners the most trouble. They are longer, have more syllables, and make a text harder to read and understand.
The bad habit starts with people in positions of authority, who tend to use the Latin words. Readers who see those words often begin to think that using them makes a writer look smarter.
Whether it is a letter from the government, the terms of your new phone contract, an insurance form, or the weather forecast on television, the language is rarely the language people use every day.
A weather presenter might say "we are experiencing an increased probability of precipitation" when what they mean is "it is likely to rain". The difference is that the first sentence is built from words that came from Latin, and the second from plain words of Germanic origin.
Don't fall into that trap just because you see it elsewhere. If you are new to writing in English, or simply want to improve, you will do much better if you focus on the plain Anglo-Saxon words.
Use active verbs
Another common problem is the passive voice. In an active sentence, the subject does the action. In a passive one, the subject receives it. Compare:
- Active: Susan saw the boys.
- Passive: The boys were seen by Susan.
The active sentence is clear and direct: Susan did something, and she comes first. The passive one says the same thing, but it is longer, and the person who acted only appears at the end. A passive sentence can even leave that person out completely (The boys were seen.), and then the reader does not know who saw them.
Active verbs also read better because they are often a single word. A passive verb needs a form of be plus another verb (were seen, has been made), and those phrases of two or three words are harder to read.
Keep it short
Above all, remember one key tip when you work on your English writing skills: keep it short. That applies to everything. Long sentences are harder to follow, so you are better off keeping them short.
Short words are better than long ones, too. This is related to the question of Latin and Anglo-Saxon words above, but it goes further. In each pair below, both words are correct, but in most writing the shorter one is the better choice:
| Long word | Shorter choice |
|---|---|
| numerous | many |
| individual | person, man, or woman |
| assistance | help |
Keep everything short: it makes your text easier for you to write and easier for your reader to read. How to simplify your content has more ways to do it.
Check your spelling
Always take the extra minute to check anything you have written before you send it. There is little point in choosing your words with care if a spelling mistake slips through. The Spell Checker marks spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes in your text and explains each one.