What is the effective way to improve my writing English?

China
April 9, 2008 3:20am CST
Hello,every one. I am Chinese girl and i am 26 years old now. I have learnt English for 10 years. But still now i can't wirte in English very well. My words are limited and the sentence is simple. Somtimes I can't express my emotion in English well. I read English articles ,stories, and news everyday. But it doesn't work. I really eager to communicate with many people from overseas. When I read some English novel I encounter many difficulties. The sentence is pretty long that I can not catch the subject and predicate. Last year I attended the IELTS examination.It is ashamed to tell my points LISTENING 6 SPEAKING 6 READING 5.5 WRITING 4.(each full mark is 9) I have been in despair because of the writing. Does anybody can teach me how to improve my writing?? And when u read my state what do u feel? What level in your country?
6 responses
@Esoteric1 (863)
• Canada
9 Apr 08
well first off it seems to me that your English is very good. Especially since it is not your native language or even in the same family. your marks don't seem to bad to me, I don't think I'd get much higher, and I was born English! the writing was the lowest and honestly most People can't write (well) in any language so I would not let that discourage you any. As for getting better just keep reading and writing and talking to people try to do everything you can in English and you'll start to get better. also maybe you should keep a journal that would be practice for writing and you'll be able to look back in the future and see how far you've come. Hope you have luck in your endeavors If you need any English friends you can send me an invite I'll gladly accept it
1 person likes this
• China
9 Apr 08
It's very kind of you make friends with me. Maybe my effort is not enough. I will remember what you said to me.
• Canada
9 Apr 08
no problem, just calling it like I see it :) Just keep at it, You are doing great.
• United States
10 Apr 08
I absolutely agree, your English is not as bad as you think it is! Writing is like anything else. Practice makes perfect. You should keep a journal just as Esoteric1 said but I would also just try to think of various topics you would like to write about and get to typing! Use a program like Microsoft Word and use spell check. It will tell you what spelling errors you are making and that will help too. I would also enlist the help of a friend with good English skills. Have them help you by editing what you write in your journal. With a little bit of help you will be great in no time! Good Luck.
@posham (1236)
• Philippines
9 Apr 08
i still think that reading is the best way to go.. or if you really want to do well in pronunciation, then i suggest you listen to english songs and try to sing along with it.. then i think practice makes perfect.. create a blog or personal journal and write about anything you want, emotions, dreams, poems, virtually anything.. and in time, you'll do well..
• China
9 Apr 08
I have tried that before. It took me several hours to remember the song lyric. Now I can still recall some song lyric which I learnt 1 month ago. "Focus on every little thing that what does really matter" Thank you for your advice.~
@posham (1236)
• Philippines
9 Apr 08
singing is for your pronunciation.. you don't need to memorize it.. you can read off cheat sheets or do videoke.. it helps a lot since singing lets you enunciate words fully.. english is not my native tongue but in time, one gets used to it.. when i was younger, sometimes we need to speak english because if we don't, then me and my cousins won't be able to communicate.. back then, they don't know how to speak our language so we needed to speak english so we'll understand each other (they're chinese by the way).. in school, we are encouraged to speak english as well since the curricula are taught in english..
• China
10 Apr 08
Thank you for your suggestion. The reason I want to memorize the song is that I have known lots of English words.But I can't use them freely. So I decided to recite some sentences for improing my speaking.What do u think of that? I will pay my attention to the pronunciation. Ah,I have one more prolbem It's that I speak English slowy as not fast as foreigner. How do they speak so quickly? Somtimens I can't follow them.
@Swaana (1205)
• India
9 Apr 08
Whatever you have written seems to be good English. But if you still feel that you lack something in English, try reading more, and try conversing more in English with fellow people. Your score is also good for a person who doesnot have English as their native language. I dont know whether I could boast of my English, but right from my primary school I have been educated in English. And I also work as English trainer.
• China
9 Apr 08
Your English is better than me. How I admire you. If one day I would talk freely like you I will be happy. Dreams come true. I believe in that. It's my honor if you can be friends with me.
• United States
10 Apr 08
Swaana is right, reading will really help you improve and it won't feel like work either.
@fifileigh (3615)
• United States
10 Apr 08
i think your english sounds good, better than white trash in america. you just need to practice it...find people who speak english and talk a lot with them, the more, the better. if i was in china, i would do a lot worse in chinese than you are doing in english. i am always lost in a foreign country. foreign people who speak english well, talk too much. 10 yrs ago, when i first met my filipino friend, she had a thick accent, and once she called me on the phone and her accent seemed lighter. i asked her what happened to her accent and she said she has a big mouth and talks a lot with her american friends. i think that german model Heidi Klum mentioned the same thing on tv once, that she speaks english well because she likes to talk a lot. so, i think you should just talk a lot in english with many english speaking people and read a lot in english as well. the more you practice, the better you will be. also, maybe go in chatrooms and chat in english a lot. practice, practice, practice...talk, read, write....all day and all night in your sleep...
• China
11 Apr 08
Thank you for giving good advice. It is hard to meet a english speaking people in shenyang. Even though I saw them i am ashamed to talk to them. Some of my friends said to me that I should go to the club where I can find foreigner from western country. But I do not like drinking and going to club. I stick to writing in mylot to practice my English. I hope we can be good friends. Have a sweet day!!
@rhettaa (213)
• United States
10 Apr 08
What you are doing on here is a great way to learn to write English better. The more you write and read what people say in return, the easier it will be for you. Practice is the most important thing. Be patient with yourself. Even a lot of people who write English all the time have trouble writing well. As for reading, try reading the online news aimed at young adults and reading young adult books. I am American and middle-aged and I love young adult books, which are often very well written. They will give you a good sense of how to use the language.
• China
11 Apr 08
Hello, I am sure that it is effective way to study Enlish. As you talk there are maybe some mistakes in my writing. But nobody can pointed them out. Although I stick to wrinting my sentence is simple. I should be more patient what you said. Thank you very much.
• United States
29 Sep 08
I agree with those who said continue reading and keeping a journal of some sort. I also want to add that maybe you might want to try writing stories of your own. It does not have to be lengthy. But just try coming up with a storyline and have some fun. You might find later that the more you write and have fun with it, the words will come. You will get better at it later as you go back and edit or just start a new story. My writing skills has gone downhill since I started college (since I haven't focus on English comprehension skills because of my major) but I've been trying to get back on it and I started writing fan fictions. It's just something fun and motivates me to continue writing. I find it helpful because I begin replacing simple words with more complex ones, plus applying some other writing rules also. (My writing style still lacks a lot of things, but I'm still trying to improve myself.) It might be helpful also that you have a handbook of some sort regarding grammar rules or the like to have as reference while you're writing. If you're unsure of something, you might want to look it up. But the more you write, you will get use to it and then overtime, it will become a part of your writing style. One step at a time will do so don't worry too much since you've come this far already. You will succeed as long as you keep trying. Good luck with everything.