“Advancing your writing skill… Why? What? How?”

ENGLISH COLUMN
- from fokus spm-
- sir Airil.

HI there! What have you been writing lately? If you have been following my articles in this column, I have no doubt that you have been writing many things either in your blogs, in emails to your friends, in your own personal writing journal, and perhaps even in your own school magazine!

The skill of writing, like all the other skills in the English language, can only be learned by doing. You also need to focus on important aspects of this international language like grammar and vocabulary – to make sure that you will be able to write well.

Even my own university students always tell me that it is very diffi cult to become an advanced writer. They tell me that they have no writing skill, they have no idea on what to write, and even worse sometimes they tell me that their grammar is so bad that they themselves could not understand what they have written!

Well, to tell you the truth, to become an advanced writer in English is not easy. It is a LONG process that must be faced step by step. During that process, you must try to make writing a HABIT and then turning it into your own HOBBY. That sounds difficult, right?

Not really. The more you try to do something, the more natural it becomes. The more natural it becomes, soon it would become a habit, turn into a hobby and fi nally, you will become an advanced writer in English.

FOCUS ON YOUR GRAMMAR!

How about grammar you ask? Well, grammar rules MUST be learned and you must always take time to improve your own grammar. Take 30 or 60 minutes per day to complete grammar exercises from your own textbooks or any exercise books that you can buy from a good book shop.

DO NOT be lazy when you do your grammar exercises. You must force yourself to learn grammar on your own. Learn grammar like you learn mathematics and science and force yourself to memorise and to know by heart about grammar rules.

There are no short cuts when you want to learn grammar and they process should be faced step by step. If you do not continue learning grammar on your own – you will NEVER become an advanced level writer in the English language.

FOCUS ON YOUR READING!

Please re-read what I have proposed last month in this same column about advancing your reading skill. Why? This is because the more you read, the more likely will you be able to improve your grammar and writing skill.

You can never become an advanced level writer if you never take some time to read. In fact, just read the biography of some well known authors – they will most likely state READING as one of their main interest or personal hobby.

KEEP YOUR FOCUS!

The choice of what to read is up to you, and when you have fi nished your reading you can then continue practising your writing skill. Do not give yourself excuses for not reading. Do not even think about not reading if you want your writing to improve.

Before I end this month’s article, I would like all of you to think about your current level in writing. If you have taken steps to improve your writing skill, you are always trying to practise writing new things, and you are constantly doing grammar exercises plus reading English language materials – you are already on your way to become an advanced level English writer.

However, if at this moment in time you are still too lazy to do grammar exercises, you do not like reading English short stories or novels because you think they are too boring, plus you never want to try writing new things as a way to practice and to improve your writing ability in the English language – you will never become an advanced level writer.

The process is a long one and it is not easy at all for you to become a really good writer. However, if you try very hard and you never ever give up. I believe that one day soon, it would be YOU who will be writing this column… not me. Think about that, and happy writing!