How can I improve my writing skills?

English as a Second Language What do you want to talk about?
21

Hi,

The following is your composition with some of my corrections. I do not know enough to comment on the style, substance, or the structure, so I will leave that to people who are good at it. Also I am not a teacher, so you have to take my corrections with a pinch of salt. :slight_smile:

About my town

My town is a big one but is not clean except the center. In my town, you can find streets full of garbage. Besides garbage, you can see stray dogs, and many homeless children. The pollution level is also high and the highways are full of holes, and the people are irritable and stressed. what makes the people irritable and stressed?

Because of poverty, spoilt roads, high traffic on the highways, and because of what some might consider as poor living standards. In Bucharest there are no more than 7 big parks. There are small places for children to play. The green places are now filled with many garages and useless structures, many of it unfinished.

There is another part of the town which is better. Here you can find many educational institutes, museums, churches, an Opera House, an Operetta Theatre, and many other kinds of theatres. Also, the Patriarchate of Romanian Orthodox Church is located here. This part of Bucharest also has open spaces and stadiums for sporting events. One of the important places to visit would be the Village Museum founded in 1936, in which specimens of traditional village architecture have been gathered from all parts of the country.

People in my town work in various professions: culture, education, transportation, tourism, medicine, IT, arts, architecture, management, marketing and many others.

Thanks to you, I learnt something about your town. BTW, I know some Indian women whose name is also Savitry. I have always thought it was a nice name. Anyways, good luck to you on your tests.

bye

22

Thank you too!
I was happy to see somebody try to correct my essay. About my name I was surprised to see it is familiar to you.
My name has a special story. When I was a little girl my father had read me a story about a princess. Her name was Savitry. I had put a canvas on my head and I had said I was that princess, Savitry.
So I didn’t forget this scene and also I thought Savitry is a special name with a special semnification for me - my childhood, my parents.
Now I found out Savitry is an indian name. Thank you, again!

23

Hi Jady!

Reading your essay, I have also found several mistakes:

Probably you meant that you like it? If yes, I like it will be correct.

Probably this is correct, but we however were taught to say There are many subjects like…

If you say that something consists of something else, it means that something else is the part of something :). Probably it would be better to say something like There are 8 students on(in?) the course

Don’t know why :), but they usually say My mates and I. Maybe it is just more polite.

Maybe that’s OK. But my dictionary says wait impatiently or anxiously (for). Or just I am looking forward to

We are on vacation, if I am not mistaken…

Well, here it is…
But please note, I am NOT a teacher, nor I live in an English-speaking country, so you take my corrections carefully, with a pinch of salt.

Good luck! And never give up!

24

At the beginnig of my appearence here, i want to make some marks that to return and write essay, i consider it’s very useful for second language persons, who i am.
The main objection of my studying english is ability to comunicate, and i have a great desire to work for some foreign company. My writting as well as my speaking is not appropriate for it, but I’ll try to catch with my english and i can say that i have a little progress, i’m very happy. I believe I could do it!
I hope on your support and help.
PS I’ll write more, because I realy need it, as I agree with this quote “Practice makes perfect”

Best Regards,
Alex from Moscow

25

Hello everybody, my daughter has to write a short text about her hobbies. Here is the result, maybe you can tell us what you think about the text? Are there any mistakes? Thanks in advance.

In my free time I like doing a lot of different things. For example I go to the movies to see the latest films. My favourites are comedies or cartoons. Of course I also watch television. There is an interesting show on Tuesday evening about new technologies and inventions. I like that one because it is not only entertaining but also informative. I often have meet with my friend Stefanie to do practice dancing. We create our own shows and perform in Stefania’s home. We even have a small fan club which contains of Stefanie’s mother and her brother. I like playing other sports in my free time.
For example I sometimes go roller skating with my friends and in winter I go skiing in the mountains. When the days become shorter I also like reading in my free time. My favourite book is Harry Porter,
I have read all six parts. Maybe this is not a hobby of mine but sometimes I even help my mother with her housework. That means, I tidy up my room, vacuum clean our flat and feed my guinea pig.

26

Hi spearhead,

I’m neither an English teacher nor is my English perfect (would be nice… ;-)) nor am I living in an English-speaking-country so…

*to practise is BE, to practice is AE - as you use BE apart from that word I’d suggest to change it into practise
Stefanie or Stefania? You use two different names!
contains - I would prefer “consists of”, but I’m NOT sure about whether you can use contain as well
in my freetime - I would leave out the second use, it’s only a matter of style, no mistake!

In my opinion the text is informative, well composed, clear structured and good to read.

27

Hello Stefanie thank you so much for your suggestions. Aleksia (my daughter) made the changes you proposed and her English teacher asked her whether someone had helped her with her composition!

28

Congrat to your daughter!

29

What a great topic!
I need to improve my writing skills too.
I will think something up to write about and post hear. I hope a teacher’ll find time to correct it.

30

Hi all,
I speak very well English (in my opinion), but my written skills are awful. I never had the guts to try it. Today I sad, “Why not, every one has to start from somewhere.” So… I am here.
I’m gone have a party for my baby and I like to write this text on the invitations. What do you think about this?

Julian’s birthday is in November 24, and we want to have a party for him on November 19, at 4:30 PM. We’d like to have you and your family with us at this party. Please let us now if you can come (or if you can’t be here please give as a call at (7xx) xxx-xxxx).

Nicole

31

Gabriella, in my opinion it’s absolutely fine, just check your spelling. “Let us know…”
I’m not a teacher and I need a lot of help too.

32

Thank you April, next time I’m gone be more careful about my spelling. From now on I’m gone try to write at list 50 words per day.
Have a nice day!

Nicole

33

It"s great! Have a nice day too!

34

My suggestion:

Julian’s birthday is on November 24th and we want to have a party for him on November 19th at 4:30 PM. We’d like to have you and your family with us at this day; please let us know if you can come and give us a call - (7xx) xxx-xxxx).

35

Stefanie, Alan, thank you for the suggestions.

Nicole

36

Hello,

Oh that is great to see this post and this post really pushed me to register on this forum. I have to give IELTS test for which I have to improve my English writing and speaking skills. My listening is quite bad as well. I would like to get real listening sample for IELTS test, if anyone can help me in this. I will be really grateful to you.

The below is my First essay for writing task 2 of IELTS. Could you people please evaluates it with respect to IELTS.

############### Essay Start ########################
“Prevention is better than cure.”
Out of a country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to
spending on health education and preventative measures.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

“Prevention is better than cure”. It is completely true saying and i am fully agree with the concept of spending the money to prevent the disease. Prevention in my opinion somewhat avoids the disease. Health is very important factor in one’s life. If one is healthy, he can fulfills all the duties and responsibilities towards him. One has to be properly aware of the issues of the health and seriously learn about the preventative measures that can be taken to avoid illness. It is better for his prosperity and happiness and for his family too. The government has to take step to guide the people of the country about their health and help them towards a healthy lifestyle and foods. It is very good to have a conference, seminars, street shows on health issues so that people aware of the facts about major diseases and may prevent themselves by avoiding the causes of the illness. The government can arrange classes about the health in the schools, institutions and work places.

One step has also taken in this regard is that volunteers and doctors arrange camps with the support of government to asked people about the basic problems they may have, finds the solutions of their problems and try to implement them as well so that issues regarding health of people can be solved in a more better way.

With the help of that steps and preventative measures, the chances of having disease is minimized and hence the health budget for treatment need not to be high as compared to prevention and health education.

############### Essay End ########################

I am looking forward for your comments
Thanks alot and Best Regards
Farheen Abid

37

Hi Farheen Abid,

I have made some changes in CAPITAL letters:

This is quite good but use you in place of one/his/her when you are talking generally. Remember abstract nouns don’t usually have a definite article. I have deleted some from your text, as you will see. You talk about health, disease, illness without an article. You only use the article whenyou specify the noun as in THE health of the nation/country.

Alan

38

Hello All,

Thank you very much Alan, I will try to avoid above mentioned mistakes next time. Yes, I am really confused about the concept that what I have to use when talking generally. It would be a great help.

Farheen

39

Posting in forums that use mainly English will improve your ability in writing English. I myself am trying this!

40

Agreed! The only way to improve your writing skills is to write the most you can. You learn with your mistakes, so don’t bother if sometimes you write things wrong, as long as after that, you look for the right way to write that.

I hope this helps! :wink: