Visit this website for tips and references for improving your writing and speaking skills. Return often for new tips.
#1: At any point in your career, you can take steps to improve your writing and speaking skills. Start by following several good writers you enjoy who write for newspapers, magazines, or online content.
Analyze their writing: how is the piece organized? what vivid phrases stand out? are there a variety of sentence styles? is there one main point or theme, and are there several supporting arguments? can you now summarize the article in a sentence or two? Follow the same process when listening to a good speaker: analyze his/her style and phrasing; find several "takeaway" lessons that you can apply yourself in everyday communicating. Soon you will be automatically applying those best practices in your own work.
#2: Speak first. Write later. If you get palpitations or feel like you're back in Ms. Prissy's 7th grade English class whenever you have to write something, try this:
Get a tape recorder and speak your thoughts into the recorder. Divide your ideas into 2, 3, or 4 sections so that you can keep each section to under one minute. After you have recorded that section and played it back, try to write the best part down; then go to the next section, repeat. If what you've written seems to represent your ideas well, consider how to organize it, adding and subtracting a little. If something is missing, go back to record some more. When you;are all done, then work on improving the sentences, the grammar, the spelling and the punctuation. When you like your own ideas and your expression of them, the mechanical parts will be easier to complete.
#3: Spelling/Usage tip: Many people confuse "its" and "it's".
"It's" means "It is", so substitute that into your sentence. See whether the sentence makes sense; (example: It's {it is} important to stretch before starting to exercise). "Its" is a possessive pronoun, just like "her", "his", "your" and "my" - meaning "belonging to it/her/him/you/me"; (example: Because the house is old, its roof is leaky. The roof belongs to the house.)
#4. Vary your sentences. Use vivid words: Using only the standard subject/verb order, the following sentences are dull: "We sell windchimes that make nice sounds. They are sturdy. They are on sale now." In contrast, these sentences draw in the reader: "Our windchimes make beautiful music that will delight you. Choose from 5 tunes and 10 designs. All are sturdy enough to last, despite wind, rain, even hail. Order today for the best selection at 30% off."
#5. Use "transition words" that tie one sentence to the next. There are hundreds of such words and phrases; a few are: summing up, above all, with this in mind, on the other hand, despite, in contrast, similarly, in addition, in other words. This website lists more such phrases, grouped by function: www.smart-words.org
