Before reading, make sure your read my previous one on: Writing - The Why And The Essence
What Is Meant By “Writing Good English” ?
The meaning of ‘good english‘, and hence writing good english, may vary from people to people around the world since we come from different backgrounds and due to the nature of our education. Despite the fact that there is no governing bodies of linguists to gauge its exact meaning, we do have a standard set by the authorities indulged in linguistics. Hence, sensible authors, careful writers and educated people using english language as their medium of writing, try to conform to these standards as closely as they can. These standards may be grammatical rules, language structure, and universally accepted words, idioms or metaphors.
English Language, IMHO The Best
There are so many languages nowadays which can be used, but the english language is the most widely used world-wide. In my humble opinion, english language includes and transcends all subjects. It is for english writers and lovers a whole means of expression, the attainment of which makes them articulate and intelligible human beings, able to inherit the past, to possess the present and to confront the future. The ability to write good english is simply an art for them.
My Own Experience With Writing - Good English A Myth?
I was not so fluent or good at writing english in my early days of school. I was always favoring French, the second official language of my country - Mauritius. There were some personal reasons which I will not elaborate right now to keep on the subject title. But one main reason was that I was always scoring an ‘A’ in all my french classes despite the fact that I was never doing any french essays or practicing it. This fact was initially a mystery to me because I was always trying my best to write good english and was never successful in getting good results. Then, I finally remembered that I was frequently reading some 1 or 2 pages of french books every day. Yeah I mean it, I loved the famous french book - ‘Les Six Compagnons de la Croix Rousse, by Jean Jacques Bonzo’ and this made reading french more than a hobby. I was reading in my free periods, sometimes during recess, in the bus and at night just to finish all its series. Like this, my hunger for french adventure books became a craze. But in this process, I was unaware that while reading so much, french words seemed to have become hackneyed phrases. That is why my friends used to tell me: “man, where do you fetch all these nice french wordings?”. In other words, what I want to emphasize here is that if you keep reading and looking at english/french words or a small sentence everyday for at least some 30 minutes per day, you will end up with these words embedded in your mind without knowing. And when you will start to write english, you will be amazed to see your mind popping out nice words; that’s how you will progress to write good english!
The Secret Of Writing Good English
While reading you should build up a personal ‘database‘ of special words or phrases. Get a small copy book and list down all striking and unknown words to you. Therefore, be regular in breeding a medley of nice words in your special ‘note-book‘. Those precious words are your key to write good english.
Now, does this mean that you should read everyday? Not really, but you should definetly read your smorgasbord of words in your note-book everyday! I strongly believe that there are 2 kinds of people - one who read very very often, if not everyday, to master the language (as i did unknowingly for the french language) and the second person who read little, but nurturing a high mastery of the basics and techniques of the english language (this one was my conscious experience with english).
But here, the key tricks are:
1) Each time and every single time you read, you should keep growing your ‘database’ of words. Keep looking for new prominent words.
2) Make the english dictionary be your bosom english friend - never keep a word in your book without finding and writing down it’s meaning. Else, do not bother about even writing it down - trust me!
3) You should pinpoint good critical articles/books, think about what you are reading and in this process be generous to yourself by taking notes conscientiously of new golden words. This is because you are reading rarely and hence you should make those rare readings worth 10 times the ones that you would read everyday. So you have to be very selective and analytical in what you will read.
4) Now that you have a copy-book full of defined words, don’t just sit around and smile at it. Go and put them into practice. Start by writing good sentences with these words and write some essays. Writing here is pivotal. Just like a car cannot run without a battery, you cannot expect to have a fluent english if you do not write english. (the battery being your skill in writing and your car the knowledge of the language and wordings)
Support Your Effort To Write Good English With Observation
Going further in our approach, while reading decent articles, you should see how Mr X is using his words in his articles and how he constructs his sentences. Then, with your analytical and critical reading, coupled with your observation and some personal insights, you should try to emulate the fresh expressiveness of Mr X. How to do this, you say? Go and try to write a good english sentence where you can use those words better than Mr X. You will once again be amazed at yourself at how well you performed and you will even be seeing yourself gaining momentum and hence writing good english paragraphs. Go reward yourself after your hard work, you deserve it!
=> I sincerely hope this article on ‘how to write good english‘ and my effort to explain it to you, has been fruitful for you. If you do like I explain, there is no excuse in not being able to produce good quality english writings. And I wish you all the best
What’s Next Concerning Writing Good?
As I said in my ‘About section’, my aim is to make you say ‘Wondeful‘ by bringing decent piece of work written by me. So, keep supporting Wakish Wonderz and keep being around. My next article is on ‘GP Essays - how to write General Paper essays‘. This is particular targeted to students taking part in HSC Cambridge students as an addition to this article on ‘How to write good english’. But no wonder, all these articles on Writing - The Why And The Essence is a must and worth-while reading for everyone, since learning is an ever on-going process.
Before ending, I will sincerely advise you to buy or get a copy of this book below. This book was prescribed to me by my English/GP Guru and I should say that I salutes my Guru for this book, it’s a treasure to me!(You will indeed come back and thank me for having shown you this book!)
Start Learning With Wakish - Enroll Freely Now! (Click Here!)
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This article is very interesting…
But there’s something that i did not understand.Which book is the author talking about?
May i know it please?
do let me know about it…
Hi Shakeela,
I’m not understanding what you meant by: “Which book is the author talking about?”
So, I will try to answer you the different ways I’m seeing you question:
1) If you are saying that this article is from the book, then no. This article has been 100% writing by me based from my own personal experience.
2) If you are asking about the book I suggested - the book discuss about a variety of different topics all having and showing “critical analysis”..etc
It has a lot of insights..
If I have wrongly interpreted your question, I apologize. But do feel free to ask me again about it
Ok, thank you wakish!
By the way, you almost replied to my question.
My question was:”CAN YOU PLEASE GIVE ME THE NAME OF THE BOOK WHICH YOUR GURU HAD RECOMMENDED YOU TO BUY? AND WHERE CAN I HAVE THIS BOOK?”…
thanks for replying…
Hi again Shakeela,
the book can be bought via amazon, I gave the link right up there.. see the little square which have the book above, or use this direct link: Critical Thinking on Amazon
- Wakish -
How to write English
Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Don’t use contractions in formal writing, and don’t use no double negatives. It is incumbent on one to avoid archaisms. Proofread carefully to see if you words out or incorect speling. It has come to our considered attention that in a large majority of cases, far too many people use a great deal more words than is absolutely necessary when engaged in the practice of writing sentences. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of redundant repetition can be removed and eliminated by rereading and editing.
A writer must not shift your point of view. If the writer is considerate of the reader, he won’t have a problem with ambiguous sentences. Don’t write a run-on sentence its hard to read you must punctuate it. If a dependent clause precedes an independent clause put a comma after the dependent clause. But avoid commas, that are not necessary, and don’t overuse exclamation marks!!! Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn’t. Reserve the apostrophe for it’s proper use and omit it when its not needed. In statements involving two word phrases, make an all out effort to use hyphens, but make sure you hyp- henate properly.
Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Always pick on the correct idiom. Avoid colloquial stuff, and trendy locutions that sound flaky. Also, avoid all awkward or affected alliteration. Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all. Beware of and eschew pompous prolixity, and avoid the utilization of enlarged words when shortened ones will do. Avoidification of neologisms strengthenifies your prosification. Avoid using sesquipedalian words. It is not resultful to transform one part of speech into another by prefixing, suffixing, or other alterings. Perform a functional iterative analysis on your work to root out third generation transitional buzz words. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck into the language. The de facto use of foreign phrases vis-a-vis plain English in your written tete-a-tetes makes the sentence harder to understand.
Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Write all adverbial forms correct. Verbs has to agree with their subjects, and the adverb always follows the verb. This sentence no verb. Which is not a complete sentence, but merely a subordinate clause. A preposition is something you should never end a sentence with. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.
Last but not least, avoid dyed-in-the-wool cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.
hey man hi…. I just wanted to let u know that I am in great need of a guide and I think I found one…i.e. you… I’m from Mauritius like you and please to know that you also hail from there.. where are u right now ? abroad for tertiary studies ? I am not so good in GP especially in the issues relating to GP. Add me on msn (if you want…), we’ll talk there.
See ya soon man. A+
@Cat:
Wow Cat, thanks a lot for the extra effort, simply wonderful of you! Cheers!
@anooj:
Hi anooj, thanks for the kind words. Glad to see another Mauritian around.
Cheers!
Hi, I’m Fab. Well, my problem for English is that I can’t capture words to include in my essays. I think I’ve a bad English to talk with people. Help me by giving to me tips for my shortcomings. Please. So, I’m more frequent on MSN. Don’t hesitate to let me know about my English, I’m complex ed about it. Need your help. Thanks for receiving my views. See ya soon on Msn.
I am very love to read your article. I am always tried to write good english and now google to your article. Thank you for your sharing, that’s make a lot of good advise for english writing beginner like me.
Hope you keep post more essay about this topic.
Please Help to check this english word is correct or not?
did you returned your Spore working pass to ICA ?
yes i did returned my spore working pass to ICA
Hi Rock,
no your sentences are not good. There are 2 mistakes:
MISTAKE 1
1) The word “spore” is a noun and you are using it an adjective in your two sentences which is not good.
2) The meaning of the word ’spore’ does not fit your sentences at all. I think you have wrongly interpreted what you wanted.
MISTAKE 2:
You should say “i did return” instead of “i did returned” without the ‘ed’. This is because the verb ‘did’ which is in the past tense and hence the verb after it should be in normal form
Solution:
=> Just tell me what exactly you wanted to convey and I will find the right adjective or word for you..
Cheers!
I’m a class ten student in India but my English level is still poor. I use to read and write via my passion but simply I don’t feel like improving my English. So I need your advice or your guidance to improve my english level.
Hi, Here I want to share my doubt regarding reading english books….When I’m reading a novel or any book in english I come across with many new words that I don’t know. So it is important that I should stop reading the article and search for the words in dictionary or should I continue reading and after searching for the words?
then when I found some new words what is the best way to remember the words and to use it in a correct way in my writings?? thank you.
@ Norbu:
Hi Norbu, thank you for comment, I guess that your reading passion is greater than your writing passion because if you have a true passion for writing as well, you would surely be willing to improve it. But this is not a serious matter because you are on the right track, let me explain:
Your reading passion is in itself a great thing. Because day by day when you read, your mind will store the words, expression and phrases without you realise it. And also, you will be able to write words without errors. But this is a slow process.
If you want to increase your english language skills, then I would strongly advise you to take it a bit more seriously, how can you do this? You can do it by:
1) Keeping a special notebook where you write all words that you do not know the meaning of. Write them down, open your dictionary and find their meaning. Once your find a good meaning, write it back in your notebook. To know if the meaning is really good, show your notebook to an elder, your parent or your teacher and ask them to verify.
2) Everyday open your notebook and read those words and try making sentences with them. And try to memorize those words and use them in your class writings, like in essays..etc
If you just follow the two steps I mention above, there is no doubt that your english skills will be great and BETTER than your classmates in a few months! Do let me know about your progress and also read the articles that I have on my blog, I convey alot of useful message and words.
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@ terab:
Hi terab..
There are 2 approaches which you can use here:
1) Spend some time only for reading and another hour for only writing and finding new meanings of new words. But the disadvantage of this, is that you can forget all the words you came across, or simply getting tired or lazy to come again over that words.
2) The best advice would be that whenever you come across a new word, immediately stop, write the words in your notebook, open your dictionary and write the meaning down. Once you know the meaning, re-read the sentence in your novel and carry on until you find a new word again. This way, you will understand what you are reading at 100%
Let me know about your progress and your feedback. Have a nice time!
Hi, I really appreciate your work and your advices that helped me alot while reading. Infact I’m a Tibetan and I’m learning english as my second language. I’ve written a book in Tibetan and it was already published but I’m still a student and I’m now only 16 years old. My plan is to improve my english level as much as I can and to transform myself that can able to write a book or a novel in english language also. So can you show me a path that I can achieve my goal and to give a great impression from my english writtings to my readers.
Thank You
hey,
I’m still waiting for ur answer!!
@Terab:
If you don’t find me replying fast, this means I’m busy in real life at the moment. But I will surely get back to you as soon as I can.
About your 2nd question:
1) Whatever your level of english you need to keep the advice that I first gave into practice. You need to build and strengthen your words, idioms, expressions further.
2) Writing a novel is very different from writing an essay or for a journal. Each type of writing has their own style, format, standard and rules. So you need to make your own research on the specific writing that you want, in your case i think it’s a novel. So read as much as you can on the styles, requirements and standards of novel writing.
3) Observe existing work of established novelist and try to adapt your own style from there.
4) Last but not the least, you need to keep reading and observing a lot if you want to become a good writer.
Thanks for your comments and feedback!
i am the one who has english problem. i’m thai and don’t have anybody to speak with. i’m really want to be good at writting but nobody can help me to check my english, so it makes me bad. somebody can help me to check my english,please send me and email and talk to me. Thank you so much.
i have problem in wrtting good english. nobody to teach me. i really want to be good at writting and speaking English but nobody to help me to check my english, so it makes me feel bad.i also want to learn how to write official letters.
Hi my problem is how to spell correctly,when writing letter to people or friends.
So can you help me? I can read a bit good but its a bit ok then writing.
thanks
Wojoh
Hahaha. Now I can understand why my English is getting worse even though I am currently studying in an English speaking country =]]
Thank you for this useful post. It helps me a lot.
This is really a useful site. I like what is dicussed here!
I am a reporting officer, working for a non-government, international and Amercian based organization. From my title one can guess how strongly I am involved in writing reports in English language. I read your article and it attracted me alot. You talked about reading everyday but did not indicate how much time should one spend on reading English on daily basis? second, I read English news on BBC and CNN sites everyday. Do you think this habbit will improve my english writing?
Hello Jalal,
thank you for your comment, lets answer your questions:
1) “You talked about reading everyday but did not indicate how much time should one spend on reading English on daily basis?”
I think a minimum of 30mins should be spent. Read out loud. Ideally 1hr is great per day. Try to say out loud words that you have difficulty in pronouncing.
2) second, I read English news on BBC and CNN sites everyday. Do you think this habbit will improve my english writing?
Reading is a factor to help you in building up vocabularies, observing how words and sentences are being constructed and keeping you updated with new words and idioms. But reading only will not help you improve your english. Improving your english consists of reading, observing, hearing and WRITING! It is very very crucial to write. Construct phrases with same words but different meanings..etc
I hope I have answered your queries? Feel free to discuss it more
my problem is how to spell correctly,when writing letter to people or friends.
So can you help me? am very happy to read this site, please teach more or shown me the book to read so that i can improved more
Thanks
Hi, I’m a Mauritian too n would like to know where i can get a copy of ‘Critical Thinking’ locally.
Thanks
You just made me realize what was in my head all along but never occured to me. Thank you.
hi.i ve a big probleme and i wanna u help me i m from morocco i wanna passed TOEFL test ok i wanna improve my english proficiency for getting a good marks in my exam so can u guid me what i do .thnx
Hi,
I really feel good after reading this article.I
have alot of problems in written english and speaking.
Recently i enrolled myself for college enterie class and my teacher say’s to me i cann ‘t do anything.
You know from that day i am upset and losing my confidence about english.Can you help me i really apreciate you.
Hi!i’m mr.leekoo. i graduated with B.A. Economics n i work in office.my work involves lots of writing.this includes from planning to report writing.since, i have to write a report for very important person, m bit worried as,how to produce a well writen report? sodo you have any solution for me to improve by ability to write.
please do help me!
i am the student of class9. i want to improve my english grammar. can u suggest some ways
hi i live in England for 5 years and i cant write good English i can read but it is too difficult for me to write good English. i dont know how to spell some of words i fild my GCSE examz beucaes i didnt even knew how to write at all please hlep me …………