How to improve English writing?

My national language is not English...How to improve English writing? and how to make my writing suit for university level...and how to build vocabulary?TQ

Read a lot. By far the best way to improve your writing skills in any given language is to read material written in that language. That way, you begin to absorb the writing styles of published authors, and to get a sense of which grammatical structures are most commonly employed in professional writing.

Buy a vocubulary book and make a plan.
It is better to write everyday. Maybe you can try to write the diary in Englsih.

i found conversation most helpful. when i was out i talked to people as much as possible. and when i didnt no a word, i always asked my friends etc and learnt to use it in the context.

writing and vocab?? i just read heaps of books. Doesn't matter what language though, I used to read thousands of books in Korean and i think it helped my writing in English etc.

read more books and absorb their writing styles!!!

You should search for reading materials that might interest you to read more. It is not necessary has to be a book, it could be magazines, newspapers, journal articles, and so on. While you reading, it is important to highlight words or sentenses that you do not understand. And then check out your dictionary to find out the meanings. It is very time consuming, however, you will receive your reward at the end of the day.

Good luck!

I agree with those who said, read, read, read! Get books on things you are passionate about, that way you wont feel it's such a chore to read English. Even a craft you might enjoy, or directions on how to build something.

You know, rhythm is universal. Don't just learn English words; learn phrases. The brain works like a phrase processor, and it is not so good at taking words without their context. Study English phrases.

Newspapers are an especially good place to begin, because they tend to use a fairly limited vocabulary with predictable phrases. This means that you will see a fair amount of new vocabulary to begin with, then start noticing the same words coming up again and again, giving you the sort of repetition needed to help you get the words into long term memory.

Yeap. Read a wide selection of books, and try to vary in style and author to get an idea of how different authors write in different tones and how they use their vocabulary.

Read newspapers, like EF_Sean said. They are very good sources of information and each article always bring up a new vocabulary.

I'm not sure if you are in university or college now, but can get into a tutor program offered through your school, it is usually really cheap. Or enroll in a class that is aimed to improve your english writing.

Start with the basics. Build a foundation so that you can gradually progress by reading and conversing. Learn and memorize the alphabet. Learn the syllables. Learn the very basics of English. Establish those and then continue to expand. Learn how to sound the words in a dictionary out and read it often, write the words and definitions out; learning more and more as you expand. It may help to read children's books. But most of all try and identify the patterns. If you can catch the patterns early on then you can see how they just expand in the same pattern to encompass more and analyze further and further.

I just start my writing in these days...and my national isn't English either.
Mt English is really poor
so I try to the gramma book....which was published by cambridge
It is really helpful....because it helps me how to write the sentence
although it really takes me some time...
but it's worth to do it
may be you can try this way

When i was learning english, i found it was most effective to read read and read some more. you don't realise how much you learn and before you know, you begin to use more complex vocab and structure your sentences differently.

Also for listening skills, I think music is good! obviously

But the basis of it all is to learn the essential grammar first, whilst throwing yourself into the language by being more practical: reading, listening to music, writing in english as as much as possible.

Hope this helps :) and remember to have confidence in yourself!

i have the same problem..
but i think meeting the native speakers can help alot!

reading and conversing is the best way to improve your vocabulary and understanding of a language.

I'm closing this thread because it is now over a week old. If anyone wants more advice on this topic, they can post a new thread.

Jul 22, 09, 12:15pm - Attached on merging:
How can I improve my English?

hai im kama, i have problem in writing essay and also speak in english. in essay i have a big problem to write it because i very very poor in englisg and the main things in my vocabulary. what should i do???? while i speaking i not confident to do it because the same things like i says before i very poor in english and i dont what sentence should i do to communicate.... what i must do for this problem??????????

To improve your English, read as much as possible, write as much as possible, and converse with English speakers as much as possible.

I'll let our forum members who have struggled with the same question offer more specific advice on what has been helpful to them.

Speaking for me, I constantly look up words which I don't understand in my English dictionary. I think it helps me a lot to instantly look them up and not learn them in one batch. I also use the software from grammarsoftware.com which helps me to find and correct harder to spot errors, but I didn't have time yet to use all features.

What I've learnt is, if you want to improve your English writing, you have to actually write English, be it full of errors or not. You have to write every day and then slowly proofread the text you wrote in order to understand what errors you made.

Practice thinking in English. This may sound odd, and you might look it too, if anyone sees you sitting on the subway flipping through a dual language dictionary seemingly at random, but practicing thinking in a second language is by far the best way to improve your mastery of it.

It would be nicer if you practice English and put it into action rather than think of it. If not by writing then there is also another way by means of interacting with other people.

It can be of great help to improve your English and learn how people manage to spoke it up. In that way, you are also applying one of the most important skill in communication and of learning -- listening.

It really needs application in order for you to learn as well as to improve.

If you want to improve your English in general, just give yourself as many chances as possible to practice it: read in E, listen to E song, speak to urself in E... You don't need to pick up every word you come across, just remember what you can or you think it's important.
That's what I've tried. Hope it will help you.
About writing, I think you have only one thing to do: write more.

Writing, reading, and speaking English are all good ideas, but you aren't truly fluent in a language until you can think in it, because you can only write and speak it quickly and with confidence when you are thinking in it. A student of a second language who relies always on trying to perform instantaneous translation will always be limited in how good he or she can become with it.

Reciting some best essays is a good way to improve writing skills, from my own experience.

nice topic

I suggest that you had better try to read english new paper and english Tv s such as CNN.

"Practise makes a man perfect."

Spend time reading, writing and speaking english, and eventually you will get a good hand of the language.

practice writing as much as possible and find someone correct it

to develop writing skills,you had better read some books and you should read THE WRİTER'S REFERENCES book.,
you can also read some essays which have been written about your issues.

Read a ton is definitely the first step. Through reading you will learn the way good sentences structured. Also, whenever possible, try to think and write in English, have someone good in writing help you correct your works. However, a native speaker does not necessaruly mean a good writer, he/she might personally struggle with grammar or logical thinking. Select your proofreader(s) carefully.

If you are not so confident with your overall English ability, I would suggest that you choose magizines and short news articles to begin with. When you are more comfortable with the language then move on to books that interest you.

I find these strategies useful in my case. All the best for your English study.