1. Read more. Read lots of books, magazines, Read more; anything and everything.

2. Understand you need to know something about grammar, but writing is not a separate formal language with a whole set of different rules.

3. Most important: Writing is telling a story on paper. Try writing like you would talk to someone to tell a story. Try dictating into a tape recorder or get voice recognition software for your computer. Or, think to yourself: “What would I say if I were speaking?”

4. You can always add the grammar when you edit your first draft.

5. You have to be an editor. It’s tough, but you have to go back over what you have written and polish it.

6. Before you start, organize your thoughts. Make notes or have an agenda for what you want to write.

7. Remember what you write has to have a beginning (an opening), a middle (the content) and an ending. The same is essentially true for each sentence.

8. Write often; write a lot. The more you write, the better you will get. Write notes, letters, reports.

What do you think?

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