Writing is very easy! Right?
Like, come on! You write every day. You reply to messages, emails, and create social media posts. Or maybe you work in an organization where you are always required to create presentations and reports.
Furthermore:
You have been learning how to write since you were a child.
But the question is:
Can you write a persuasive article or report that engages and captivates your readers? An article that goes viral and intrigues your readers into sharing it on social media?
The thing is, the revolution of the Internet has brought with it the need for quality content writers especially in the marketing world.
Almost every serious company runs a website which has to be filled with captivating content for its customers. Not only this, but marketing advertisements have also shifted to social media sites and google ads which all require excellent writing skills.
The question you might be asking yourself is why do I need to improve my writing skills? And can I make serious money from it? The answer is a big Yes.
Why Do You Need To Improve Your Writing Skills?
There are hundreds of people making thousands of dollars each month from blogs and online retail websites; all of which require quality writing skills to convince the readers. This is without mentioning copywriters.
Copywriting is one of the most sought-after marketing skills in the world. In simple terms, copywriting is the art of writing adverts in the form of texts with the intention of selling to your readers.
A simple example is the promotional emails you receive every day telling you to buy a product you don’t even need, but you end up buying anyway. Right? They are written by copywriters who get paid thousands of dollars for it.
Now that you have a reason to improve your writing skills let’s dive into how you can improve it.
How To Improve Your Writing Skills?
First, you need to understand that becoming a great writer takes time and practice.
Practice makes your perfect!
So don’t be too hard on yourself. Here are some steps you can consider on your path to becoming a better writer.
1. Take Time To Think About The Topic
Before you start writing, always take a moment to think about the reason why you are writing, and what you intend to achieve. Make sure you have a clear idea of your end goal, how to achieve it, and what you need to achieve it.
A simple trick to help you write that perfect content is to scribble down some points that you intend to write about on a piece of paper. This will give you a better understanding of the topic, and also prevent you from getting lost in the middle of your writing session.
Additionally, put yourself in your readers’ shoes by contemplating the questions they might ask when reading your piece. Make sure to get all these questions answered.
Most importantly, do not edit while you write. No matter what happens, typos, mistakes, grammatical errors, forget them all. Consider the first one as a draft with mistakes, do not be afraid to make mistakes.
Editing is where you do your magic, spend some time once you finish your initial draft. You won’t realise how fast and how much better your content is once you follow this approach and finish editing.
2. Keep It Simple
A lot of writers fall into the trap of over-explaining things or using a lot of jargon. While this may get your ideas well understood, it also creates an impression that you lack conviction. The idea should be to give your readers just enough to make them understand without drowning them with unnecessary details.
In simple terms, write as if you are having a verbal conversation with your readers.
3. Use A Simple Language
Complex words and phrases make you look like a super-genius alien. However, unless you are creating a blog related to law, consider using everyday phrases that people can easily understand. I mean! Who on earth wants to read an article while holding a dictionary?
The intention should be to make everyone understand even those that might read it while dozing off. Additionally, do not be tempted to overuse filler words and phrases.
4. Introduce Questions And Contractions In Your Piece
Questions are always essential when it comes to making an article sound conversational. They give your reader a chance to think and try to find meaning from what you are writing about. On the other hand, contractions such as can’t, I’m, and won’t make your article sound more relaxed convincing.
5. Use A Writing Assistant
We all fall into making simple mistakes such as skipping a comma, repeating the same word all through or even making typing errors. Have you ever wished you had the second pair of eyes to catch those pesky typos?
Well, there is:
Meet Grammarly – A free online grammar editing tool that always comes in handy when editing your final work. To be honest, nobody is perfect especially when it comes to writing.
Hence I use Grammarly and why I recommend all writers regardless of how good they are to use the best grammar checker on the planet.
The best thing is, Grammarly offers a free plan which you can access by creating an account with them. The free option allows you to get rid of simple mistakes such as typing errors, and incorrect punctuations.
They also have a free Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers extension that checks errors to any writings you make while browsing, a Microsoft Office Word extension, and a premium package which checks all errors including plagiarism on your article.
You can always use the free option as much as you like along with the free browser extension. Grammarly acts as a writing assistant and will go a long way in teaching you how to get your sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and word selection right.
If you are looking for the best plagiarism checker, then I recommend you to buy the premium plans. Grammarly’s plagiarism checker is second to none. It beats all other tools we have tested and hence our go-to tool for thorough plagiarism check.
Below is a screenshot of me editing this article on Grammarly. See the errors it caught? It is like having a second pair of eyes to check my work.
Update: Grammarly introduced rich text formatting, one of the most awaited feature. The editor can now add bold, italics, bullet points, numbers, headings and more.
You can apply text formattings using the toolbar displayed at the bottom of the editor screen.
So the best writing assistant keeps getting better and better.
There is no excuse to say no to a fantastic free tool. Go ahead, try it and catch those typos, you will love it. Visit Grammarly.
Final Words
As you may have discovered, writing is not that complicated. If you are always able to have conversations with people, you can also excel in writing pretty quickly. All you need is a little practice and time.
However, do not overwork yourself trying to get it right overnight.
Enjoy the process, and you will be amazed by the results.
Happy writing.