AboutDan Smith Expertise I have been a professional writer and editor for more than 30 years, taught speech and English composition at the university level, and have developed speech and English composition courses and seminars for businesses. I am experienced in editing a wide variety of materials, especially business, scientific, and other academic papers. I am familiar with all the major style guides.
Experience I have edited any number of graduate papers and other technical materials in such advanced fields as civil and electrical engineering and semiconductor fabrication. I have extensive experience in working with non-native English speakers.
Question I love to write and was always top of my class in writing until my family moved to Puerto Rico. Once in Highschool, english wasn't really important and I have written things here and there according to what I learned a long time ago. I want to get better at writing but I don't know how? How can I start perfecting my grammar and punctuation? I will be getting into graduate school next year and am terrified of writing an entrance essay in english! I'm fully bilingual but my writing style is a mess!
Any ideas???
Answer I think the most important thing you can do to improve your writing is to read good stuff. I always have a book in progress. Read both fiction and nonfiction and in disciplines other than your own. Don't let the Internet be the primary source of reading material. Read real books.
This will do two things for you:
1. It will expose you to much good writing.
2. It will give you a fund of knowledge on which to draw when you write. You'll have something to write about.
The next thing to do is practice. Write something every day. And when you produce a sentence, look back at it and ask yourself if it really says what you intended to say. For example, make sure all the modifiers are close to the things they modify. If it does not actually say what you intended, rewrite it until it does.
That kind of practice will help make writing much easier.
