Learning to write
Why is writing difficult? I did not like writing when I was in high school. When I came to the United States, I took my first writing class and started to become a better writer. Soon writing was more fun for me. There are a few things that helped me such as learning from my mistakes, reading stories, watching movies, and trying a different way.
First of all, my first writing class was fun, so I enjoyed learning to write. It was not easy. However, with my teacher instructions I was able to learn quickly. I had to start from the beginning with the basic rules of writing. In my class, we learned that every sentence needed one verb and one noun. When writing in English, we have to use the right tense. I had to learn how to use commas the right way too. One other important rule for writing is to make sure all proper nouns are capitalized like the names of cities or countries. I wrote my first paragraph, and I made many mistakes, but it did not matter for me because I knew that I would learn from them. Then I started to practice writing at home to make my writing better. I tried doing other things to be a better writer. Keeping a journal or writing about any recent experiences helped me too.
Secondly, I improved my writing by reading a lot of stories. I started reading easy children stories. Then I began to read harder ones. The more stories I read, the more I understood how to write better sentences. There are a lot of things to read online too like the news and blog posts. The more reading I did, the better I understood the English language. Understanding what I read was important, and it helped me to write better too. Now, both reading and writing are easier for me. Another thing that helped me to be a better writer is watching movies and television. When I watch movies, I have the subtitles turned on. This way I can learn the rules of grammar and how to put words in the right order when I write.
Other things that I did to help me write a better essay was listening to people talk. Listening to people talk in public places (grocery store or on the bus) helped me learn how to use words and phrases better. I also found listening to podcasts, YouTube videos and online radio shows helped me too. Talking and chatting online with people also helped. Practicing what I learned in my writing class with people who speak English helped enforce the ideas I learned. If someone asked me a question in a chat, I had to be able to answer quickly. With this practice, I could use what I learned in a real situation and got responses to help me understand if I used the right words or phrases in my reply.
In my opinion, writing was hard for me when I first started. But with time and a lot of practice, it became much easier for me. I hope as I continue to practice I get to be an even better writer. I try to practice writing things almost everyday. What I did to be a better writer was take a writing class, read books, watch movies, listen, and try other things. I found that it is important never to give up when you are writing, it is okay to take a break. Writing isn’t easy, and if I was frustrated, I knew my writing wouldn’t be very good. To learn writing, you must improve yourself and after that, writing will become something interesting, easier, and more fun for you.
