First of all, you need to be clear on what type of writing you want to improve, whether it is for your job (then you focus on formal and business English), you need it for a specific exam (such as IETLS or TOEFL) or perhaps you want to try you your hand at writing a blog in English. Depending on your answer, you will focus on specific aspects of the language needed to achieve your goal.

Learning how to write correctly and grammatically in English takes time, practice and perseverance. Generally, we can get away with making many more mistakes whilst speaking than writing. Because our education system is structured around written assessments, we come to expect excellence in writing.

If you want to become a good writer, you need to spend a fair amount of time studying grammar, vocabulary and punctuation. But there are some simple steps you could take to make this task easier. These are the skills you need to focus on:

1. Vocabulary building

The more words you know, the better you will be able to express your thoughts. Try to learn new vocabulary actively, that is, how it is used in a sentence or phrase. Try to write a few sentences with your new word or phrase to ensure that you are using it correctly. Create word maps with new words and connect them with their synonyms, antonyms, collocations, prepositions and what forms they take when they change to another part of speech. So, for example, take the word “depend”, you will have “depend on”, “dependants”, “dependable”, “independent”, and so on. There are many online dictionaries which you could utilise: they provide not only definitions but also pronunciation and plenty of examples of usage. Many run daily vocabulary quizzes at which you can test yourself as your skills develop. Some online dictionaries worth checking include Cambridge Dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries, Merriam-Webster or Dictionary.com.

2. Spelling and punctuation

Correct spelling is a must when it comes to writing. If you spell a word wrong you might be misunderstood by your reader because the meaning of the whole sentence might change. As English has borrowed its vocabulary from so many other languages, its spelling is, unfortunately, idiosyncratic and its rules difficult to follow. Do your best to memorise how a word is spelt, practice writing it down often and make a note of any words with unusual spelling. In most cases, you can rely on your spell-checker in your editing programme but in many cases, it won’t spot homophones as long as they are correctly spelt, so you should always be vigilant. Free spell-checking programmes, such as Grammarly, which you can use for all your online communications and work are usually good at spotting these, so you should install it to have a piece of mind, especially if you write formal or work-related communications.

3. Reading

There is no better way to improve your writing overall than by reading a lot. The chances are that if you want to become a good writer, you probably are already an avid reader. Depending on what sort of literature you like, you can start from short newspaper articles, simplified books, blogs on a topic of your interest. There is so much free material available on the Internet. The possibilities are endless. With time, you will be able to read serious magazines and books in the original. Every time, you come across a new word, look it up in a dictionary and try to remember the sentence in which it occurred.

4. Grammar

It is hard to overstate the importance of grammar for quality writing. Make sure you always use the correct tense, pay attention to the word order and punctuation. To make your writing clear and fluent, ensure that you are using the right connectors, which are words or phrases linking the writer’s thoughts so as to present a cohesive and cogent argument.

5. Practice makes perfect

Writing is a difficult skill and does take time to learn. But do not be discouraged. Practice as often as you can, study your vocabulary and grammar, but most importantly practice the actual writing. Nothing can teach you the art of writing better than practising, revising, editing, proofreading your actual text.

Of course, developing other skills alongside writing is also helpful, such as listening to original recordings, news, podcasts, watching films and speaking English will also help your writing skills.