Everyone needs to be a proficient writer. No matter what you study or plan to do for a living, you must be a prolific author if you want to succeed. If you don’t believe us, just take a look at it this way:

• Business persons have to write quarterly and annual reports.
• Marketers create tons of presentations.
• Data analysts and programmers have to explain their project proposals in written form.
• Politicians have to write their speeches.
• Writers have to…well, they have to write.

The list goes on, but you get our point anyway. With that being said, the only thing left for you is to think about how to improve your writing proficiency. We are here to help you with that, so keep reading to learn eight practical strategies to master the art of writing.

1. Make a Plan

Every activity starts with a plan and so does academic writing. The first thing you need to do is to create an outline of your project, making sure to identify key points and build a meaningful structure. The usual piece of writing consists of three segments:

• Introduction: You open the paper by presenting the main idea and methodology.
• Body: In this part, you need to give explanations that prove your hypothesis and answer all research questions clearly.
• Conclusion: The last segment of a school paper should round up the story and remind readers of the most important conclusions.

If you make this type of plan, it will be much easier to move on and put your thoughts into words.

2. Practice Consistently

We all know that practice makes perfect. This goes for all areas of life and work, which means you have to invest a lot of time into writing. Even the most talented authors must work consistently because it’s the only way to maintain the highest level of mastery.

As you keep writing more and more every day, you will start getting better. The beginning is always difficult, but you will gradually improve the writing fluency. Keep in mind, however, that you shouldn’t expect miracles at once: this is the long-term process and you have to earn your knowledge.

3. Read a Lot

Observational learning is one of the crucial studying methods. After all, no one can teach you how to write better than classical authors such as Thomas Mann, F.M. Dostoevsky, or John Steinbeck. As a student, your duty is to read as many books as possible and figure out what makes these authors so extraordinary.

We believe it’s good to set monthly goals and keep a reading journal. For instance, you can choose to read two books a month. Once you get used to this rhythm, you can read three novels monthly and perhaps even target one book per week.

4. Mix Topics and Genres

Doing the same thing all over again will only get you so far. If you really want to become a prolific author, you have to mix topics and genres. This is pretty much the only way to learn about writing from all angles and points of view.

Our suggestion is to combine all sorts of different formats:

• Fictional and non-fictional works
• Scholarly articles, essays, research papers, reports, and presentations
• Poems and novels
• Fantasy, realism, and drama
• Shorter and longer formats

5. Use Online Tools

Who says you need anything else than pen and paper to become a great writer? The year is 2019 and you should definitely take advantage of numerous online tools and mobile apps to make the learning process faster and more efficient.

Grammarly is a very useful plugin because it points out your spelling and grammar mistakes. There is also Hemingway, a renowned platform that allows users to evaluate their style of writing and make the necessary corrections accordingly.

You can find a plethora of similar tools online, so don’t hesitate to conduct a research to find the best solutions for your writing skills.

6. Don’t Forget to Take Notes

Every author relies on ideas. They represent a quintessential element of writing, so you better write them down before they all disappear. In such circumstances, Evernote comes in quite handy because it gives you the chance to take notes quickly in many different formats. Besides that, this app is excellent for students who need to plan, organize, and schedule their activities.

7. Write a Blog

With millions of authors currently active online, blogging makes an extremely popular writing solution for students as well. Why is it so interesting and helpful? Well, a blog is easy to set up because content management systems like WordPress enable users to create a website within minutes.

At the same time, blogging does not have the importance of official academic papers, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your writing. You can simply write about your daily activities, thoughts, and meetings. Once you get used to this writing method, you will also get more comfortable and begin writing better and more frequently.

8. Ask for Feedback

We will mention once again that you don’t have to go through this process single-handedly. Don’t be shy ask for help and let your teachers or colleagues write your papers. The best thing is to have a mentor who can give you professional suggestions and follow your progress, but any sort of external help will do well. Your consultants can share their opinions with you, name the pros and cons of your writing, and perhaps give you interesting writing tips in some cases.

Conclusion

Student often neglect writing and consider it to be obsolete, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is actually one of the basic academic skills that have tons of practical implications in a career of almost every serious professional.

For this reason, it is critical to exercise and strengthen your writing abilities. Our post showed you eight practical strategies to master the art of writing. Make sure to test each method and let us know in comments which one turned out to be best for you!

Tiffany Harper began her career as a journalist in the educational publishing house, in New York. Now she works as an expert writer in dissertation editing and assignment writing help.