Writing Skills

[Baby_Love]

I need to improve my writing skills, like run on sentences, fragments, sentence strucure and more. I need help maybe finding a book, textbook, web site, or anything that can help me and maybe even provides answerkeys so i know I am doing it right. Thanks

Baby_Love

[birdsongDS]

Welcome to the room. I hope someone in here has an idea for you. I can't give you any advice but continue to write even if you think it is not perfect!

[Baby_Love]

Thanks for the tip.

[aidyn_loves_mi…]

sory, all I can tell you is stay awake in english and pay attention. it's just one of those things that either you now it or you don't. And if you don't and you want to know it you have to pay attention and work at it.

[twilight_fanat…]

Writing is like any other skill: You can only get better as you go along. My best advice is to...practice, practice, PRACTICE. Pay attention in E. class, and, most importantly, write for yourself. YOU and ONLY YOU are the only people who can ever read what you've written, if you wish it to be that way.

[Night_Angel]

Well, if you want to ask about something putting it on here could help- I'm sure someone can help you (I know I can). Also, just tying in "run ons" and other things like that into yahoo and google should come up with some helpful information. Other than that, stay awake in English!! And if you do fall asleep, go ask your teacher for help- that typically works best. 

[Baby_Love]

Thanks, but see the thing is I do not have an english class any more. I'm in college already. I didn't get past 8th grade. So i missed 4 years of english class. But anyways thanks.

[Night_Angel]

well, why not sign up for an english class next semester, then? 

[holyboy]

There are many books on improving writing and style. To get started, how about, Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style? It's probably available from Barnes and Noble.

[Baby_Love]

thanks for the posts...

[Brandi_R]

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Baby_Love wrote:

I need to improve my writing skills, like run on sentences, fragments, sentence strucure and more. I need help maybe finding a book, textbook, web site, or anything that can help me and maybe even provides answerkeys so i know I am doing it right. Thanks

Baby_Love

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There are so many great grammar and usage reference books out there. You can usually find them in the "writing" section of the bookstore or by searching under "grammar and usage" at online bookstores. Browse around to see which one has the organization and tone that will work for you. Strunk & White's Elements of Style is a must-have for writers and addresses many of these issues, but it's a bit different than a grammar handbook, so you'd want both. One of my favorite online resources to look up grammar-related issues is Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.  

[Capuchin]

I will echo the advice others have given you and can add only two things:

1) Try reading your work aloud --  bad sentence structure often becomes obvious when spoken.

2) Don't trust a word processor's grammar checker.

They're fine for pointing our run-on sentences, starting consecutive sentences with the same word, and missing parenthesis, but I've never found one that doesn't mess up a lot of other things.

Some of the changes one of the best grammar checkers wanted to make:

(A is original, B is the 'corrected' version)

A) "I will summarize, so as to not bore you,"
B) "I will summarize, so as to not bear you,"

(Someone explaining that parts of a man's costume are fake, but . . .)

A) . . . the sword at his side is real enough."
B) . . . the sword at his side is really enough."
 

A) He told his uncle he knew he could not . . .
B) He told his uncle him knew he could not . . .

A) . . . players picking at random whether to fight . . .
B) . . . players picking at random weather to fight . . .

A) ". . . and your boots so new that they squeak."
B) ". . . and your boots so newly that they squeak."

A) . . . which the dog had helped him hunt and kill.
B) . . . which the dog had helped him hunts and kill.
(If 'hunt' had to be made plural, why doesn't 'kill'?)

While some of a checker's mistake are obvious, if grammar isn't your strong suit, they can seriously mess up your work.

[Hann]

If you're writing a book, don't worry about fragments. They come up in stories A LOT! It's part of the whole point of view thing. You can get away with a bunch of fragments if you write a book from first person point of view.

"Frown . . . and the world will perish one step at a time.

Smile . . . and the world will grow. . . one step at a time."

                                        ~Anonymous

[Kichou]

In my experience, the best thing you can to do to improve your writing is read like crazy! You'll pick stuff up subconsciously and it really helps.