Writing in English

[music_freak28]

I have no problems conversing in English. Neither do I have problems with reading and understanding English. But I face one problem which is writing.

How do you improve that part?As in I don't want to be stuck my entire life constructing boring and simple sentences. I want to learn to write sentences or stories that catches people's attention but yet still grammatically correct.

I always have plenty of ideas to write, but I can't really express myself well through writing so my ideas usually remain as thoughts.I have solved most of my common grammatical errors but my sentences remains safe, boring and dull.

When, I try to write and put in different styles and new words I've learned from books in my work, people either don't understand what I say or I start making grammatical errors again.It's like I know I've learned new words and writing styles but I can't feel my English improving at all.

I really don't want to be just that girl with "normal Malaysian standard" of english, Because I know it's a big disadvantage in this world. I want to be GOOD or EXCELLENT at writing.

So any advices?And it's not helping the fact that I'm not taking any language subjects for a-levels in intec. So I'm completely clueless on where to start and pretty depressed about it =(. Not that I know any other languages other than BM and English..which makes me feel even worse.:cry

[Sillyboy]

I have no problems conversing in English. Neither do I have problems with reading and understanding English. But I face one problem which is writing.

How do you improve that part?As in I don't want to be stuck my entire life constructing boring and simple sentences. I want to learn to write sentences or stories that catches people's attention but yet still grammatically correct.

I always have plenty of ideas to write, but I can't really express myself well through writing so my ideas usually remain as thoughts.I have solved most of my common grammatical errors but my sentences remains safe, boring and dull.

When, I try to write and put in different styles and new words I've learned from books in my work, people either don't understand what I say or I start making grammatical errors again.It's like I know I've learned new words and writing styles but I can't feel my English improving at all.

I really don't want to be just that girl with "normal Malaysian standard" of english, Because I know it's a big disadvantage in this world. I want to be GOOD or EXCELLENT at writing.

So any advices?And it's not helping the fact that I'm not taking any language subjects for a-levels in intec. So I'm completely clueless on where to start and pretty depressed about it =(. Not that I know any other languages other than BM and English..which makes me feel even worse.:cry

Simple, read more books. To be honest, your English is just fine. Don't be sad or depressed over such a trivial matter.

[vseehua]

Hella there. I think you will find the tips in this (http://www.recom.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6306) thread useful.

[Smilehoe]

Ya, I second Sillyboy. Reading more helps a lot, you pick up phrases, styles and structure. Also, do write more and try using thesaurus for synonyms as replacement on your current vocab. Of course, simply choosing words as substitutes may be damaging to your essays due to certain words being context specific. However, this method do help you increase your choices in wordings. Take a log book to jot down all catchy phrases and well written sentences.

Hope that helps. Btw, you shouldn't worry much, I see you're already above average.

[alepbing]

If you want to improve your vocabs, try to blog and while blogging, you can use thesaurus or online dictionary to dig out words that may be suitable as a substitute of the word you typed out.

And in addition, read people's blog, as in those who you think have interesting way of writing.

Don't worry, my writing is no good and of mediocre level only.
Plus dramatic writings are not preferable since the best English is always the simple English.

Download this (http://wordweb.info/free/). It is free and is very useful.

[tent]

http://student.com.my/achievement/epilog.shtml

try to read this and u will be touched by this story.

[Holyboy27]

You just need to read the dictionary. I use wordweb and its fun reading dictionaries.

Read a variety of books from different authors. Dont keep to the same author all the time, their styles tend to get boring. Once I was on a Sydney Sheldon marathon but I got bored of his style by the 4th book.

[bp_ffei]

Read! It helps the most. Of course it matters as well what type of books you read. Reading a variety of books would help, not only to improve your style of writing, but also to expose you to a plethora of new ideas, concepts and vocabulary. And you'll learn stuff along the way, especially if you pick up stuff like National Geographic, Readers Digest, current news articles and commentaries in Time, Newsweek etc...

[eve88]

Well... reading is crucial - but practicing writing is just as important.

Dont expect the first draft of your writing (be it an essay, story, poem, blogpost or whatever) to be the "final copy" -- its not going to happen.

write. and then edit - get someone to point out your mistakes, give comments, etc.
after editing, leave it alone for a day or so.
go back to it with a "fresh eye" and repeat the process...

After 2-3 rounds of this the quality of that piece of writing should be as good as its gonna get.


Another thing you may find useful is thinking about what you are reading. Ask yourself :
For fiction:
Do I like this style/plot/description? why/why not?
Does these characters seem 1 dimensional or do they appear real?
What would i do differently if i were the author?

For nonfiction:
Does these ideas make sense? why/why not?
Are the arguments convincing?
Is it based on facts? Is the writer trying to inflame emotions?

----
Try to identify "good"/"bad" pieces of writing - if you can recognise what is "bad", and spot it in your own writing, then u can always edit it out/learn to avoid it.

[Appolo]

Try blogging.It really helps for you to build up the confidence necessary in blogging and try to randomly select topics for you to write on and see how readers accept it.

[hajar]

This may be repetitive but it basically comes down to reading & writing from/on various sources/topics and getting comments from others.

It's good that you're trying to write in different styles and optimize the usage of your new vocab. But honestly, I don't see a point in using words @<hidden> terms that people find hard to comprehend. IMHO, the basis of being a good writer is not in the capacity of bombastic words used or the writing style but more of possessing the ability to get the message across. Owh, while I'm at it ... try to develop a style of your own. ^

[cj6455]

If you want to improve your vocabs, try to blog and while blogging, you can use thesaurus or online dictionary to dig out words that may be suitable as a substitute of the word you typed out.

And in addition, read people's blog, as in those who you think have interesting way of writing.

Don't worry, my writing is no good and of mediocre level only.
Plus dramatic writings are not preferable since the best English is always the simple English.

Download this (http://wordweb.info/free/). It is free and is very useful.


Thanks very much. I find this software is very useful...it's worth checking it out

[Athersin]

i cant download this software .



It appears as the file you downloaded is corrupted. What does it means?


Anyone has the idea?

[calibre2001]

Hmmm why don't you pick up a third language instead???

[Thomson90]

hi. in response to this post, writing essay, do anyone know any good websites that can find good essays and articles?? TQ.

[youngyew]

hi. in response to this post, writing essay, do anyone know any good websites that can find good essays and articles?? TQ.
Any quality news website or blog would be good for general purposes. I am not too sure about descriptive and narrative writing, but I guess they should be acquired from reading instead of active emulation or regurgitation.

[Ken9119]

Practise! If you want to find a channel to practise, I recommend experimenting with writing fiction, that way worked very well for me. Have you heard of fan fiction? It's where you write fiction based on characters and storylines from any existing film, story, etc... If you don't like that, you could try writing original fiction - something like a counterpart of fan fiction, but with completely original storylines and characters you create yourself.

Try out these two websites... http://www.fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/) and http://www.fictionpress.com (http://www.fictionpress.com/). There are quite a number of authors registered on both sites (fictionpress.com for original fiction) and you can go through the stories, most of which are written by amateurs, but there are a few good ones as well. Then you can compare and experiment with different writing styles. And if you post any of your work there and you're lucky, you'll get comments from fellow authors on your stories as well

[Constance]

my english is very poor one!so i come in want improve my english...

[Boyz_Zoo]

This web might help also especially in improving your grammar.
http://www.grammar-monster.com/

[markwongsk]

Your English is not "simple and boring" :)) but it become insipid when writing application stuff... I think reading those highly original essays and blogs can improve your "out-of-the-box thinking". Good luck and cheers :laugh

[nickvl]

I have no problems conversing in English. Neither do I have problems with reading and understanding English. But I face one problem which is writing.

How do you improve that part?As in I don't want to be stuck my entire life constructing boring and simple sentences. I want to learn to write sentences or stories that catches people's attention but yet still grammatically correct.

I always have plenty of ideas to write, but I can't really express myself well through writing so my ideas usually remain as thoughts.I have solved most of my common grammatical errors but my sentences remains safe, boring and dull.

When, I try to write and put in different styles and new words I've learned from books in my work, people either don't understand what I say or I start making grammatical errors again.It's like I know I've learned new words and writing styles but I can't feel my English improving at all.

I really don't want to be just that girl with "normal Malaysian standard" of english, Because I know it's a big disadvantage in this world. I want to be GOOD or EXCELLENT at writing.

So any advices?And it's not helping the fact that I'm not taking any language subjects for a-levels in intec. So I'm completely clueless on where to start and pretty depressed about it =(. Not that I know any other languages other than BM and English..which makes me feel even worse.:cry

Well, i sound like a parrot but the easiest way to learn how to write well is to read. Toss out reference books (especially those that says how to write well and etc; they dont work for me...LOL) , bring in literature in your life. Try to read as much books in whatever genre you like. Around 99% of the books i read are not for academic purposes, most of them are storybooks and i feel thet really help me write well. Different authors have different ways of writing. If you like a particular style, try to emulate and modify so that it eventually become your own style

While I dont have a blog, i read my friend and family's blogs and they have been a wealth of help.

p/s : I find that grammatically correct sentences makes a boring essay but unfortunately it is a must for passing exams...sigh

p/s/s : dont use bombastic words...simple ones that get the message across will do...listen to great leaders' speeches (i particularly like obama's speech when he became president elect) they use simple everyday words but it is still so powerful

[zekrypton]

I am a little perturbed when it comes to self-assessment. Well, you see. I applied for a tonnes of scholarships. All those forms offered, however, require me to rate my own command of English in both speech and writing. I think it must have been quite vain of me to put 7 for both. If you think that's a tad bit too low, I think an '8' would make me very much a narcissist. Not that I weigh myself 10 stones over others, the act enabling myself seems to be very... futile.

No matter how many pounds of mediocrity you can eke out of what I'm about to say, but I'm tenacious about the quintessence being the environment in perfecting one's command of English.

[nickvl]

I am a little perturbed when it comes to self-assessment. Well, you see. I applied for a tonnes of scholarships. All those forms offered, however, require me to rate my own command of English in both speech and writing. I think it must have been very vain of me to put 7 for both. If you think that's a tad bit too low, I think an '8' would make me very much a narcissist.

No matter how many pounds of mediocrity you can eke out of what I'm about to say, but I'm tenacious about the quintessence being the environment in perfecting one's command of English.

No no its not narcisstic . It's called selling yourself and self confidence, man!! You shoulda put a 9!

About the second part, i have to wiki ur words first LOL

[sol_fw]

I am a little perturbed when it comes to self-assessment. Well, you see. I applied for a tonnes of scholarships. All those forms offered, however, require me to rate my own command of English in both speech and writing. I think it must have been quite vain of me to put 7 for both. If you think that's a tad bit too low, I think an '8' would make me very much a narcissist. Not that I weigh myself 10 stones over others, the act enabling myself seems to be very... futile.

No matter how many pounds of mediocrity you can eke out of what I'm about to say, but I'm tenacious about the quintessence being the environment in perfecting one's command of English.

Too many.. big.. words..

[henry_yew]

Too many.. big.. words..

Well, get used to it. LOL.

"In many situations, our cognitive abilities are assessed by the way we present ourselves, in a manner of speaking, through the use of our vocabulary, complex or otherwise, as well as our sentence structure and grammar. Image is kept this way, lest we humiliate ourselves."

:lol:

At least nobody went like, "Hath thou knoweth that thou wouldst not live to-morrow, then would thou giveth everything up that is thine?" or something like that...

[bellalitaz]

agreed..reading and writing more would help.

OR
Go and live in an entirely English speaking country for a few years. That definitely brought mine up to par.xp~

But if it's especially for writing, read story books of different genres and authors. and everytime you come across a word you're not 100% sure the meaning of, search it up in the dictionary. (I still can't remember the exact meaning of 'shrewd' for some dumb reason and still need to look it up in the dictionary everytime.):notrust
Take examples of sentences from the books you've read, and try and use them in your writings. Maybe not exactly but change it up a bit; add your own twist and so on.x)
hmm..what else can I ramble about?...aah, resist the temptation to speak Manglish a.k.a rojak English+Malay every other day. Yes, sometimes people may understand you better when you mix it up but it will downgrade your English eventually. x|

But still, using too many bombastic words that you know only half the population would understand without the resort of a dictionary would only make you out as some sort of language nerd...no offence to anyone. So my last piece of advice would be to keep your writing style natural and not too forced, if you know what I mean. Just write how you would normally talk/think. You wouldn't exactly say 'Alas, my ecstatic day of friendship bonding has come to an end!', when you can just say 'I had fun with my friends today' or something...:wink

Oh yea, and have confidence, my dear, in whatever you write.
I'm outta here~:nod

[eve88]

Although if you cant be bothered to look up every single word you dont know from a dictionary... most of the word meanings can be picked up from context. so dont feel bad "guessing" the meaning of the word ou dont know=p

[MandyWarhol]

Although if you cant be bothered to look up every single word you dont know from a dictionary... most of the word meanings can be picked up from context. so dont feel bad "guessing" the meaning of the word ou dont know=p


Yeah, especially for idioms :wink

[Boyz_Zoo]

Basically, want to improve your writing skills. Borrow essays from your friends who are good in English. Read and analyse their style of writing and learn to modify yourself. That's is how I excelled in BM. I think it can also be used in English.

[yanno_yamster]

At least nobody went like, "Hath thou knoweth that thou wouldst not live to-morrow, then would thou giveth everything up that is thine?" or something like that...

Whoever's head doesn't spin reading these sort of sentences can try reading the King James Version of the Bible or Shakespeare's works.

[Cadence_hope]

I am a little perturbed when it comes to self-assessment. Well, you see. I applied for a tonnes of scholarships. All those forms offered, however, require me to rate my own command of English in both speech and writing. I think it must have been quite vain of me to put 7 for both. If you think that's a tad bit too low, I think an '8' would make me very much a narcissist. Not that I weigh myself 10 stones over others, the act enabling myself seems to be very... futile.

No matter how many pounds of mediocrity you can eke out of what I'm about to say, but I'm tenacious about the quintessence being the environment in perfecting one's command of English.

Wow you have a lot of profound words here! I'd to check some words using dictionary. And you just rated yourself a '7'? I'm gonna bury myself because I rated mine a '10' to increase my chance of being shortlisted. *embarassed* By the way I'm also not very good in English. I got a 'b3' in GCE-O english in SPM. However I found that recom-ing will enhance my english proficiency. Plus I'm studying in an english speaking environment thus I believe this will help a lot. Thanks for so many advices in previous posts too.. :laugh

[henry_yew]

Wow you have a lot of profound words here! I'd to check some words using dictionary. And you just rated yourself a '7'? I'm gonna bury myself because I rated mine a '10' to increase my chance of being shortlisted. *embarassed* By the way I'm also not very good in English. I got a 'b3' in GCE-O english in SPM. However I found that recom-ing will enhance my english proficiency. Plus I'm studying in an english speaking environment thus I believe this will help a lot. Thanks for so many advices in previous posts too.. :laugh

Yeah, no worries. Your English should improve over time, given that you practise enough. Don't just focus on written English, you should also speak more in English if you really want to improve in a well-rounded manner.

Seriously, you may never know how fluent spoken English may save your presentations when the evaluators or clients start asking you difficult questions. And some terminologies used during presentations may earn you extra marks also. For example, rather than using the the crude term "shit", you might want to use the word "faeces" instead to sound much more professional.

I know because I am the one who will always have to save the whole group during presentations. Sigh... sometimes my groupmates would press me to apply a pseudo-British accent, which I would always tell them, is not British at all! Bah!

[nickvl]

I know because I am the one who will always have to save the whole group during presentations. Sigh... sometimes my groupmates would press me to apply a pseudo-British accent, which I would always tell them, is not British at all! Bah!

Yeah, but I have always felt people who put on a pseudo-British/American accent when they speak sort of grates the nerves because it is not natural as we are Asians and the person will tend to be inconsistent in their 'slang' because that's not how they speak in daily life.

My friend once remarked that a person who spoke in pseudo-accent somehow gave a snobbish impression....Do you agree?

The main pitfall in speaking good English is the tendency to add 'lah' at the end of our sentences. In any case, to improve our English, we have to read a lot to see how a certain word is used.

p/s : I shall go now and polish my prose. I need coffee...lah. So go forth an speaketh good Inggelis ah...

[SapphireDragon]

Yeah, but I have always felt people who put on a pseudo-British/American accent when they speak sort of grates the nerves because it is not natural as we are Asians and the person will tend to be inconsistent in their 'slang' because that's not how they speak in daily life.

My friend once remarked that a person who spoke in pseudo-accent somehow gave a snobbish impression....Do you agree?

The main pitfall in speaking good English is the tendency to add 'lah' at the end of our sentences. In any case, to improve our English, we have to read a lot to see how a certain word is used.

p/s : I shall go now and polish my prose. I need coffee...lah. So go forth an speaketh good Inggelis ah...

Haha, quite true for malaysians but I guess when you enter public speaking and debating competitons in school, it can help you polish your English tremendously. But the "lah" and "ah" is actually a heritage, a symbol, a unique culture of malaysia that I think should be continued. Everytime we hear the "lah", we can immediately recognise a Malaysian.

[yanno_yamster]

But the "lah" and "ah" is actually a heritage, a symbol, a unique culture of malaysia that I think should be continued. Everytime we hear the "lah", we can immediately recognise a Malaysian.

Or maybe a Singaporean. But these days their command in English is better than us...

I speak English with a Malaysian accent, and yet there are people who said I "cakap London" as if I'm being a show-off...

[Boyz_Zoo]

Or maybe a Singaporean. But these days their command in English is better than us...

I speak English with a Malaysian accent, and yet there are people who said I "cakap London" as if I'm being a show-off...
First of all, who d you talk to and said that you are a show-off? Normally, those people who is not very good in English will say that and you are not showing off. They should actually be ashamed for saying such thing as though you might put the lah, meh and so on.

[yanno_yamster]

First of all, who d you talk to and said that you are a show-off? Normally, those people who is not very good in English will say that and you are not showing off. They should actually be ashamed for saying such thing as though you might put the lah, meh and so on.

I was actually in a camp organised by a particular school in which my school has been invited to send in representatives. There was this incident during the camp where my friend and I were walking behind two other students during jungle-trekking. And so as I was talking to my friend in English, one of those two in front of me purposedly talked loudly and said something like "Ada orang speaking London..." in a cynical tone.

Ah, what's past is past. No big deal actually. Just wanted to tell my experience that's all (though this thread is actually more on WRITING in English instead of SPEAKING in English, haha).

[Glassylicious]

I was actually in a camp organised by a particular school in which my school has been invited to send in representatives. There was this incident during the camp where my friend and I were walking behind two other students during jungle-trekking. And so as I was talking to my friend in English, one of those two in front of me purposedly talked loudly and said something like "Ada orang speaking London..." in a cynical tone.

Ah, what's past is past. No big deal actually. Just wanted to tell my experience that's all (though this thread is actually more on WRITING in English instead of SPEAKING in English, haha).

I don't think he was saying that you were speaking with a British accent. He just had a problem with you speaking English.

It's just like how some people use the term "England" like "My England not good, sorry". -_-;;

And yeah, don't mind him. He probably sucks at English himself. XP

[zekrypton]

Yeah, no worries. Your English should improve over time, given that you practise enough. Don't just focus on written English, you should also speak more in English if you really want to improve in a well-rounded manner.

Seriously, you may never know how fluent spoken English may save your presentations when the evaluators or clients start asking you difficult questions. And some terminologies used during presentations may earn you extra marks also. For example, rather than using the the crude term "shit", you might want to use the word "faeces" instead to sound much more professional.

I know because I am the one who will always have to save the whole group during presentations. Sigh... sometimes my groupmates would press me to apply a pseudo-British accent, which I would always tell them, is not British at all! Bah!

Talking about accent, a few Aussies thought that I'm from Australia because... I speak like one? Anyway, I SPEAK ONLY ENGLISH! I don't speak England. Or, Australia. Hah!

The thing about this Elizabeth-esque oh-so-rare parlance is that, it emits this kind of holier-than-thou aura that seems to hypnotize people into total surrender, as if saying 'YOU'RE GOD!'. My bet is that the British colonization may be a harbinger to such post-effect, a circumstances that is derived from a semblance of tyranny.

[budakkerek]

as an english teacher and a published writer (i think i can say that hehe), i would suggest you read widely and always keep writing. keep a journal, a diary, blog, do whatever you can to practise putting your thoughts on paper (or online) because thinking your thoughts through and putting them together in a proper sentence will help you become better at expressing yourself through writing. You will realise that writing and speaking use diff kinds of language styles so the more practice you hv the sooner youll be better at it.

and read widely, read a lot, read materials you normally wont read, just to get a better sense of the diff language styles. This is so when u need to write in a certain genre, youd know how to best approach it.

and if ure weak in the vocab dept, make sure you make the dictionary your best fren! I used to read a page of the dictionary each day when i was in school and that was the best way to get new words and it didnt take long. i think i got really into it, but i loved doing it. it made me seem so much smarter than my peers coz i knew most words they didnt haha

ok im beginning to sound rather conceited so i shud stop here! Good luck!

oh if you experience being chided or made fun of for being a 'show-off'/ using english, worry not. When i was in high school back in the mid 90s, it happened to me too, but look at where I am now and look at them haters! i still think if they weren't such haters then, maybe their english would be so much better than it is now.

Oh well. Just dont let them break your spirit!

[markwongsk]

I am a little perturbed when it comes to self-assessment. Well, you see. I applied for a tonnes of scholarships. All those forms offered, however, require me to rate my own command of English in both speech and writing. I think it must have been quite vain of me to put 7 for both. If you think that's a tad bit too low, I think an '8' would make me very much a narcissist. Not that I weigh myself 10 stones over others, the act enabling myself seems to be very... futile.

No matter how many pounds of mediocrity you can eke out of what I'm about to say, but I'm tenacious about the quintessence being the environment in perfecting one's command of English.

that was a bit flamboyant, to say the least:wink

[clep]

'Command' of a language, I think, also implies knowing when to use certain words and when not to, because throwing several 'big' words together does not necessarily make a grammatically correct (or immediately understandable) sentence.

William Zinsser gave this talk to incoming international students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2009, and it is full of useful observations on writing well in English, especially for those for whom it is a second language. Among the things he touches on are the use of active versus passive verbs, and a rather amusing note on how "horrible, long" words derived from Latin suck the life out of a piece of writing while shorter Anglo-Saxon words give it simplicity and brevity. http://www.theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/

[quote]How do those Latin words do their strangling and suffocating? In general they are long, pompous nouns that end in -ion

[zekrypton]

that was a bit flamboyant, to say the least:wink
Oh yes, of course, if you filter those as excess. I don't think I speak the prototype-esque kind of English. I would rate myself as an average speaker or user of the language. Flamboyant or not, it depends on how much pride you pepper in your conversation not per se the expense of literature. ;)

[Mirianchoo]

Hi guys!

Here are my tips on writing good essays from my experience as a state-level essay writing competition winner.

When writing an essay, ensure that your essay is free from grammatical errors, or contains only minor errors. Improving one's grammar is not an easy task, as it takes years of learning to grasp the different grammar patterns in English. Spelling is also something that you cannot learn overnight, and takes a lot of gradual learning to grasp. However, books on grammar and spelling might help in improving one's foundation in English if studied thoroughly and with determination over the span of a year or so. Without proper grammar and spelling, any essay would not be worth much even with the greatest ideas flowing through the paragraphs.

Moving on, a wide vocabulary can be obtained through reading books of high repute and acclaim. The dictionary can widen one's vocabulary but has the disadvantage of including obscure words that might not fit well in the context of your essay. It is best to read good material to determine how words fit into sentences, and the manner in which words are used by experienced authors. Good adjectives colour the pages of a well-written story, and give energy and soul to the paragraphs. The style of writing is also crucial in determining the quality of your essay. You can learn a lot from reading award-winning novels to enhance your mastery of writing fiction, while articles in distinguished magazines would improve your creative non-fiction writing.

That is all from me for now. Thank you. :))

[leeashroe]

Ah, my problem had always been spelling, thus I prefer using the computer to write and let the auto-check do it's work. Kind of cheating but my hands are prone to make spelling errors when I use them in my writings :(

Reading in my opinion gives you a better style of writing and not mere vocabularies. I always like "stylish" writings and this is something subjective. Some people find direct, clean essays to be interesting, others love essays with bombastic words. I myself prefer longs sentences with many commas simply because I like the way they sound as I read the sentences out loud. So my writings tend to be such way. And my English teacher doesn't like such style (she prefers direct essays with flamboyant vocabularies - am i even using the flamboyant term in it's correct context?) thus my essays are graded based on my average grammar and some vocabularies only. Is it necessary for me to change my style of writing actually? I know when I'm in college/uni, I will need to write papers (usually factual), I am afraid this habit of mine will effect my marks.

Anyways, don't limit yourself to reading books only. Read everything. From blogs, to advertisements, to articles. I use Facebook and add the mambo jumbo fluent English speakers of my school to stalk their wall..and learn from what they've posted. Forums help a lot too. Read non-Malaysian blogs, written by native English speakers.

and zekrypton is just being too humble. Your English is like... let's just say if my English is an ant, yours is a giraffe or something. You've lived overseas mate (the Aussie accent as pointed out by your friends)? What kind of books do you read? I jotted around 10 words from reading you replies in my note pad just now. I thank thee for the new words ^^

[Nicholasng925]

Is it necessary for me to change my style of writing actually? I know when I'm in college/uni, I will need to write papers (usually factual), I am afraid this habit of mine will effect my marks.

Not exactly. If you think that your style of writing is fine enough, it's okay then. It doesn't really matter how your style of writing is, as long as it can be understood by the lecturers marking your paper. Of course, before you jumping into conclusion that your essay is fathomable, you may want to ask your friends to read your essays just to ensure that your essay is readable and interpreted correctly based on your initial thoughts.

However, it might somehow affect your marks if you are not really fluent in expressing opinions and answers, especially for Art subjects such as Economics, Sociology etc.

[eve88]

Hehe.

I think we're going into different styles of writing for different purposes, here. And I would disagree somewhat with this statement :


It doesn't really matter how your style of writing is, as long as it can be understood by the lecturers marking your paper.


as because part of what Universities try to teach is academic writing - how to make yourself clearly understood to professionals in your field. However, assignments tend to have clear guidelines about how you should or should not write your reports/essays/articles, so as long as you stick to that you have some leeway.

I believe that *no matter what field*you're in, if you struggle to express your opinion fluently and appropriately, your marks may be affected - and perhaps even more for sciences where certain terms specifically refer to certain things only (and that may be different from general usage.)

By and large, I tend to prefer the language used to be as simple as possible, provided that you don't lose any nuances that you want to convey. When I read an essay I don't want to need to reread to get the gist of the author, I want to be able to understand most of it on first-skim-thru.