How to improve your English writing

You can improve your English writing skills by writing everyday, but that doesn’t mean you have to write essays or exam questions. There’s lots of different types of writing that are all good practice. Read on for tips and ways to practice English writing.

Benefits of writing

Writing is an important part of learning English, but one that often gets overlooked while people focus on speaking. Writing doesn’t have to mean lists or essays, but it can be anything you can write or draw!

Research shows that words, sentences and their meanings are better remembered when you practice writing them by hand. Writing is a great way to clear your head, sort out problems and make big decisions. Writing things down can help you concentrate on the important things and focus on what you need and want.

When you’re writing something new, you also have to pay attention to the order of the words, and the right collocations. Collocations means words that go together, like ‘play tennis’ not ‘do tennis’. Or ‘take medicine’, not ‘eat or drink medicine.’ When you’re actively noticing details like this, it again helps your brain to remember more.

Reasons to write

Here are some ideas for writing you can do today to improve your English:

Diary
- Write what happened to you, and your thoughts about the day
Schedule
- Keep your appointments, and add notes about what will happen and who you’ll meet
Lists of books or films you want to read/ have read
- You can also write a review when you’ve finished, or give them a rating out of 5.
A gratitude journal
- Writing out what you’re thankful for is a good way to remind yourself of the good things in yoru life
Shopping lists
- As well as daily groceries, the bigger things you want to buy too, and compare different models or brands
Pros and cons
- If you have a big decision to make, a list of pros (the good things) and cons (the bad things) can help you balance the decision.
Habits tracker
- Don’t just rely on apps, make a note of when you’re exercising, studying English, speaking it, drinking water or whatever good habits you want to improve.
Hand writing practice
- Handwriting is an art! Practice with beautiful pens and colours to keep your interest and motivation up. You could practice new vocabulary by writing it in different styles.
Diagrams and drawings
- Want to remember all the parts of the face? Draw a diagram and label it! Your drawings don’t have to be expert level but they are a great way to visualise vocabulary and remember it.
Word maps
- Not just a list of words but find words that are related to others, that you confuse, or have similar spellings or meanings, or that are part of phrasal verbs. Map them all out on a page.
Social media posts
- It counts as writing too! It’s simple and you can delete or keep, and do as often as you like. Write captions for your photos or your thoughts about life, the universe and everything!

Notebooks to use

We now have branded notebooks on sale via your local Amazon store. They are thick, with 120 pages and available in a variety of formats, lined, dotted or squares. It’s good quality white paper so your writing will be good to read for years to come! Search your local Amazon for We Are English Teacher notebooks and look for the yellow covers

Get your A5 size, 120 pages dotted grid notebook

Get the A5 size, 120 pages squared graph paper notebook

Here’s the A5 size, 120 pages, lined paper notebook here