Writing

Writing is the one skill that most students struggle with. They often leave it as the last skill to work on because they either don’t know how to write or what to write. But it should be given as much focus as your reading, listening and speaking skills. It is a very important method of communication as it allows you to get your thoughts and ideas across to a wider audience.

This page will provide you with a large range of resources that should help you improve your writing skills outside of the classroom. The following resources are arranged into various categories to make sure that you have the knowledge and confidence to write effectively and successfully.

Writing: The Basics

Writing is a process that includes various aspects. By following these steps, you can work on improving your writing skills more effectively on your own.

There are generally several steps in the writing process:

Pre-Writing
Writing (Drafting)
Revision/Editing

This section will focus primarily on most of the steps, with the exception of the Writing Step, which will be covered in the next few sections.

Step 1: Pre-Writing and Focusing of Ideas

Planning is the first step in the writing process. This involves various tasks to ensure that you are prepared to start writing. Often students are unsure of how to start a writing task. This page will give you a list of ideas and activities to help you stimulate your creativity and to get you thinking about how to approach the writing task.

Step 3: Revision & Editing

This step focuses, primarily, on your intended audience and in ensuring that your writing does not have any mistakes that can prevent you from effectively getting your intended message across.

The sub-skills involved in this step include:

checking for errors
re-ordering information or sentences
re-structuring
focusing on grammar and vocabulary
and finally, revising the draft into the final copy

You can find out more about revising and editing your writing here.

The Writing Process in Action

See the entire Writing Process in action through these series of videos on how to write an Argumentative Essay.

Step 1: Planning

Step 2: Writing the Draft

Step 3: Revising and Editing

Editing

Academic Writing

Academic writing ranges from writing various text-types to practice your English to writing for exams.

If you are studying in a British university you will be required to do a large amount of writing, whatever your subject. Some people distinguish between "essays" and "reports", and you may also know some other names for written assignments.

Types of Essays:

There are many different types of essays. Here are just a few of them:

For and Against Essay:

Exam Essay

High School / College Assignment Essay

Example

Academic Report

Opinion Essay

Descriptive/Expository Essay

Example

Professional Writing

Professional Writing includes text types such as business e-mails and reports.

E-mails:

Here are links to a series of tips and a video on how to improve your professional e-mail writing skills.

CVs and Cover Letters:

Writing a CV

Writing a Cover Letter

Specific Professional Purposes:

This site gives you a link in how to improve your writing in the various disciplines.

Personal and Creative Writing

This section includes the various genres and text types that people use every day. These also include creative texts such as story-telling.

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