For anyone who wants to get started in writing, one of the most fundamental aspects of writing is a lifelong practice. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the entire process for many writers as your skill and ability to write grow with you as a person. When it comes to learning the skill of writing, one of the things that can’t be overstated enough is the journey of perfecting your grammar skills.
But I have trouble editing my writing? I can never see the errors the way others can!
If you relate to this, you’re not alone. It’s common to have trouble editing your writing on a technical level. This is where time and practice come into the picture. When creating the piece, it can seem like all you see is the content - and then the technicalities like grammar and punctuation are invisible to you.
The good news is that there are easy ways to start improving your grammar and building your strength in this writing area. So here are three ways to improve your grammar.
What Software Are You Using?
The first way you can start immediately improving your grammar is by investing in software designed to help you analyze your writing. An important distinction here is that you can acquire software that goes further and is more helpful than the generic spell-check in most word processors.
For the most part, any word processor you use will have some kind of built-in spell-check ability. Unfortunately, while these tools can be useful, they are also notorious for giving you a lot of direction when you don’t need it - or even frustratingly inconsistent. As a result, most writers will turn off the generic spell-check in their word processor to mitigate a headache.
When it comes to software that helps improve your grammar, products like Grammarly, which can be downloaded onto your devices or used within your browser, are excellent. These are intelligently designed software services that analyze your writing and show you not only obvious spelling errors but can give you direction on everything from punctuation to sentence structure.
Are There Online Resources That Can Help?
Depending on what kind of writing you are doing, there may be useful online resources that can powerfully impact the quality of your writing. For instance, content writers who focus on character-limited, or word count-driven pieces, like blog posts and Twitter and Facebook content, would benefit from word count services. The Word Counter is an online resource with one of the most sophisticated word, character, and analysis tools on the internet.
Completely free, all you do is pass your work into the word counter, and it will give you specifics of character and word count and give you a thorough grammar check and analysis.
Continued Education
Becoming a better writer takes a lot of self-motivation and self-starting when it comes to becoming a better writer. But, like any other discipline, you are in control of how far you progress and how proficient you become. This simply takes time and effort, and one of the ways that you can improve your grammar is through education.
If you write professionally or desire to write professionally, or maybe you have an incredible amount of writing you do for school, keep growing your knowledge. To say that the English language is complex is an understatement, there is no end to strange rules and homonyms to keep anyone learning throughout their career.
One of the best ways to do this is simply to implement rhythms of casual learning. On top of providing its processing tool, the Word Counter has a robust resource of blogs. These blogs cover everything from commonly misunderstood grammatical rules to interesting etymology to help you understand words and even common phrases on a deeper level.
Get a Second Set of Eyes
Lastly, the most tried and true method of helping you understand your grammar better is to get some help. Having a friend or editor critique your grammar regularly may be a little painful at times, but it can have big benefits when it comes to understanding your weaknesses.
Conclusion
Writing is a lifelong journey, so one of the most important things you can remember to do is celebrate whatever stage you find yourself in. Grammar is a crucial part of improving the quality of your writing and the speed at which you can create that quality content. But don’t get discouraged if this is an area you struggle with. With hard work and commitment, you can master this technical aspect of writing and become the writer you want to be!