5 Best Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills in British English

English is one of the most learned second languages in the world and has evolved to become an international one. In just 2023, there are almost 1,453 million speakers of English in the world. And most of them are not native speakers. A big reason for the popularity of English is that many jobs and foreign universities prefer that their applicants understand English.

You need to improve your own writing skills if you are looking for work or study opportunities in English-speaking countries. Why writing skills? Because writing is the most usual form of communication in professional workplaces. 

In this blog post, we at Students Assignment Help will tell you how you can improve your British English skills.  

5 Tips to Improve English Writing Skills 

1. Read a Lot

This one is a no-brainer. You are essentially reusing words and sentences that you have read when you sit down to write. You may mix and match them to convey your messages, but in the end, you are still reusing words.

So, what better way to improve your English writing than start reading and learning more words and sentences to use? Now, to be fair, you cannot just start reading anything. The quality of the things that you read will affect your own learning. So, always try to read high-quality writing to improve your English. 

Some good examples are:

• Books by renowned British authors like Alistair Maclean. The language used in such books is really neat, tidy, descriptive, and intriguing.
• Newspapers. Newspapers columns and stories only get published after going through a rigorous editing process. They are free of errors and have powerful vocabulary.
• Blogs and online magazines. Magazines like “The Economist” and “Wired” are really useful sources for reading and improving your British English.

By reading a lot you will learn new ways to phrase sentences and convey your messages through writing effectively.

2. Learn the Grammar Rules

Grammar rules are the fundamentals that everyone should know if they want to improve their writing skills. Since English is such a hodgepodge of various European languages, it has inconsistent grammar rules. As such it can become difficult to memorize them and apply them in writing.

Reading helps a lot, but if you are not aware of the basic rules, then your writing will remain poor. So, what can you do to improve your command of grammar? Here are some solutions.

• Get a book that has grammar exercises, and their solutions. Try to complete the exercises yourself, and then check the answers. This will help you to improve your grammar actively.
• Alternatively, just get a book that has grammar rules listed out along with examples and explanations. Just read it from time to time to get a better grasp of British English.
• Practice applying the rules you do know by writing yourself. Just learning the rules will not do you any good. You have to be able to apply them yourself quickly and cleanly. Practice will help with that.

And that is how you can improve your command of grammar and raise your writing skills to the next level.

3. Practice Writing by Keeping a Journal

Do you remember the last point we discussed in the grammar section? Well, turns out it is a good idea to just write for no reason if you want to improve your writing skills. Of course, it is not really for no reason if you are doing it for practice.

But why should you keep a journal specifically? Well, journal writing can help because of the following reasons.

• It helps you apply what you have learned practically, thus giving you much-needed practice. Ultimately, you get better at writing.
• It helps you to experiment by using novel words and phrases that you have not had much chance to use normally. You may also naturally seek out innovative words and phrases to describe things if your current vocabulary feels inadequate.
• It makes you more confident in writing. When you can write without fear of judgement or restraints with respect to topics, you can revel in your innate creativity. This helps you become more fluent in writing and thinking in English.

You can use your journal as a testbed to try out new vocabulary you have learned and learn how to use it correctly. Ultimately, it all serves as practice, and we all know that practice makes perfect.

4. Paraphrase Your Write-ups to Expand Your Vocabulary

Advanced writers often utilize a technique called paraphrasing in their work. Paraphrasing is a technique in which a writer changes some text by using different words, phrases, and sentence structures, without altering the meaning.

To paraphrase effectively, the writer must have a good grasp of: 

• Grammar
• And Vocabulary

Now, if you check the heading for this section, you will feel there is a discrepancy. If you need a good vocabulary for paraphrasing, then how does it help you to improve your vocabulary? Well, technically a paraphrasing tool can help you expand your vocabulary.

If you want to increase your vocabulary and learn more ways to convey your message in writing, then you should rely on such tools. A paraphrasing tool can automatically change any given text without modifying its meaning. In doing so, it adds new words and phrases to the text while replacing old ones. 

Since the meaning remains unchanged, a person can learn new words and expressions for describing something. If you do not believe this, then here is a good example to show you.

As you can see several words have been changed in the output of the paraphraser. “Overall” has been changed to “In general,” and “personal” has been replaced with “individual.” And many other words have been changed. So, using such tools can help you improve your vocabulary.

5. Get Feedback from More Learned People

This is one of the most important tips for improving your writing skills. Self-learning can only go so far, that is why getting an expert or at least someone more learned than you to provide help and feedback is essential.

You can hire a tutor to give you feedback and teach you English. Nowadays, tutors can be hired online. You can hire a proofreader for just a few projects if hiring them full-time is too expensive.

You can also get the help of a colleague, friend, or family member that is better at English than you are. They can proofread your write-ups and point out your mistakes even if they cannot give you classes and tutor you. They can also provide the solutions to those mistakes and in the process teach you how to avoid them later. 

You can also request any online friends to proofread your write-ups if they are native speakers. Their feedback would probably be the best you can get for free. 

This feedback will teach you about your mistakes and also how to correct them. This contributes to your practice and shows you the right way to use British English.

Conclusion

You can improve your British English writing skills dramatically by applying these five ways. These tips require that you practice your English writing diligently and regularly. 

In summary, you have to read extensively as that shows you new words, and how to use them in a sentence. Learning the grammar rules teaches you how to craft meaningful sentences that are coherent and easy to read. Practising by writing a journal helps you to apply the grammar rules and new vocabulary. Paraphrasing with the help of tools also exposes you to unfamiliar words and phrases. And finally, feedback teaches you about the mistakes you do not know about.

So, applying all of these ways will help you to sharply raise the level of your writing skill.