How to Cultivate Exceptional Writing Skills for Success in College and Beyond

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In today’s world, exceptional writing skills have become a major ingredient for success in both college and the workplace. Prospective students have had to demonstrate their writing ability through college application essays. Enrolled students, on the other hand, continue to utilize writing skills when writing term papers, applying for financial aid and other educational endeavors.

Looking at the workplace scenario, writing skills are still relevant. They are needed in making job applications, writing resumes, making business proposals, propositions and making effective business communications. In essence, writing skills are vital for life.

In this respect, let’s consider how you can cultivate the exceptional writing skills that will guarantee you success in your college life and beyond.




Enroll in a Writing Course

Consider enrolment in a writing course

An essential part of developing your writing skills is getting the necessary training required for exceptional writing. You can get such training through workshops, courses and targeted instruction. Depending on your goals and intended purpose, the writing course could be general or specific to your career or studying field. Writing courses, just like most courses, have a novice level, intermediate and advanced level; thus you can gauge yourself according to these levels and determine your type of training. You can choose to pursue the course in a physical training center or you can still pursue it online if the institution offers such facilities.



Have a Writing Partner

Writing partners can bring objective peer review

Peer review has been a beneficial ideal since time immemorial in virtually all fields. It typically rides on the notion of ‘iron sharpens iron’! You can greatly improve your writing skills by having a writing partner who checks, edits, proofreads and evaluates your written work. This makes you have an objective appraisal of your work which most of the time cannot be achieved if you personally reviewed the work. A writing partner can assist you immensely in checking the flow, readability, comprehensiveness and clarity of your work, whether in school or in the workplace scenario.



Utilize Writing Tools and Applications

Writing tools such as Grammarly can enhance your content

Sometimes, all we need is a writing tool to enhance the writing process. We could have the necessary set of skills to write, but the writing workload could be overwhelming. In this case, a writing tool can be of great aid. If you need to proofread your work, check on style, change the diction, tweak the vocabulary or perhaps improve the readability of your work for your niche audience, writing tools can help you. For example, grammarly.com aids in checking grammar and proofreading your work; Juicy Studio can help you improve the readability of your content, among others.



Form a Habit of Writing

Write as often as you can

It is said that it is easy to maintain a writing habit than to maintain the discipline to write. Therefore, if you want to develop exceptional writing skills, you are better off making writing a habit. To achieve this, try to write as much as you can. Write about everything and anything for you to enjoy the process. In the first instance, it may seem hard but within no time, you will live to write.



Read Widely

Reading exposes you to best writing techniques

The only way you can get versatile in the writing world is if you have a feel for what other people are writing. This means that you will have to read widely. Your best pick could be of magazines and books of popular journalists and writers. This exposes you to the strategies, techniques and methods that are being used by various renowned writers. This exposure could help you to grasp a thing or two about creating effective catchy content; which will help you greatly in your writing endeavors in college and beyond.


Practice Writing in Different Styles

Explore different writing styles

If you want to be an exceptional writer, you must determine what works for you and what doesn’t. What better way to achieve this than to try out different styles of writing! Once you embark on this, you will know which style suits you and where your proficiency lies. In addition, it may also expose you to the tenets of different writing styles which may come in handy at one time in college life or beyond.


Conclusion
These tips are sure to help you cultivate exceptional writing skills that could help you achieve success in your college life and even beyond. You can apply them as you endeavor to improve. But one thing is ultimately needed in applying them, that is, the love for writing. If you can develop the love for writing, then all these other tips will be easy to apply.

Sophia Clark graduated from the University of the City of New York with B.A. in Journalism, 2011. She is a creative writer from New York who loves to share her thoughts with readers, now she writes for EssayWriterSite. In her free time, she enjoys writing fiction as well as reading it. Her big dream is to publish a novel one day. Connect with her on Twitter and Google +.