improving vocabulary and diction Forum

[senorhosh]

I have a problem. I have a difficult time expressing my thoughts into writing of speech. For example, when writing an essay, I have to keep erasing my sentences over and over again to find a better way of writing it down. Or when conversing with a person, i have *minor* but noticeable difficulty constructing sentences (not around friends but in interviews or more formal settings).

How can I improve this?

I remember an old SAT teacher of mine said to improve reading comp. and writing skills, the only way is to read.
So what books should I read, how much should I read, etc.?

And when will I see "results"?

[Upton Sinclair]

This will not end well.

[HowdyYall]

I have a problem. I have a difficult time expressing my thoughts into writing of speech. For example, when writing an essay, I have to keep erasing my sentences over and over again to find a better way of writing it down. Or when conversing with a person, i have *minor* but noticeable difficulty constructing sentences (not around friends but in interviews or more formal settings).

How can I improve this?

I remember an old SAT teacher of mine said to improve reading comp. and writing skills, the only way is to read.
So what books should I read, how much should I read, etc.?

And when will I see "results"?

while seeing other people's writing might help with your own, the best way to improve at writing is to actually practice writing. Try taking classes that involve a lot of argumentative writing like philosophy or polisci.

[lovejopd]

I have a problem. I have a difficult time expressing my thoughts into writing of speech. For example, when writing an essay, I have to keep erasing my sentences over and over again to find a better way of writing it down. Or when conversing with a person, i have *minor* but noticeable difficulty constructing sentences (not around friends but in interviews or more formal settings).

How can I improve this?

I remember an old SAT teacher of mine said to improve reading comp. and writing skills, the only way is to read.
So what books should I read, how much should I read, etc.?

And when will I see "results"?

Do you have any minor damage to "Broca's area" in the frontal lobe?...

The book says that people who can actually understand but cannot speak fluently have a damage to Broca's area.

Is it your case?...

[rinkrat19]

Ideally, go back in time and become a voracious reader, of all types of material, from the age of six.

Since that's pretty hard to do, you can certainly increase your consumption of written material now as an adult, but I'm not sure how much you can improve your writing skills in the short term.

By the time you've seen the same thought expressed a thousand different ways in a thousand different books written by authors ranging from A.A. Milne to Dostoevsky, you've internalized the varied structures and vocabulary. When it comes time to write an essay or letter (or whatever), you have a much greater resource in your own head to draw upon.

When I read an essay that has a painful lack of variety in sentence structure and style, it's nearly always written by someone who hasn't been a great reader their whole life.