Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills

Melissa Vale, Princeton

Introduction A successful New York real estate agent associated with

Douglas Elliman, Melissa Vale is an alumna of Chapin all-girls school and a graduate of Princeton University. She specializes in residential sales and rentals in the Upper East Side, utilizing her familiarity with Manhattan to help clients find the right home. In addition to her work as a real estate agent, Princeton graduate Melissa Vale serves as a freelance writer and has contributed to a number of prestigious magazines.

Whether you’re writing for a blog or for business marketing, you should always be seeking ways to improve your writing skills. Below are a few things you can do to accomplish this:

- Avoid distractions: Although distractions can brighten your day, too many can hurt your writing practice. After a distraction, it takes the brain roughly 17 minutes to refocus on your task. This lack of focus drags down the quality of your writing.

Writing Skills

- Find a partner: Most individuals consider writing to be a solitary activity. However, top writers get feedback on their work, and this feedback can improve your writing quality. Try finding a coworker or friend who can read your work and check for problems.

- Don’t overcomplicate the issue: Most successful writers possess wide vocabularies, but too many large or obscure words can leave your readers feeling overwhelmed. Focus on using words that most of your audience understands, and cut out the ones that may confuse them.

- Edit later: You are your own worst critic when it comes to your writing. While being careful about grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes is important, you can’t spend your entire writing time judging what you create. Instead, write without criticizing or thinking about every word, and edit it once you’re done.