Why English writing practice is so important
It’s incredibly easier to read something in a foreign language than it is to write in a foreign language. In order to read, all you really need is a decent vocabulary and a basic sense of grammar. Writing is a totally different story. You need to choose the words and phrases yourself, and then somehow put them all in a good order. Since writing is much more difficult, most learners don’t practice as much as they should. When students actually do write something, they realize that their writing is somewhat childlike. This awkward feeling of realizing that their English writing is at a much lower level than they’d like, prevents them from continuing to practice. Instead, they just try to forget about this weakness and just hope it will go away sometime. Unfortunately, it never does and the student is frustrated for years about being such a poor writer.
Some people tell me that they would practice writing more, but they need a native speaker to correct their writing, or it is a waste of time. I agree that in a perfect world it would be nice to have this luxury. Unfortunately, this is unrealistic thinking. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to find someone willing to correct your writing for free all the time. I’d like to do it on this website, but with so many students it’s impossible. I’d instead prefer to read what you guys write, and make general comments on areas where most people are having problems. I think it is more beneficial to everyone that way.
The truth is that even if you don’t have anyone to correct your writing, it is still extremely important to practice it. Just the act of trying to write something, tests your own mind to search for the most suitable words and phrases. It helps you understand where your own weaknesses are and where you need improvement. If you find that you can’t express a certain idea, the next time you read a native speaker writing about this idea, it will “jump out” at you and you will be more likely to remember it for the next time you write. If you never write, you will be unaware at the topics, expressions, and types of sentences that are giving you the most difficulty. Remember that understanding something is much easier than producing it yourself. It’s the same with anything. I could watch someone else build a house and I’d feel that I understood the process. But if you asked me to go out to an open field and build a house by myself, I’d be utterly useless. I’d probably just lie down on the grass and take a nap. If I did start to do work on the house, I’d see where I needed help and I’d most certainly pay more attention to that part the next time I was watching someone else build one.
There’s no better time to start practicing than now, so let’s see what you can do.
Please share this website with your friends, colleagues, and classmates
Andrew
November 21st, 2007 at 10:23 am
Hey Andrew!
Altough we have never met and talked face to face, it seems your blog is about me. That’s scary!
I totally agree with you. For me it is much easier to understand written or spoken English than to write English myself. It feels like hours to me to “construct” a proper sentence. But I’ll keep trying!
Thanks for the motivation,
Dani
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:24 am
Hi Andrew & Addison,
What you said is fit for me,too.
Sometimes I make some sentences when I have some inspiration, but I don’t know whether the native speakers construct like that. As time goes by, I forget this issue. Maybe somedays later, I know the correct construction, but it’s not possible to relate to previous situation. I think I shold practice more. At this rate, the impression will be strengthened again within a short term.
Thanks for your good article! I’ll keep concerning about your blog from now on!
Jack
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Hey ABs,
Thanks for that.
1, I think your advice fits almost to every English learner.
2, The same also for listening and speaking, that means listening is generally easier than speaking.
Xiao
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 am
Hi Andrew,
There is a sentence in your writing, i m a little bit puzzled, “It’s the same with anything”
the phrase ” is it the same as or the same with?” when i was in my college, i always say “the same with”, but the teacher always remind me that i should say “the same as”.
Could you please let me know something about it.
To tell you something, every morning when i come to the computer, i click the china232.com to check if there are any new blogs or new answers, I m not going to cheer you up, but what i said is really from the bottom of my heart.
All my love.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:37 am
it’s very true for me indeed. it’s takes quite some time for me even to write a simple sentences. scared that my sentence is wrong. grammatically error,spelling error and etc.
thanks Andrew,for the great website for us to learn english.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Andrew, you hit a good point!
I’ve got quite some compliments saying my English is perfect, only I know that I’ve just hidden the skeleton in my cupboard by cheating people with accurate pronunciation and smoky idioms. Whenever it comes to a serious conversation, I find my tougue tied and my mind blank. There are thousands of words swirling in my head, and I just don’t know how to put them together.
Native English speakers use the simplest words and least number of words to express themselves. I know it’s not the vocabulary but the usage of vocabulary really matters. And my problem is exactly what you pointed out, missing writting practise. If I can not put down a right sentence on a piece of paper in minutes, how can I say it out loud in a few seconds?
Years ago, many Chinese English learners were called “dumb English speaker”, they could read and write well, while not able to speak. Now, it goes exactly the opposite way. We hear people say: you’ve got to forget right-or-wrong; you’ve got to focus on effective communication; it’s only important to get your message across, bla-bla-bla. It certainly encourages people open their mouth to speak English as a second language, however, there’s a downside. We should not be contented by “getting our message through” for shopping, dinning-out, or chit-chat. We all tend to speak English as who we are, literatates, not as bums. Moreover, written English is always important in gaining competitive edge in business world.
Your essay just reminded me how lazy I’ve been neglecting writing practice since graduation from school. Now it’s time to perk up and to take challeges.
I did rack my brains for an hour for the above statement, as a start.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:17 am
haha, quite some spelling mistakes I found out, but only after posted it.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Hi, I haven’t visit this bolg for ages since I need to prepare for my studies. You know what, studying in an exam-oriented education system makes me frustrated. The problem is that I want to improve my English. And I know, that the only way to improve, it is by reading, listening and speaking.
However, it seems impossible for me to do further. I did wrote a lot of English essays to my English teacher (Unluckily, my teacher is a local Chinese, but that is not a discrimination.) and the feed back is not good. She wanted me to follow her instruction by memorizing some words like : Firstly, Secondly…. to start a new paragraph. She wanted me to change my writing style by limiting the words in every sentences.
We did lots of exercises, but I do not see my progress in English. What she wnated us to do is getting good grade in exams. She haven’t encourage us to read more newspaper or write more.
Yea, I know that I blame my teacher so much. Learning shound depend on one’s determination, right? But I don’t know what shound I do to improve my English without someone who can truely help me.
Thanks for reading! :-]
Cheers,
January 9th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
hi fellows.. i read your articles and what im sayin is thank you for the tips that your post…this is big helping me to write a simple english..im already 23 yrs old my english writting is very poor so can you help me guys to how to improve my english writing?
February 21st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Hi Addison, Hi Andrew,
It is true what you blogged. I was a new learner in your web-site around 10 days ago. I download your podcasts everyday and learn it for 3 – 4 hours daily and now, I find English listening ability myself is apparently getting better. I also keep myself everyday submitting a comment to your blog. I find my spelling a great progress.
As saying it goes, more practices make perfect that I deeply believe in. But more importantly, if the teaching material is incorrect, not as English native speaker commonly use, it could not help us go to a right road to our aim. It only makes us confused in the usage of words and grammar.
Pardon me to say my true story here. When I was a student in school long time ago, the English teacher was a Chinese. You say, how can a non-English spoken guy teach you English very good. For counterexample, if a foreigner teaches you Putonghua, what the result could be you think? I know it was a problem of educational system in but I feel it is just a joke indeed to the students. It should be reformed as fastest as possible to my country. Do you agree on this?
March 8th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Dear Mr.Andrew,
I am an indian, working in Dubai as a senior manager in one of the organization. I would like to know the different between written communication and verbal communication. Kindly explain me in detail.
I would like write high level executive letters. Pl. help me.
yours faithfully,
Ravi L.K.
971 050 4529407
March 10th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I personally believe that in this new era of globalization it is impossible to try to emulate the writing or even speaking vocabulary uses of the native speaker. I don’t know how many non-native English speakers are there. but I’m sure we could fill a medium size country. If we consider the fact that there are more than 20 countries with English as its official language, and we also take into consideration that the most common foreign language taught at school, universities and private courses is English, then I think it is only a matter of time when the global communication language will have the same vocabulary and particular uses that will be considered unique but it won’t be owned by any country or organization, it will be own by the international communications and business community. It is only a matter of understanding that we are not unskilled writers or speakers (although yes, practicing is vital hehehehe) but we have to teach ourselves, with communities like this for example, this new globalized language born from English and grown on a modern world.
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July 17th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
I almost never leave a response, however i did some searching and wound up here Why English writing practice is so important | China232.com Blog. And I actually do have 2 questions for you if you do not mind. Is it simply me or does it look as if like some of the comments come across as if they are coming from brain dead visitors?
And, if you are posting at additional places, I would like to keep up with everything fresh you have to post. Would you list of the complete urls of all your community sites like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?
December 27th, 2013 at 3:59 pm
I am newly started learning English language . actually it was more than easy to learn how to speak and listen also reading was fine too. But, writing is a real nightmare for me. however, i hope i improve with the time and so for everyone feel the same….
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