81–90 of 110 posts
Write for yourself frequently. Long form, poetry, small notes, one-liners, it doesn't matter—just write.
Eventually you won't feel like an impostor and the voice of your writing is your own. The people whose language you admire have practiced their writing and oration a lot. They started the same way.
Just write.
Great question. I think it's on more people's minds than you think. I have friends that have brought this feeling up with me. HN brings a lot of great minds together, including your own. It can create feelings of inadequacy in many readers, but it shouldn't. Everyone is always growing. You can write well too. As with any skill, there are specific quick hacks you can apply to get a lot of gain really fast, and there a…
The best way to become a better writer, a better thinker, or a more informed commenter, is to become a curious and habitual reader. Some of the best topical insights I've ever had have come from seeing analogs in wildly different domains. Some of the best writing techniques I've developed have come from reading wildly different writing styles. Almost none of this has been directed toward a specific outcome or contextual purpose. I read because I like to read. What I read may or may not prove useful later on. But it's almost always later on.
I've been looking into how to improve my writing as well. One of the things that I've learned is that good writing is the result of good sentences. Sentences, not words, are the basic building block. If you focus on writing better sentences you will become a better writer. I know this doesn't help with how to write better sentences but just having this direction has helped me focus. Hopefully it helps you!
How do you become better at communicating your internal ideas externally... without the aid of non-verbal communication? By doing it! Jump into discussions, type, type, type. Read what others are writing, see which communicators you find powerful, observe which ones fall flat in their attempts. Try to imitate the more power communicators. Are they using a certain style of writing that you could leverage?
Learning more certainly helps—"oh, that's an em-dash? What's its function? How can I use it to more accurately translate my thoughts into sentences others read?" Then lock-in that new knowledge nugget by practicing. Work it into your next post/comment/message to a friend.
My key takeaway would be: Just do it. Write like a fiend!
In reply, I say bravo for trying to become a better writer. And if English is not your native language, don't become discouraged too soon if your progress seems slow at first. I've been very impressed by the English writing here of some people who plainly grew up speaking some other language in a non-English-speaking country. Keep practicing, and you will become better. For specific writing advice, I recommend the ne…
Another good way to be exposed to a new language: if you already watch TV shows/movies on your computer, try to find an audio dub in the target language with subs in your native language. Try to ignore the subtitles but use them as a reference when you hear an unfamiliar word or sentence structure. I really like this because you get to hear usually several different accents & voices that you can start to correlate wi…
In reply, I say bravo for trying to become a better writer. And if English is not your native language, don't become discouraged too soon if your progress seems slow at first. I've been very impressed by the English writing here of some people who plainly grew up speaking some other language in a non-English-speaking country. Keep practicing, and you will become better. For specific writing advice, I recommend the ne…
> "It is brutally hard for most people (after the age of puberty, and perhaps especially for males) to learn to attend to sound distinctions that don't exist in the learner's native language."
I'm a native French speaker who learnt English in Scotland when I moved there (been living in mostly English-speaking countries ever since). As far as most people I meet are concerned, I have a very weird accent; the perception ranges from "he's Scottish" to "what the hell?" depending on where I go and who I talk to. In any case, while phonology is clearly very important, I would argue that it is not completely necessary for expressing yourself properly, at least in writing.
> "[...] another huge task for any language learner is acquiring vocabulary, and this is the task on which most language-learning materials are most focused. But often the focus on vocabulary is not very thoughtful."
This is sadly very true, though I honestly don't think there's a silver bullet when it comes to learning vocabulary. One additional source I would add to your "royal road to learning vocabulary" would be exposure to colloquial language, or slang at the extreme, i.e. listening to day-to-day conversations between "commoners". This is how I realized that there is often a "correct" way of saying something (as in purely grammatically correct), and the "natural" way (i.e. as expected by native speakers).
> "Every language has hundreds of tacit grammar rules [...] which reveal a language-learner as a foreigner when the rules are broken"
Continuing from my previous point, I think the opposite sometimes applies too. For instance, back in Scotland, I had to force myself to say "If I was" instead of "If I were", because the mistake has become so systematic that it has almost become a rule.
I think grammar is at least as important as vocabulary, particularly in a language like English where the language is so modular that words can fairly easily be made up, to the extent that they are understandable within a logical context, even if incorrect.
Finally, I would add culture as a possible fourth big task to add to your list. This may just be me, but there seems to be a dimension of language closely tied to the culture associated with it. There are idioms that make complete sense to me, yet I cannot explain why to my (French) family. This is ostensibly related to linguistic relativity[1].
In reply, I say bravo for trying to become a better writer. And if English is not your native language, don't become discouraged too soon if your progress seems slow at first. I've been very impressed by the English writing here of some people who plainly grew up speaking some other language in a non-English-speaking country. Keep practicing, and you will become better. For specific writing advice, I recommend the ne…
This is a phenomenal reply tokenadult. Would you be willing to reply to the same question if I post it in http://writers.stackexchange.com/ ?
[+] http://ell.stackexchange.com/
"English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English."
The best way to convey ideas is ... to practice conveying them. This might sound a bit cliché but bear with me for a moment. You can certainly read books but please practice the books and see what is good for you.
The next question is - where will you practice? Participate in good online forums and offline discussions. Reddit, Stackoverflow and HN are great online forums.
How does practice help? It will give you active feedback if your thoughts are being conveyed. It will give you a real-time personal assessment of your expression.
PS - Please take my assumption and advice with a pinch of salt!
1. Vary sentence length 2. Vary sentence construction 3. Use parallel construction 4. Put emphatic words at the end 5. Read your writing out loud 6. Avoid repeating uncommon words close together 7. Write in the active voice 8. Write about what something/someone does instead of what they are 9. Appeal to the senses, mainly the visual 10. Be specific 11. Delete unnecessary words
"I find it not justice that "Tim Cook Speaks Up" is eating my cake. What if I am only a heterosexual guy, a troll and my only goal is to get some karma points.
I realize that the language topic is a pure one and that it should be separated (sanned) from a egotists, only looking for karma points guy. But what?, you guys are beautiful and constructive, sorry for not just being that type."
makes it to the front page of HN, getting so much empathy and support from the community. Was the text edited after it got this outpuring of support, or are we really okay with this? Why is it still being upvoted? Why does nobody even address this? Has HN been punked?
Great question. I think it's on more people's minds than you think. I have friends that have brought this feeling up with me. HN brings a lot of great minds together, including your own. It can create feelings of inadequacy in many readers, but it shouldn't. Everyone is always growing. You can write well too. As with any skill, there are specific quick hacks you can apply to get a lot of gain really fast, and there a…
I agree with virtually everything you've said, except for the part about limiting consumption. Limit consumption on certain channels (Facebook, Buzzfeed, etc.). Increase consumption on other channels (books, deeply analytical blogs, good magazines, and even fiction). And every so often, lose yourself on Wikipedia for a few hours. Jump down some hyperlinked rabbit holes there. Soak up random knowledge, purely for the…
I'm referring specifically to low-quality consumption, but didn't want to fill up a long spiel about that since it was another topic. I should've been more specific.