Strategies for Developing Writing Skills

Strategies for Developing Writing Skills

PROBLEM: I can’t see my own mistakes

Have someone else look at your writing

PROBLEM: Sometimes people do not understand what I have written

Use what you know

Avoid excessive reliance on the dictionary

Imitate

Plan before writing

Revise

PROBLEM: My grammar is terrible

Check your grammar

Enlist your teacher’s cooperation

PROBLEM: I have the worst time spelling words in the foreign language

Look for regular patterns in spelling

Avoid misspelling the same word over and over again

Use a spell-checker

PROBLEM: I never know how to punctuate in the foreign language

Find out similarities and differences between your own and the foreign language

Learn the rules

Find out how native speakers feel about punctuation

Rubin & Thompson (1994: 113-116)