Ways to improve your writing skills
As a CS major I've learned that knowing how to write is critically important, but, I'm not really sure how to improve my writing skills. I'm currently trying to write a tech blog in English, but, whenever I sit down to write, it just reminds me of the fact that my English sucks...
So, my question is; how can I develop a better understanding of the language?
P.S. The book "The Elements of Style" wasn't particularly useful...
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In addition to reading (as suggested by others), practice writing in contexts that are already available to you. (Starting a blog is good too, but if you can't build a reader base that can be discouraging.) You're a CS major; that presumably means you are designing and implementing software. There is more to software documentation than inline comments in the code; go beyond that, even if it's not part of the assigned work, and you will both practice writing and develop skills that will help you in a software career. A lot of programmers can't write a coherent design document or technical specification; if you can, you're a step ahead.
Practicing writing is good, but how do you know how well you're doing? If your professors aren't able/willing to review documentation as part of grading your code homework/projects, see if your university has advisors who can help with that. Some schools have people whose job includes helping students improve their writing; usually (from what I understand) this means graduate students working on theses, but ask your curriculum advisor, any professor, or someone in the careers center if your school has such services. If it does, any of those should be able to connect you.
Finally, if your school has classes in technical writing (which will probably be offered by the English department), see if there's a low-level course that's open to non-majors. Such a class is likely to focus less on "literary" writing and more on explanatory "nuts and bolts", which might be an easier introduction than, say, a creative-writing class.
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The other answers are correct to say that you need to read a lot. But it's not enough just to read. You have to read like a writer. Anytime you read a passage that is particularly clear or compelling, stop and try to figure out what made it so. Later, try to mimic that style in your own work.
When choosing what to read, look for writers who are masters of their craft. You won't learn good technique from bad writers. (Best-selling authors and popular bloggers tend to be excellent writers.)
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/13021. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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