[everlastingxx3]

I am in grade 12 and my writing is very weak for my grade. Most of friends have strong writing skills or just average. I asked them how they improved in their writing and they said they don't know. =.= I have a friend we came from Korea 4 years ago to Canada. She didn't know how to speak/read/write in English at all. Her English skills are better than mine even though I was BORN in Canada. I finished grade 12 english in summer school with a 74 while she finished with an 84~!~! T_T I don't know how she does it.
I feel like a complete failure. I always hear those horror stories that university professors rip up your essays in front of you if its crap.

My marks in English:
Grade 9: 65%
Grade 10: 80%
Grade 11: 70%
Grade 12: 74%
The only reason why I received 80% in grade 10 is because I had the most easy teacher and she didn't teach us anything. All the other teachers I had were hardcore markers. T_T


I really want to improve in my writing. Is it possible to have a dramatic improvement in your writing within a year? I'm willing to do anythingggg!!!
Someone help me?

[achu]

read more english,
speak more english.

maybe go to an english tutor, doesnt always help though

[sophisticated]

You can read more books, essay papers, and articles. Reading helps improve your vocabulary and hence you use more while talking and writing. In college, they offer some english composition courses, those helped me a lot on my writing and the professor i had was very understanding and helpful. My university also had writing tutors who proofread my papers and also gave me advice on how i can improve my paper. It's definitely possible to improve your writing within the year, the best thing to do is either talk to your teacher about any advice that she can give to help you improve your writing or you can check out a bookstore and purchase some writing books that have samples of essays and such. Good lucks! Hope that helped you a little..

[fly-away]

I think you should try to read more. For example, you could read just novels to improve in creative writing, while reading historical books to learn more about essays? Well, I'm not that great of a writer either so I can't say much =D Also, maybe you could try to write something daily or weekly, such as stories, and post them online for feedback. Good luck!

[everlastingxx3]

You can read more books, essay papers, and articles. Reading helps improve your vocabulary and hence you use more while talking and writing. In college, they offer some english composition courses, those helped me a lot on my writing and the professor i had was very understanding and helpful. My university also had writing tutors who proofread my papers and also gave me advice on how i can improve my paper. It's definitely possible to improve your writing within the year, the best thing to do is either talk to your teacher about any advice that she can give to help you improve your writing or you can check out a bookstore and purchase some writing books that have samples of essays and such. Good lucks! Hope that helped you a little..

What kind of writing books?
Is there any books or writing books you would recommend me?

[prechuz_azn]

Read a lot. That is how authors/writers do it and so can you.
How else did John Clare, who was a poor farmer, become one of the most
venerated poets of that time? He. read. books.

[Yuenie]

Ditto to the people above. Read books. If you don't wanna read books because they're long, then read articles in the newspaper every day. (But I find books more entertaining to read since they're a whole story..) Newspaper articles are online nowadays anyways, so you don't have to even pick up the paper. The more you read, the quicker you'll pick up on good writing styles and word choices.

Examples of good newspapers I know in the USA (sorry, I don't know any Canadian ones) are the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, and Washington Post.

This site right here http://www.thepaperboy.com/ has almost every newspaper daily online from almost all over the world. Read some American or Canadian newspaper from here daily, and your writing will get better in no time. Plus you'll be informed on what's currently happening around the world.

[everlastingxx3]

Ditto to the people above. Read books. If you don't wanna read books because they're long, then read articles in the newspaper every day. (But I find books more entertaining to read since they're a whole story..) Newspaper articles are online nowadays anyways, so you don't have to even pick up the paper. The more you read, the quicker you'll pick up on good writing styles and word choices.

Examples of good newspapers I know in the USA (sorry, I don't know any Canadian ones) are the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, and Washington Post.

This site right here http://www.thepaperboy.com/ has almost every newspaper daily online from almost all over the world. Read some American or Canadian newspaper from here daily, and your writing will get better in no time. Plus you'll be informed on what's currently happening around the world.

Thanks for the website!

[love]

write essays & have it critiqued.

[Nomiya]

Sadly, the way I learned most of my English was thanks to playing MMO games . I learned most of my vocabulary from these games and it helped me throughout high school.

My marks weren`t stellar, but I was just the average English student. My tip is to write good persuasive essays on your own free time and then let one of your English teachers critique it and then just review it with them. I find that essays are usually marked on how well your teachers agrees with your content. My essay marks varied between my teachers and I found that it doesn`t matter how well you write your essays; if you teacher doesn`t like what you`re saying, they would deduct marks for it.

[ms cowie]

Definitely read more. Doesn't have to be actual novels or anything; read stuff from newspapers and good magazines like Newsweek and stuff. Getting accustomed to good language can really help you a lot

[love*beat]

Read! It doesn't even have to be books, pick anything in general that interests you.
Thanks to the Internet, you have a world of reading to choose from, seriously.
If you don't know, Google has a Books section where you can read a portion from a book for free.
Also, if you look online, you can download classic books on PDF files from Shakespeare and many authors whose books are so commonly used, they're available to everyone to read for free.

As for essays, avoid writing like how you speak and if possible, have your essays critiqued by the teacher or someone who can give you their honest opinion.
Expand your vocabulary but don't use a word if you honestly don't know how to use it correctly lol.
When writing essays, another good piece of advice is to avoid words like "can", "could", "maybe", "possibly", "I think"
You have to be firm on what you're trying to say to the reader and be convincing about your thesis.

Ever since I was young, I've read a variety of books, which would probably explain why I excel in English in comparison to other subjects.