The basic principles of good writing are universal. Writing skills aren’t restricted to English class essays, but apply to text messages, presentations, speeches, personal statements–and every other writing context.
But what are the most important writing skills, and how can we practice them daily?
This article outlines 4 critical writing skills for college and everyday writing tasks, providing examples and strategies to help you practice each skill and grow as a writer.
What are basic writing skills?
Basic writing skills are the abilities, competencies, and habits that impact the effectiveness of your written language in all contexts. When understood, practiced, and applied, these universal skills benefit all writing that you produce–regardless of the purpose, length, grade level, or occasion.
We sometimes assume that informal writing–such as texting or casual emails–doesn’t demand the same attention as formal writing, like essays or presentations. But while formal contexts do require a more professional tone than casual contexts, the underlying goals, principles, and skills of good writing are universal.
Fundamental writing skills improve all writing.
Why do basic writing skills matter?
Writing skills matter because they help you achieve your communication goal no matter what that goal is: To make your friend laugh, help you respond to a college essay prompt, or organize a presentation for your coworkers.
But the most critical writing skills are often the most overlooked.
Four Basic Writing Skills to Practice
Four critical basic writing skills:
Brevity
Clarity
Paragraph structure
Paragraphing
Below, we outline what these terms mean along with strategies for practice.
Writing Skill #1: Brevity
Brevity means that your writing is concise, efficient, and avoids unnecessary words. Every word, sentence, and paragraph should serve a purpose. If your writing contains text that doesn’t contribute to your overall goal, delete it.
Not every word should contain vital information–typically your goal is not strictly to inform but to also entertain, show authority, develop a tone or attitude, and build a connection with the audience. Words and phrases that add humor, background, or build an audience connection serve an important purpose.
But you should be aware of your writing purpose(s): Do you want to make your friend laugh? To analyze how The Lion King’s Simba and Prince Hamlet? To convince your mom to let you borrow the car? To show your boss the progress your marketing strategy made this month?
Identify your text’s goals, and make sure that every word builds toward it.
When you see words that don’t contribute–otherwise known as fluff–exterminate them.
Strategies to Improve Brevity
Identify your main idea: Internally identify the main idea of everything you write–a single text or an entire essay. Each text will probably have more than one main idea. Reread your text searching for–and deleting–any words, phrases, or sentences that don’t move the text toward that main idea.
Eliminate awkward phrasing: Read through your finished draft (out loud if possible), listening for phrasing that sounds awkward. When something sounds off, it probably uses inefficient language. Consider what you’re trying to say and if there’s a more direct way to say it.
Writing Skill #2: Clarity
Clarity means that your word choice, phrasing, and sentence structure communicate your ideas clearly and specifically. When you communicate thoughts, feelings, and information, your reader should know exactly what you mean.
You don’t have to your audience’s mind, but you should be aware of your own unclear or vague language. As a writer, you must learn to identify which words and phrases require elaboration. Then, develop a toolbox of elaboration strategies to include throughout your writing.
To find the words and phrases that might be unclear, find your most important ideas–the sentences and paragraphs that mean the most to your text. Ironically, tour texts’ most important sections and words are typically the most general and confusing.
When you’ve identified vague and unclear language, try out one of the strategies listed below.
Strategies to Improve Clarity
Repeatedly answer “What do you mean?”: After each sentence you write, pretend there’s someone asking you What do you mean? Answer that question in the next sentence. Repeat this process until you’ve developed a coherent, complex idea over multiple sentences or a whole paragraph.
Follow up with an example: Give a specific image, story, or piece of information that demonstrates your vague or unclear language. This makes your vague language more concrete and easier for your reader to visualize.
Writing Skill #3: Paragraph Structure
Paragraph structure denotes the way sentences are ordered within a paragraph. Your sentence ordering guides your reader from one idea to the next, helping them understand your thoughts constructively.
The fundamentals of good paragraph structure apply to every paragraph, no matter the genre.
The Fundamentals of Good Paragraph Structure
A paragraph’s first sentence communicates the main idea. The opening sentence should get to the point and express the paragraph’s central message. This makes it easier for your reader to make sense of the more detailed sentences that follow.
Each sentence builds on the one before it. Each sentence should clarify the prior one–starting with the first sentence. The first sentence introduces the key point, and each sentence uses details and examples to build upon the one before it.
The last sentence concludes the idea. The last sentence wraps up the idea by answering, Why is this important? What are the consequences or results of this paragraph’s main idea?
Writing Skill #4: Paragraphing
Paragraphing describes how you organize your ideas into separate paragraphs–where you end each paragraph and begin a new one.
Each paragraph should focus on one main idea. Just like sentences within a paragraph build one to the next, paragraphs connect and develop a larger idea throughout your text. A sentence’s function within a paragraph mimics a paragraph’s function within a whole text.
Use paragraphing to visually break your ideas into separate chunks, so your reader can do the same. When a reader begins a new paragraph, they mentally prepare for something separate and new, that builds on the previous. By keeping each paragraph focused on just one idea–and ordering them in a way that builds your overall text’s main idea–you help your reader better understand your thoughts.
There is no universal rule for how long a paragraph should be. Each paragraph will have its own length depending on how many sentences it takes to communicate its main idea. In general, paragraphs tend to be 5-8 sentences long. While they usually won’t go longer than this, they often go shorter–I myself write a lot of two- or three-sentence paragraphs.
Strategies for Better Paragraphing
Make an outline: An outline is a writing organization tool that helps you break your text’s overall main idea into smaller chunks–paragraphs. By outlining, you create more coherent paragraphs because you know each paragraph’s distinct main idea ahead of time. Outlining also helps you order your paragraphs more intentionally.
Know each paragraph’s main idea: When you write a text longer than a few sentences, approach each paragraph by asking yourself, What is this paragraph’s main idea? When you notice yourself wrapping up one idea and moving onto a separate one–begin a new paragraph.
Applying Basic Writing Skills in Your Life
If you make the daily effort to practice these writing skills–in emails, essays, presentations, texts, and the stories you tell–your writing will improve over time. In fact, many of these skills–such as clarity and brevity–not only lead to good writing but good speaking.
Your writing will improve when you make it as easy as possible for your reader to understand your message. This means that you break your main idea into coherent chunks, such as paragraphs and sentences, and structure these in a way that the reader can follow.
When you cut out unnecessary and distracting language, replacing it with examples and specific language, you gain the ability to communicate complex and important ideas.