Any resources or recommendations for improving writing skills?
I have heard that keeping a writing diary helps. I was looking for something a little more intensive.
The only tool that I am aware of is that the more you wirte, the better writer you become. If you do not like writing, then forget it, it is not going to happen. That is based solely on D’s experience who likes writing better than reading. It is a great skill to have, it raises grades in every class and very helpful later on in Grad. School. However, just like D. had to deal with her Reading skills that were lower in comparison to her other academic skills, one would be dealing with lower writing skills. Every student has a weaker side…
Read, a lot. Read anything, but include stuff that challenges your critical thinking skills–good thinking leads to good writing.
Agree that one of the best ways to become a better writer is to read voraciously, especially the writing of good writers. It almost becomes ingrained if you read a lot - plus practice, of course. If you know skilled writers who are willing to edit and critique your writing, all the better.
Some people have a natural talent for expressing ideas with what I call the three c’s: concision, clarity, and cohesion. Those that don’t can certainly become better writers by developing their rhetorical skills. In addition to reading widely, I recommend working through The New Oxford Guide to Writing. I also recommend the
Oops. Accidentally posted early. Anyway, I also recommend Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. I used both books when home schooling my daughter, and she has been told by more than one college professor that she is a very accomplished writer.
I would recommend starting a blog. It can be on anything that interests you. If you update it regularly, then you’ll get experience with writing - plus it’s fun.
In my opinion, the best way to improve your writing is to write. It’s just like anything else.
Take out extraneous words to punch up and smooth out your writing. Sometimes, removing prepositions will help you tighten the sentence.
Compare:
“I would advise you to consider taking out words that are extraneous in the sentence.”
To:
“Take out extraneous words.” or “Considering removing extraneous words.”
Write in the active voice. “I heard it through the grapevine.” Use the passive voice less often. “It was heard by me through the grapevine.”
Read a lot, write a lot. Pay attention to everything you write, even random posts on social forums like this. Also find a mentor who is very skilled in professional writing and have them, review your formal essays/reports for classes and such.
I fancied myself a good writer when I first graduated, but for a while I had a job in marketing. My external documents for customer consumption were always reviewed by our marketing communications writers, and working with them really opened my eyes to what constitutes good, professional writing.
One exercise I give folks is to start reading articles in the Economist, NYT, and the Financial Times. Generally speaking, the writing has strong organization and is at once salient and succinct. As a follow-up, I’ll ask students to mimic those articles until they are more comfortable both structurally and within their own writing style.
What kind of writing? Expository? Fiction? Marketing? Business communication?
Read your own writing back to yourself out loud.
Well, reading a lot was not (and still not) the D’s choice. She does not like to read, she rather wirtes. She has been recognized as a very strong writer in all kind of awards, from HS awards all thru the award for very well written Medical Research paper that she submitted for publication.
She could never improve her Reading score in any of the standardized tests, including the MCAT. She tried reading recommended the Economist, it did not work for her. The fact is that this score will be low for anyone who is not the reader. The difference between Reading (lowest) and English (highest) on her ACT was whooping 7 points (we have predicted that Reading will be lowest and English will be highest, but we could not imagine such a huge difference).
On the other hand, one of D’s friend who is an avid reader, would easily consume the very long book in one day, is not particularly known for good writing, not at all.
Is this for a high school student? A college student? There’s so much that one can do that it might be easier to offer advice if you could tell us a little more about the student’s goals/problems/issues. Reading books by good writers is always helpful. Subscribe to the New Yorker and read it! Writing a blog or a diary is good to help one become comfortable writing. One aspect of improving one’s writing that I think is important is to have someone who is willing to critique your writing and offer advice.
If the student wants to brush up on the mechanics–grammar, puncutation, passive vs. active voice–there are lots of books one can read and/or classes that one can take. Definitely check out Strunk and White’s Elements of Style.Fowler’s Modern English Usage, or Zinsser’s On Writing Well. Taking a class in expository writing in the summer is another way to get a student to sit down and start writing, especially if the student is a reluctant writer. Joining a writing group will do that too. Also, what’s good about the last two options is that you get feedback on people your writing.
I think reading good writing is critical. I suspect even MiamiDAP’s daughter who doesn’t read for pleasure has read a fair amount of good writing.
All the suggestions are good, but I think having some sort of really critical writing partner is hugely helpful. My husband is a great editor (not just for grammar, but also for clarity and organization), and if I have time I have him read anything important. He’s had 20 years of critiquing science journal articles.
For fiction there are a number of online places to turn. My son’s favorite is a podcast called Writing Excuses: http://www.writingexcuses.com/ It’s four authors who discuss writing, give listeners ideas for exercises and analyze how some of their favorite books are put together. I don’t have time to listen to it regularly, but really enjoyed what I’ve dipped into.
Being an avid reader does not make one a great writer or mean that the reader comprehended much of anything. And one can be a good writer without being a big reader, but to maximize one’s own potential, one needs to read good writing regularly, write a lot, and practice judicious proofreading and editing.
“I think reading good writing is critical. I suspect even MiamiDAP’s daughter who doesn’t read for pleasure has read a fair amount of good writing.”
-She just read what was assigned in HS. Was extrememly un-happy with her college English class reading assignments, but read them all. She always does her homework. The class was a waste of time for her, an easy A, did not learn a bit.
Of course, she read whole tons of Medical literature, one has to read a lot in Medical School and later in residency and in practice, this will never stop.
As I said, reading was not her choice, she tried, but would not move forward much in a book. She loves to write and can do it much faster and better than most others.
DH is a voracious reader. Always has been. That said his writing skills are good but not fabulous. Sometimes is too wordy or sentence structure is a bit clunky IMO. I am not a reader but write a lot and it’s become pretty easy for me. So when DH needs it, he’ll ask me to review or edit something he has written. Just got to do it for his wedding toast for this weekend 
Of course, writing is the essential skill for anyone to have! A definite must-have for HS and college and work, too. I agree with people who say that reading and writing skills are not as much related as one might think. My H and I were true believers that you read well to write well. Here comes our S: a good and very interested reader, enjoys Shakespeare and Terry Pratchett, can analyze almost any book well - verbally! Still, I have never seen worse essays in my life. His mind just jumps from one thought to another and while it can be acceptable in a discussion, it absolutely doesn’t work in writing - no matter the amount of practice and advice 
We are still looking for solutions… Do you have any?
@ladylorna thanks - will check those out