The experience shows that the majority of students go through their academic years without acquiring much knowledge in performing writing tasks.
They are either not interested enough, or simply forget everything they learn the moment they hand in their papers. The resulting lack of skills accompanies them throughout their academic lives, constantly serving as a cause of dissatisfaction both for them and their tutors or professors.
The reasons for this may vary:
- A student may not need these skills, and it may be true in case he or she isn’t going to pursue academic or writing career in future. It may, however, be a problem if he intends to get a higher education.
- A student may have neglected acquiring these skills when it was possible.
- The school the student attended didn’t provide him with a sufficient level of teaching
No matter what particular reason is, the result is always the same – the more a student progresses in his or her studies, the better writing is expected from him, the more the gap between the requirements and what he can actually deliver becomes.
This situation is remediable, however:
- The best and most obvious way to acquire the necessary skills is independent practice. Even if you do all the assignments you are given at school, it may be not enough for creating skills. The best way to practice is to write on your own, separately, regularly. Of course, it is too late if you have an essay to submit tomorrow, but in the long run it will do you a world of good.
- Another possibility is to study the examples of good assignments of the same kind and try to understand what makes them good.
- Or you may study the guidelines in our Writing tips section to improve your writing skills and boost self-confidence.
All in all, the lack of skills is the problem that is solved most easily of all the others that deal with writing.
It has nothing to do with inherent inclinations or natural abilities; it is remedied by practice and learning; exactly what you were supposed to be doing until now. If something prevented it – you can always set it right.
