How to Write Better Than a Fifth Grader

Regardless of how people earn their livings, writing better than a fifth grader is a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives. They may not ever write anything longer than a short email or anything more complicated than a sticky-note, but if just these literary efforts are characterized by correct grammar, reasonable sentence structure, and spelling that is at least in the ball park, they will place themselves in an ever shrinking and admirable group of Americans who are literate. It is also true that someone who writes well also speaks well.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Begin by going to a website that reviews the parts of speech. Before trying to string things together, it's best to understand what those things are and what they should do. Explore these uses to get an idea how the building blocks of our language are used to construct sentences, questions, and commands.
2. Finish your exploration of grammar and sentence structure and decide how you wish to proceed. There are a number of online options. Choose a means of learning that is suited to your present level of knowledge as well as how you best learn.
3. Start from the beginning if you feel absolutely lost and if being asked to write a two sentence note to your boss makes you break out into a cold sweat. There is nothing wrong with going back to basics. If you're serious about this project, if there's any doubt about where to start, you can't beat the beginning. Check out two complete English courses, one basic and another very basic. They both arrive at the same place in the end.
4. Work on writing skills if you feel comfortable with the basics but need to review of topics like paragraph construction. Check out a website devoted to those areas.
5. Make use of a website that offers daily lessons in various areas if you feel generally weak in grammar as well as writing skills, but the idea of a full class makes you queasy.
6. Take a series of quizzes designed to not only test your knowledge but also teach composition if taking quizzes is something you find enjoyable. The website that offers these quizzes covers a wide range of subjects.
7. Brush up in specific areas if there are some in which you feel weak. There are websites that let you work on just those areas.
8. If you have a specific need in business English, utilize one of the websites devoted to that topic.