WRITING SKILLS

1. Keep All of your Writing in One Place
Buy a notebook or journal or start an electronic journal. By keeping your writing all in the same place, you will be able to see how much you are improving and keep it organized.

2. Practice writing in English daily
The importance of writing daily is that you start to create a new habit. Writing every day in English will soon become natural and something you look forward to. You will not see significant improvement if you are not dedicated to becoming a better writer in English. You cannot create awesome stories and papers if you never try.

3. Pick a topic to Write
Don't get stuck on figuring out what to write about. You can write about anything. You can write about what you do, things you see or hear, news, or make up a story.

4. Write more than one draft
Draft means a preliminary of piece of writing. Sometimes, your best writing becomes better after you take a break and work on a second or third draft. When you rewrite your work, you are often able to get your message across more clearly.

5. Use online resources to correct your grammar
Yes , grammar is a pain. You don't need to know everything about English grammar. Use online resources such as Google Doc or MS Word to check your spelling and grammar in English.

6. Think outside the Box
Don't write the same thing every day or you will get bored. Try writing the samestory from different perspectives or different tenses. Don't write about topics in the obvious way , be creative !

7. Have a friend edit your writing
Have a friend that knows English correct or edit your work. Having another person read your works help generate more ideas to better your writing.

8. Find the best place for you to write
You should try writing at different places or at different times of the day.      

3. Pick a Topic and WRITE!

  

READING SKILLS

1. Find something to read. 
Examples include a children's book, a newspaper article, a short story, or something on website.

2. Sound out each letter as best you can and you will notice they form some sort of word.
Some letters fit together. For example, "th" is not pronounced as t + h, but rather as one unit. This is called a 'phoneme'

3. Find a place to read where you can concentrate. 
This may be someplace secret where no one will bother you, or simply your home at a time when it is quiet.


4. Begin your reading by looking at the pictures, or listening to the music to get a feel for what you are going to be reading about.

5. Start with titles, names, or other larger print items that you may know or ever thought about.

6. Read as much as you are able. 
When you start getting bored or need a break, take one. Reading should be fun and enjoyable, don't force it. After your break, return to where you were, and continue.

7. Reread the material. 
It is okay to reread something if you do not understand it fully the first time.

8. Go to the library and pick up lots of books.
Pick books depending on your reading level, no matter what your age.

9. Read the page carefully. 
Don't rush, take your time. Most people think that skimming the page(skimming means to just scan the whole page and hardly take in a couple of words)is a way of fast reading, but this is definitely not true.

10. Use context clues to find out a word's meaning. 
Context clues are when a person figures out the meaning of a word by seeing how the word was used in a sentence. For example, you were reading the following sentence and wanted to know what 'pessimist' means:My mother is always happy and optimistic, the total opposite of my brother, the pessimist. So from the sentence, you can gather that 'pessimist' means the opposite of happy, so pessimist means being moody and angry. Good, experienced readers always use context clues! If you find a word that you're totally stumped on, use the dictionary.

11. Keep reading! 
Try to read as much as you can on your free time. Reading will help you in lots of ways; your vocabulary will become larger and more sophisticated and you will notice your grades change for the better in school. Have fun reading!