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How To Hone Writing Skills In 2022

How To Hone Writing Skills In 2022

Writing can be easy to some and a nightmare to others. If you belong to the 2nd category, a writing guide would help you simplify a writing exercise. All you need is a strategy on how to hone your writing skills.

What is writing?

Writing is a way of putting down ideas and thoughts in a readable form. For example; newsletters, emails, blog posts, journals, social media posts, newspapers, bulletins, etc.

These days everyone claims to be either a creative writer, content writer, or copywriter. Penning down random unorganized thoughts doesn’t make one an authority in writing. It’s about producing content that readers would find readable, interesting, and valuable. 

hone writing skills - displayed laptop

To hone your writing skills, here are simple strategies you can adopt:

1. Read, Read, And Read

Reading is one of the easiest ways to hone your writing skills. Read within your niche and also read wide. Reading exposes you to learning how other writers/authors structure their sentences and make use of grammar, tone, transitions, and all.

Read more good books

2. Define The Purpose Of Content

Before settling down to write, decide on what you want to write and why you want to write. Who you are writing for and what needs you want your writing to meet.

3. Brainstorm On The Topic 

Another word for brainstorming is freewriting. This helps you to overcome writer’s block. Free writing involves you putting up a topic and writing without stopping for some minutes on the topic without proofreading or editing…you just write as it flows. 

Brainstorm on the topic you wish to write on, and put down all the ideas that flow, right or wrong.

4. Outline Your Contents

Before you start writing properly, outline the intended content. State the title, and headings and put down some writing prompts to guide you later when developing each section.

5. Carry Out Keyword Research

It is necessary to carry out keyword research before embarking on a writing exercise. This helps you come up with topics that people really are searching for. Keywords related to the topic of discussion. And also, helps you target right and optimize your content with the right keywords. Always remember to avoid stuffing keywords or over-optimization in order to rank high on Google. You can use Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Wordstream, Ubersuggest, etc. Some are paid and some can give you free trials for up to 8 days.

Keyword research

Use a headline analyzer to score your choice of headline and develop one that will most likely meet the search intent of your audience. Some headlines get very few clicks because they do not meet the interest of readers.

Also, ensure your content is in line with any headline you conclude on. Avoid using deceit to trick surfers to click on your content. This will give your page a high bounce rate score.

6. Avoid Ambiguity

Writing online is the last place to show off all the big fancy words you know. Online readers do not have the patience to dwell on complex words and sentences. Ensure that your writings can be digested even by a layman. Albert Einstein said, “if you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself”. Always bear in mind when writing for the public that the simpler the better. Avoid the usage of ambiguous and big-worded terms.

Make your sentences short and paragraphs brief. This helps your readability ranking and also appeals to your readers more. Just keep it simple!

7. Mind Your Writing Tone

Let your writing tone sound interesting such that your reader would be anxious to know what lies in the next lines.

Let your tone command authority and at the same time be cordial. Avoid sounding too formal to retain the interest of your readers.

8. Use Grammar Checkers

To support your writing and aid your adjustment of errors, you can make use of online grammar checkers like Grammarly. Not that these tools are perfect, but they can help your writing a great deal to improve. And you too can learn from the corrections underlined such that in your future writing, you can avoid repeating such errors.

9. Proofread & Edit

Proofread after writing to detect oversights, omissions, misspelled words, punctuation errors, and unnecessary paragraphs.

Proofreading & Editing

One of the rules of writing says not to proofread or edit while still writing. This will halt the great flow of ideas. You can pick out all errors and make necessary adjustments before releasing your work out there.

Don’t use Grammar Checkers to suffice for proofreading in your writing exercise. Recall that I mentioned that they are not 100% accurate. Always do your proofreading to make necessary corrections and adjustments.

Here are two ways you can proofread to have error-free content;

Read out loud: when you are done writing, one of the best ways to proofread is to read out loud. Reading out loud helps you read everything word by word, as such you don’t miss words as could happen when you read silently. This method can guide you to properly effect punctuations in your work. Reading out loud also gives you an insight into how your writing sounds or is perceived by your audience.

Read slowly: this helps you not to skip missing words or errors by assumption. You can miss a lot of details when you read quickly in a haste.

10. Optimize Content And Structure

Online readers and researchers do not have so much patience to toss and read word for word in order to find the information you have hidden in between. Structure your work to make it readable and easy for a surfer to easily locate its search intent as soon as they open your content.

Make proper use of heading tags; H1, H2, H3,…., and your paragraphs. Aside from readers, a good content structure also helps Google to index your content.

11. Write More Often

Writing is one of those skills that gets better with actually practicing it. To really hone your writing skills, you need to write more often. Even when no one reads your works, still keep writing. Your authority and command of words & vocabulary gradually improve over time.

12. Always Get Good Rest

Rest is very important for you to be at your best to give your best. A stressed mind will not yield very good results. Put your mind in a free creative mode.

13. Take Courses On Creative Writing

It is not mandatory, but you may decide to take some creative writing courses from recognized institutes in the creative writing field. If you cannot afford the paid ones, you can find some tutorial videos on creative writing or on how to improve your writing skills on YouTube.

Conclusion

Did you find the 13 simple strategies discussed above helpful? What other strategies not mentioned have you found helpful? Kindly share in the comment box.

How To Become A Better Teacher Simplified

How To Become A Better Teacher Simplified

It is easy to have dreams and aspirations, but where the problem lies is in living them to reality when they actually manifest. Teaching is what every human wants to do. In the sense that most people feel they know more and always want to teach others to do things their preferred way. In as much as we all teach in our day-to-day life, we need to understand how to become a better teacher.

When it comes to real academic teaching, it’s way more than just teaching people how to do things your way. Here you have to handle a lot of people at the same time, ensuring they all understand before progressing to the next. You have to work with curriculum, adhere to a lot of rules, endure a lot, and…..it can be so overwhelming.

how to become better at teaching

When you find yourself in a situation like this, not knowing how to start being a good teacher talk more of a better teacher. Confused about how to get these little ones to understand all that you have been given in this curriculum. Relax! You are not alone. I have simplified the solution to cope with these challenges for you in this article. Reading on, you would understand what is expected of a person to be classified as a good teacher. And the qualities you require to imbibe to become better at teaching.

Who is a Good Teacher?

A good teacher is one who has the interest of her students at heart, cares for them, and patiently educates them in a way each understands. He or she ensures that everyone is carried along by putting effective teaching into practice.

What is effective Teaching?

illustration thinking how to become a better teacher

Effective teaching has to do with communicating right in all aspects to your students. That is teaching, and the person being taught actually understands what was taught. This encompasses the methods or strategies implored to conduct the students to learn. The way you coordinate your class, lessons, assessments, and even your rapport with your students. “Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is.” – William Glasser

Whether you are a classroom teacher, a private home tutor, or you are not within the academic sector, these laid-down tips would help you strategically be at the top of your teaching game.

Qualities You Need To Become A Better Teacher

There are several qualities required for a person to be classified fit as a good teacher. The terms good teacher, effective teacher, a better teacher, and the great teacher are actually used intermittently to mean the same thing.

Here are some of the key qualities you require to become a better teacher;

Patience:

As a teacher, you need to be a very patient person to accommodate the different personalities you would encounter in your community of students. Your patience helps the kids or people you teach feel less pressured and thus their cognitive senses awaken to the best state to assimilate what they are taught.

Understanding & Compassionate:

A smiling female teacher

A good teacher tries to understand the pupil or students in her care. Every human cherishes the act of being understood. You need to learn to show empathy to to your students. Try to walk in their shoes to enable you to feel what they could be undergoing and show some concern and compassion. Don’t ever disregard the mood of your students and assume they would eventually be fine. Speak with that moody child and confirm what put him in the mood. That child that seems to get almost all the answers wrong could need just a little chit-chat with you. Your show of empathy and concern might not erase the reality but can go a long way to help these children get better.

Love:

Love solves all problems. A good teacher should show love to all the students equally without showing preferences. Give every child a sense of belonging. Loving a particular kid more than the rest breeds some discriminatory atmosphere, that you surely do not want to manifest in your classroom. Children find it easier to learn from someone they love than from someone they dislike.

Time Management Skills:

A good teacher needs to up his time management skill. Being time conscious is a required skill in your daily routine to be able to meet all the demands of the role; preparing and delivering your lessons, attending to your student’s personal needs, and also taking care of your personal life. A good teacher has to be coordinated and organized. Ensure to have your lessons and assessments well planned out before your class.

Friendly & Approachable:

A good teacher should be friendly and make herself approachable. If the people you are in charge of cannot feel free and comfortable around you, then you won’t be able to really impact them.

female teacher praising a student

Committed To The Success Of The Students:

We encounter some people who like to hoard knowledge. This is not the case for a good teacher. As a teacher, your aim should be to impart the knowledge and information you have to your students without withholding back some key things. You should target for your students to learn and know more than yourself.

Tolerance:

As a teacher, you will encounter a lot of misconduct from your students. Be prepared to face lots of mischieve from students. Your ability to compose yourself well to handle these kids well is very important.

Good Communication Skills:

A good teacher should be good at communication. Recall that good communication has to do with a sender passing on information and a recipient being able to successfully receive and comprehend the information passed. A good teacher has to be a good communicator in other to teach effectively.

Versatility:

To be good at teaching, you need to exhibit versatility. Being well schooled, and traveling exposes you to more knowledge both experiential and academic, thus would help you to have more to back up your teachings in a way that your students would easily understand.

Attentive:

An attentive teacher

To be a good teacher you need to give a listening ear to your students. Don’t just rattle and go. Give time to hear feedback, questions, contributions, and all. And when they come to you for advice, hear them out and help them solve their problems. Always pay attention to them to know when they require assistance without waiting till they approach you.

Good Judge Of Character:

To become a good teacher, you really need some lessons in human psychology. You need to be good at reading people and judging characters. This will help you know and understand your students, and how best to handle each one of them.

Smartness & Intelligence:

To cope in a teaching role, you need to be very smart. Bear in mind that children can be smart and trickish sometimes. If you are not able to outsmart them, you would surely have a handful.

Kindness:

Kindness cannot be overlooked. Your ability to exhibit kindness to your students would greatly affect how much they feel comfortable around you. Which will in turn manifest in how receptive they will be to your lessons.

Enthusiastic:

A  MALE TEACHER

To become a good teacher, you need to actually love the art of teaching. You need to be enthusiastic to be able to build yourself well and position yourself as required to execute your day-to-day activities in the classroom in a way that would encourage your students to love learning.

Creative:

Creativity is one of the major skills you need to build in becoming a good teacher. This will help you regularly come up with new and unique teaching methods, thereby making your lesson less boring. These tips on How To Stay Amazingly Creative can aid your journey.

Hardworking:

Teaching is a very challenging role not meant for the lazy. To become a good teacher you need to be hardworking to promptly attend to your daily to-do list.

Flexibility:

A good teacher needs to be flexible and ever-ready to adapt to the ever-changing work environment. You will meet different new kids each session or each year with different characters, curriculums can change, and you would need to be able to easily adapt to changes to ensure your students get the best of you.

A teacher with a student

Work-Life Balance:

In all you do, never underestimate the impact of your selfcare. Take time off to care for yourself. Get good sleep, feed well, go on vacations…find some fun. Your students need you to be healthy and happy in order to attend to them better.

Conclusion

Teaching is one of those careers that you get better at with time. Experience and time will help you improve. Don’t be too hard on yourself, you are doing great. Just keep learning and improving. And never forget that Rome was not built in a day. Let me know if in the comment section if you got value.

17 Parenting Secrets For A Successful Child’s Upbringing

17 Parenting Secrets For A Successful Child’s Upbringing

Parenting is one of the most difficult responsibilities. This is because every child is born uniquely with his or her abilities. And the development and growth of each child varies. So it’s not like you have a standard template that specifies how every child would be raised. You surely need to pay attention to each one to know how to be flexible in your approach.

A child has no mature sense to discern between right and wrong, good or bad. Therefore, each one of them requires guidance of at least a parent or guardian to grow right. Don’t forget the popular quote that says; “Train a child on the way to go, and when he grows, he will not depart from it”.

In this article you would learn 17 proven parentings secrets to successfully boost a child’s upbringing, which will help you in your journey as a parent, whether a first time mum, first time dad, an unplanned parent or a guardian.

The single most easy way to groom a child, is by putting into practice what you teach them. Children learn by observation. Don’t tell them A and proceed to do B. Lead them by example. Children learn and imitate what you do and not what you say. In the words of Jim Henson – “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”

Parenting Secrets To Successfully Groom A Child

Introduce The ‘I Can’ Mindset.

Don’t make the mistake of grooming a child with a mindset that a certain person would someday appear out of the blues to help them attain a good life. Groom them with an independent mindset. Let them know that their future needs their effort. Teach them that they can accomplish whatever they set their mind to. All they require is the determination, hard work, consistency and patience.

Teach Them To Ask ‘WHYs’

We learn more through asking ‘WHYs’. Having an inquisitive mind helps a person to learn more and know more. Because knowledge comes from asking questions and carrying out researches. Kids that ask lots of questions have proven to become smarter than the ones that just go with whatever flow they meet. And when you have a very inquisitive kid, don’t silence him or her, respond to their questions as much as you can. Encourage them to question things and situations in order to learn more.

Encourage Their Little Efforts

Bear in mind that not every child would lead their class. Therefore, pay attention to your child and commend his or her progress irrespective of it not measuring up with the speed of other children. This alone would inspire the child to strive more to become better. When you condemn them for every slightest failure or poor performance, they start developing doubts in their abilities. And this ruins them psychologically.

Every child has his or her brightness rate, groom them with patience to get the better part of them. Don’t expect their growth or learning speed to be same as their siblings or the next door neighbors’ kid.

Teach Them To Speak Up

A girl child and her father

Encourage feedbacks at home. Engage your child in discussions or healthy arguments and encourage them to air their views without placing judgements, condemning or criticizing them. Let them know it is important to speak up and not lock up their opinions in their minds feeling that no one regards them. And when something happens, they shouldn’t be scared to speak about it.

“If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.” – Alfie Kohn.

Let Them Know It Is Ok To Not Know Everything

A child who isn’t exposed to this knowledge tends to battle with inferiority complex. Teach your child that no man is an island. A single person doesn’t know everything. Knowledge increases by age and exposure to experiences and also by being open to learning from others and our environment. A child should not feel embarrassed to own up to not knowing a particular thing. Imbibe in your young one the habit to ask questions when the need be.

Teach Them To See The Positive Side To A Failure

Failure should not be treated negatively. A child should be exposed to the understanding that failure is an opportunity to see ones gap and work towards improvement. Continuous improvement should be a principle of every living being.

Teach Them To Be Contented

Endeavor to teach contentment. It is a very bad manner to have eyes snooping into other peoples business and feeling they are better or have it better than you do. Else this attitude would persist and can predispose one into becoming a menace to the society. Aside the struggle of inferiority complex this child will face in life.

Teach Your Child To Have A Choice

They shouldn’t just accept whatever that is thrown or shoved at them. Your child should learn to have a choice. Each one of them should have a stand and some personal principles. This will help them to succeed in the midst of peer pressure. Knowing what they want and maintaining their stand will make them not sway easily to follow crowds.

Teach Them To Read

Help your children to form the habit of reading. According to John Maxwell: “Readers are Leaders“. A whole wealth of knowledge is discovered in-between the pages of books. Buy them books from tender ages and cultivate a reading habit in them, through leading by example…read! read! read! This will also enhance their creative abilities.

Teach Them To Believe In Themselves

There is nothing to be compared to self-confidence. Letting your child know that you trust and believe in their abilities is one of the easiest ways to boost their self-confidence.

Parents are like heroes to their children. So know that your opinion matters so much to your child. It can make or mare him or her.

Teach Them To Listen To Others Opinion And Understand That Everyone Has A Right To An Opinion

Teach your children to be accommodating. To listen as much as they talk. They should learn to give others the opportunity to speak. They should give room to others’ ideas, opinions and contributions. Else they will grow up disagreeing with everyone and thus, they cannot successfully work with a team.

Do Not Be Abusive Towards Them

Don’t handle your kids in an abusive way. When they act wrongly, call their attention to it and correct them with love. Don’t shout or beat a child in the name of Good Training. Don’t call a child abusive or insulting names….you are worthless, you are so slow…..What you might not know is that words like these psychologically damage children for life. “They may forget what you said, but they will not forget how you made them feel” – Carl Buechner.

Handling a child abusively also plants fear in them. Your kids need their psyche and self-worth intact to conquer the world ahead of them.

Do Not Talk Down On Them

Children too deserves some respect. They too are human just like you. “Respect is reciprocal” as the saying goes. Talk to your young one with respect just as you would want to be talked to. When they talk, grant them audience and try to understand their point. This is how you know when they need to be encouraged or counselled.

Ask them for Reasons Behind Their Actions

Don’t out rightly condemn and punish a child when they do things off your expectation. First enquire the reason behind the act. And then advise him or her where necessary.

Teach Your Child To Avoid Procrastination

Teach your little ones to always promptly clear their tasks. The principle; “Never put off for tomorrow that which can be done today” would aid them in life. Procrastination breeds laziness. Teach your children to be time conscious. Good time management skill will help them very much in life.

Be Patient With Your Child

Don’t be too pushy. Give your child space and time. Observe them and give feedbacks. Most children work better when you put less pressure on them. As much as you teach them time management, don’t put them under pressure if you need their best results.

Teach Them To Have Time For Play, Exercise And Relaxation

Teach them the importance of play, exercise and relaxation. These will polish them at intervals and help keep them fit and at alert. According to Diane Ackerman – “Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.”

Creative Books You Must Read To Become Successful

Creative Books You Must Read To Become Successful

It looks like writing an interesting copy for an essay, movie, screenplay, novel, poem, song, etc is easy until you pick up your writing pad to write one. To master creativity, there are numerous creative books you must read to become successful.

The more experiences you have, the more creative you become. Reading adds to your knowledge and experiences. So read more, to enhance your creativity.

Have you ever wondered why some movies are so damn interesting and some others seem like a poorly thought structured piece?

You listen to a song’s lyrics over the stereo and you are like…what is this? Who would waste money on such an album?

Actually everyone has ideas, but ideas need to be nurtured to bloom. What made that movie interesting and the other the opposite, would be either the structure, misplaced character, plot or delivery style. These are the skills you need to build to become a good creative.

No one builds a strong house without first laying a good foundation. Creative books would groom you properly such that you can develop your ideas following laid down techniques.

As much as creativity defies norms to exist, there are proven techniques that some famous great writers have shared based from their experiences to assist you in your creative journey.

Whether you are into creative writing, Graphics design, content creation or you are a literacy teacher, creative books would help you build your thought process. The secret to creating more is to read more.

Read More

Here are some well researched creative books that would add a spark to your creativity and clear the hurdles on your creative journey.

Must Read Creative Books To Boost Your Creativity

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

This book will build your third eye to identify creativity. You would know how to replicate ideas seen elsewhere and improve on them, making them a whole new unique idea.

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All – Tom Kelley

creative book - creative confidence

This is a powerful and inspiring book that unleashes every individual’s creativity and nullifies the false belief that only some people are creative.

Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham

Creative book Scene & Structure

 Scene and Structure is a non-fiction title for specially made for writers, covering proven techniques used to write a compelling story.

The Shape Of Ideas by Grant Snider

creative book - the shape of ideas

This book with a blend of poetry, humor and philosophy tried to explain all about a creative process. And would enrich you with the knowledge on how to develop ideas.

A Technique For Producing Ideas by James Webb Young.

Creative book - A Technique for producing Ideas

Here James Webb Young simplifies his invented strategy to guide anyone interested in creating better ideas.

Save The Cat by Blake Snyder

creative book save the cat book

This offers an incredible guide on developing narratives.

Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

Creative Book start with why

This great book offers you an insight into the thought process of humans. And teaches you to form the habit of questioning situations in order to find solutions that work.

Conclusion

This is how far we will go on this topic today. I hope you found some books to go and explore. I will share deeper reviews on these books and more in a subsequent post on creative books.

Rising Star Writing Competition – Calling For Entries.

Rising Star Writing Competition – Calling For Entries.

Rising Star Writing Competition – Calling For Entries.

We announce to the general public ,the call for entry for our Season 5 Creative Writing Competition and Awards themed FREEDOM!

The Competition is for children in primary and secondary schools pan Nigeria , between the ages of 8 and 16.Click to seee the results of 2019 rising star writing competition

There are four different categories:

1st, 2nd and 3rd positions in Short Story Writing (Primary and Secondary Schools)

1st,2nd and 3rd positions in Poetry ( Primary and Secondary Schools)

Therefore, 12 Awards and Prizes to be presented to the children.

12 Honorary Mentions to encourage other deserving young writers.

Who are the next Rising Stars? Can your children write? Click here to read the Press release of last years Writing Competition with the theme its ok to say-no

Rising Star Writing Competition

Send us your email or school address and we shall get these posters and registration forms to you.

Rising Start Writing Competition Registration Form

Thank you for supporting us on the journey of raising the standard of Writing in our children.