Improving Grammar Skills: Useful Tips

If it was not for grammar mistakes, maybe your works would not need professional editing and rewriting. On the one hand, English grammar keeps the language organized and consistent; on the other hand, it presents great difficulties, especially for non-native speakers. We decided to help you out with it by sharing with you some useful tips on improving grammar. So, get ready as we are going to dive in the world of the most efficient learning strategies.

Be on the alert

If previously you could listen carelessly to other people making grammatical mistakes, from now on you had better stop it. Not everybody likes being corrected, that is why we do not suggest that you do it. Your actions will be aimed solely at your knowledge.

Try to listen closely to what people around you say and try to recognize good grammar in their speech. It is the same as distinguishing children’s erroneous sentences from the right ones and dialectal forms of words from the standard ones. Gradually mistakes will become more evident to you, and you will notice the urge to mentally correct them. It is a good sign, just keep working.

Learn the basics

Unfortunately, some people cannot even tell two different parts of speech from each other. These are the ABCs that should have been learnt in primary school, and if you did not do it back then, it is high time you turned over a new leaf. When you get to know basic terms (such as the names of parts of speech and main grammatical constructions), you will discover how easier it has become to look up specific rules in grammar books and search engines. Moreover, you will start understand them! It gives you a wide range of possibilities how to improve your grammar even more.

Learn in comparison

If you want to hear a piece of advice from professional editors, here it is: English grammar has a lot of similar rules and constructions or, on the contrary, opposite ones that are based on the same principle. It makes it easier for you to perceive them in comparison.

We will show you an example to clarify what we mean. When you have learnt how to form the comparative degree of English adjectives, you will easily manage the comparative degree of adverbs as well because they are created with the same affixes. It is an example of similar rules. When it comes to learning by opposites, we can suggest memorizing the cases in which you have to reverse the word order (questions, for instance) as compared to those sentences in which the word order is direct.

Become a keen reader

Books and magazines are the most reliable sources of correct grammar in use. Before going to press, they are exposed to thorough editing, which plays into your hands. The more you read, the more grammatical patterns you absorb even without noticing the process. After several months of being a diligent reader you will discover that your grammar skills have improved.

We have a piece of good news for you: you can read whatever you want, not only bulky grammar guides published in several volumes. English grammar does not vary from book to book, it stays the same for all genres and types of printed matter. However, you should be careful with Internet websites because many of them, especially forums, are a notorious source of corrupted language.

Focus on difficulties

Many people can tell for sure with what aspects they repeatedly have problems. For example, you may omit necessary articles or suffer from lack of punctuation. Do not worry if you notice these difficulties because once the problem is detected, it is easier to solve it.

Focus on the area than brings you the difficulties. You can start from online grammar courses, go on communicating with native speakers and discussing the trouble. After all, you can hire a tutor to help you get it over with. If you need a quick fix, we can give you a hand with editing, proofreading and rewriting. You can order these services from our company and enjoy a flawless text. However, if you want to produce essays and articles free of mistakes on your own, you will have to work hard.

Practice makes perfect

Right now we are not talking about tedious grammar exercises that all of us seem to be afraid of since school. Such a strategy may leave you without a hint of motivation and still with poor grammar. The Internet introduces other ways of learning, which are more efficient and interesting at the same time.

You can take grammar quizzes on online resources. You can work with your favorite movies, trying to catch useful phrases and insert them in your own speech. You can write letters, articles, essays and find somebody willing to check them (naturally, it should be a native speaker). You can find somebody to speak with on Skype (once again a native speaker). Do not be afraid of constructive criticism because each mistake moves you closer to your dream. It is exactly the case when you would rather say something wrong and be corrected than leave an impression of an educated person by staying silent all the time.

Be realistic

The ultimately perfect grammar probably does not exist. A person physically cannot keep in mind all the rules and exceptions, juggling them both in written and spoken language. So do not get upset if something goes wrong. Stay persistent and follow these tips, which eventually will get you to a decent level of knowledge.

Another point is that not all the rules are essential for everyday communication. For instance, you should think twice before starting to work on the minutiae of the subjunctive mood in English. People rarely use these structures, whereas it can take you months to learn the guidelines. At best you will light on the subjective mood in old books, so it is likely you will forget the rules soon. The question of expediency naturally arises.

All in all, improving grammar skills is always a matter of time and motivation. Sometimes it may get boring, so you had better switch between different methods of learning just to keep interested all the time. Remember about countless Internet resources that help you improve your language and consider turning to online editing services whenever you feel unsure in your writing. Smart Essay Rewriting is always at your service. Having passed your work to professionals, you will be able to compare your draft with the edited version, thus analyzing the mistakes that you could have missed for yourself.