me wants to rite purdy

mrcheesypants

Well H&A I'm feeling like I need to brush up on my writing and grammar skills. I'm now a senior in high school and because the past two years of English for me has been literature, I feel as if I can't write a decent sounding sentence if my life depended on it. So I figured now that I have senioritis and I'm going to college next year, it's a good time to improve my grammar.

Does anyone have any good ideas or resources?

Uncle Long

MLA handbook. Acquaint yourself with this. If you're going into History look for Turabian style. The sciences have their own standard handbooks, I believe. Also, look into taking a foreign language. Learning the grammar of a foreign language can easily aid your examination of your mother tongue and a better grasp of linguistic concepts.

mrcheesypants

TheLong wrote: »

MLA handbook. Acquaint yourself with this. If you're going into History look for Turabian style. The sciences have their own standard handbooks, I believe. Also, look into taking a foreign language. Learning the grammar of a foreign language can easily aid your examination of your mother tongue and a better grasp of linguistic concepts.

I had to get that MLA handbook for school but I lost it somewhere so I'll go buy that as well. I did take a few years of Latin but I'm rusty in that as well. I still have my Latin dictionary and I would be much obliged if anyone would give me some stuff to translate as well.

Grid System

Strunk and White's Elements of Style.

blanknogo

Strunk and White's Elements of Style is a short little style/grammar book you'll probably run into in College. It's not hard to get into at all and following some of the advice in it will definitely help you improve.

Edit: I was too slow.

Uncle Long

mrcheesypants wrote: »

TheLong wrote: »

MLA handbook. Acquaint yourself with this. If you're going into History look for Turabian style. The sciences have their own standard handbooks, I believe. Also, look into taking a foreign language. Learning the grammar of a foreign language can easily aid your examination of your mother tongue and a better grasp of linguistic concepts.

I had to get that MLA handbook for school but I lost it somewhere so I'll go buy that as well. I did take a few years of Latin but I'm rusty in that as well. I still have my Latin dictionary and I would be much obliged if anyone would give me some stuff to translate as well.

What are you planning on going into in college? A lot of humanities programs require a foreign language. Perhaps you may be interested in taking something along the lines of German or French or Spanish?

Zeromus

I don't think the MLA Handbook is a good place to start. Writing is something that's best learned by doing; try starting a blog, write for fun, and have people read your work and give feedback.

nexuscrawler

The best thing I've learned is to be concise. Schools get papers all wrong and base them on length. I don't know about you but this trained me to constantly use unnecessary words and repetitive phrases to pad my writing. It's an easy way to sound smarter without actually saying more. Re-read your stuff and consciously eliminate unnecessary words.

Uncle Long

Zeromus wrote: »

I don't think the MLA Handbook is a good place to start. Writing is something that's best learned by doing; try starting a blog, write for fun, and have people read your work and give feedback.

I see what you're saying, and, as much as I agree, I do want to point out that he is planning on going to college, which is why I've listed manuals in general (not just MLA). This is going to do him a lot more good throughout the majority of his courses just because it will be what the average prof is looking for; clear, concise argument and grammar. Honestly, I think using the MLA is going to serve his GPA best and provide a far more sound base for progress.

Blogs are great, but if OP wants to seriously develop, the criticism of friends and internet personalities means diddly, unless it's an ego boost OP is looking for.

That being said, you should do but I just think it would diminish the shock of getting a shitty grade if you didn't have your friends telling you that you're great at writing and then come to find out that the kind of writing you were doing has no place or close relation to what would be considered useful academic prose style.

I had a hard time dealing with being concise as my writing endeavors were always on the creative side and when I got into serious studies in college it was very frustrating to have to constantly fight the habits that served me well in the creative sphere of the craft.

Summation: learning the standard style will serve you best in writing for college. Blogging/writing for yourself and friends will help you progress as well; but I'd suggest having a guide if you're going into the dark.

TexiKen

Just write whenever you can. Experience will help you the most.

I was where you were in high school, padding papers to make them longer than what was needed to get he point across. But as I've gone through college, and the constant need for papers in my courses, I started to just write sentences in my notes whenever I had them out, no matter what class.

If you let stuff simmer in your head for a bit, the intent you are trying to get across comes out at random times. If you can get that down on paper, it can help channel your words in a way that will help you write more effectively.

Another way to be more effective in writing is having a greater vocabulary. If you come across a word you don't know, look it up. Then look up synonyms and antonyms to help give you extra words. You can do it online now, so there's no reason not to do it. 15 seconds and you're smarter.

But in the end, experience is really what helps. I recently looked over the paper I had to write for college applications, and boy, how I ever got in, I have no idea.