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How do you practice writing?


jtucci21

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Do you write in a journal?  Translate stories or books from your native language into the one you're studying?  I just write on forums like this, but I need to start practicing more so I might translate short stories and post them up for corrections.

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Good luck with your plans. As for me, I rarely practice on my writings. The only times I'm using them are the ones when I'm replying to a thread. It's been so long since I've actually written anything I don't know if I can write as smoothly now.

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There's no right or wrong way to practice writing. Ever heard of free-writing. You just put pen to paper. Any thoughts that come into your mind. . .you jot them down. The point of the exercise is to get into the rhythm of writing. The rule is, never read what you write.

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Good idea :cool:. If that is what you want to do, I think it will help you tremendously.Moreover, we are here to help each other.You didn't say what language you are studying though.

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I write in forums a well, but that doesn't really help me to expand my vocabulary... my writing skills are good tho, I believe I learn more and more each day, but writing in forums isn't so stimulating, not as stimulating as writing my own articles and reviews online.  I wish I could go back to that, that helped me a lot in the past... back when I worked doing that I managed to expand my vocabulary, but once I stopped my vocabulary shrunk and here I am struggling!  Trying to find a way to stimulate my brain... and expand my vocabulary.

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Writing in a journal is an exceptionally good idea, especially if you know someone who speaks the language you are learning. If you are willing to let them read your journal, they can, at least, help you learn from your mistakes. That way, you do not get into the habit of writing incorrectly.

I don't write in a journal but I do write. I write mostly lines. When I study using DuoLingo, I write out the sentences and only write a translation if there is a word (or two) I don't understand. I find doing it that way really helps my retention.

One of the first books I ever read in Spanish was called: Easy Spanish Reader: A Three-Part Text for Beginning Students by William Tardy. It was a really great learning tool. Anyways, I wrote out that entire book, double spaced, in two notebooks. If there was any word I didn't understand I would write the translation underneath. Then, at the end of every chapter, there were questions for you to answer. The answers are in the back of the book so, you could see whether your sentence structure was right, or not. It was invaluable learning tool; teaching me to comprehend written Spanish, as well as, how to write out proper sentences.

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As a Professional Writer myself, I practice writing my maintaining a blog site in my second language English. There are also a lot of writing prompts and exercises available in writing websites, you may want to check them out. Having your own journal or diary also helps you practice your writing. Teachers ask students to maintain a journal too for their writing exercises. You might want to have a notebook where you can write about almost anything you have experienced and from those you can structure a story or two. :)

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I practice writing through just sitting down and with a story idea in mind and just start writing in the language that I am studying. When starting to learn a new language I just do not do this, due to the freshness of the language. In that instant I translate stories from the language I frequently use not necessarily my native tongue.

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I think that its an excellent idea to journal in a new language although I am not advanced enough in my studies that writing a journal would significantly help me.  At some point I might incorporate it but for now I am still in the basics mode and following the instructions suggested to me in the class that I am involved in.

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