Improving my grammar and sentence structure

Read good books. Read a lot of them. Then read some more.

That's the best way of going about it that I can think of.

I agree with that. Reading more will help you understand what you can and can't get away with. Also pick up The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It's a resource book I always have with me.

Here's a link to the William Strunk part of the book.

http://www.bartleby.com/141/

If reading was all it took for everyone to learn how to write properly, everyone who reads books would write fantastic prose. No English classes would ever be necessary once kids learned to read. I hate this advice when it's given as if everyone just ought to know that was all there was to it.

These are not affiliate links.

Woe is I: A Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English

Make Your Words Work

The Elements of Style

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

Haven't read this one, but others seem to like it: It was the Best of Sentences, it was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer's Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences

My advice is to take a serious look at at least the first four. Sample the ones you can to see if they're a good fit for you. And pay attention to the books recommended by Amazon on each of these pages, what the readers say about them, and reviews you can find online.


Shelley

shelleyo said:

If reading was all it took for everyone to learn how to write properly, everyone who reads books would write fantastic prose. No English classes would ever be necessary once kids learned to read. I hate this advice when it's given as if everyone just ought to know that was all there was to it.

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I think it's a matter of how one learns and how one processes language. Personally, once past the basics, I pick up patterns of grammar, syntax and style, whether in my own language or in another, far faster through reading, reading, and reading some more, than from mechanistic grammar or style books. It just sort of soaks in.

I have nothing against grammar or style books if they work for you; they simply don't work for me, whilst reading does.

My advice: Write.

Don't forget to keep trying and don't get yourself down. It takes time to remember it all.

I have crappy sentence structure too. And I've read style guides online, read numerous books, and use what I can remember when I'm writing.

I think the general advice to “read more” is sound when one has sufficient basics, but I'd like to see that advice more often stated like this: “read well-written work that is both complex and challenging.” If all you read is 8th-grade level writing, you'll never learn how to write at the 12th-grade level, much less anything higher.

If someone is at a writing board looking for help on some aspect of writing, and that person isn't already reading regularly, the advice to do so isn't likely to help.

IMO.

Shelley

shelleyo said:

If someone is at a writing board looking for help on some aspect of writing, and that person isn't already reading regularly, the advice to do so isn't likely to help.

IMO.

Shelley

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That isn't exactly true.
I came here, didn't read hardly at all, got the same advice... so I started reading more. Now I look forward to reading.

c.m.n. said:

That isn't exactly true.
I came here, didn't read hardly at all, got the same advice... so I started reading more. Now I look forward to reading.

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If you didn't read much, what made you want to write?

Shelley

shelleyo said:

If you didn't read much, what made you want to write?

Shelley

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Basically, I loved being in my own little worlds and making up characters, etc... A lot of it was writing out my troubles, fears, and fantasies on paper.

I think when I was a teenager, I'd only read one book. Dean Koontz. I tried several more but couldn't understand them. There really wasn't any YA back then, and what there was, I wasn't interested in.

But anyway...

Reading matters, and there's no way in hell to become a good writer without reading a LOT, and for years on end, but no school worth a penny simply hands out a novel as a substitute for grammar class. No writer need be a grammar guru, but darned few successful writers, if any, learned all the necessary grammar and structure simply by reading short stories and novels.

At the very least, pick up a copy of whatever grammar book you local jr. high uses, and find some websites to to study. If your grammar is really poor, start somewhere like this: http://www.english-test.net/esl/english-grammar-test.html

But the web is full of good grammar sites, including many that will teach and test you at every level.

shelleyo said:

If you didn't read much, what made you want to write?

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That's a question I've scratched my head over through sixty-five years of reading everything I could get my grubby little hands on, paying attention to how it was put together, and a quarter century of trying to teach writing to people who think they can skip reading and go directly to writing best-sellers without paying any dues.

I think its a similar arrogance as going hunting with a rifle fresh out of the box and a handful of cartridges which may or may not fit. The armchair hunters usually struggle back to camp and wonder why the game didn't lie down and put its feet up for them.

Whatever prompted these people to want to hunt, much less think they could?