Thousands years before us, people had written words on a stone to inform the next generation about what things they had achieved or things they had failed in. Today, we know this written-stone as prasasti ( epigraph ). The thousand years burried epigraph shows us that, perhaps, exchanging information, news and idea in written form is the second-oldest way of communication which the first is done orally.
If it is so, then why don�t we communicate something in written form? In English? Most of us spend, at least, six years of learning the language. Aren�t they enough? They�re, exactly, more than enough. But if we just use the time carelessly, even a hundred years aren�t enough.
Before writing, we have to read thousand times. But the fact is, we seldom spend our time to read. Our English teacher ( almost ) never give us assignment to read english texts, books, magazines or newspaper continuously and seriously. They also never ask us to write a report on what we have read. We were taught to understand English grammar. But we don�t even know how to use it. We know that simple present tense will use the first verb, simple past tense needs the second and the third form of verb will be used in past and present perfect. But we�re often confused when we must communicate with other person in writing form. Aristotle ever said that we are what we do repeatedly. That�s why, superiority is not what we do but what we are used to. So, there�s no another way, we must make a habit of writing if we want to be able to communicate with other person in english writing.
The most important thing in starting to write is; we must feel free with our mistake that may be made in the process of writing. Just write what we want to write, for a while, ignore the mistakes. It�s commonly known that all of the first draft are shits. Since english is second language, it�s not a big deal if we make mistake in writing. Believe me, even the native speakers often make some mistakes.
And now, I will tell you what things we can use to habituate ourselves to write. The first thing is letter. Why don�t teachers make students to write, for example, their difficulties in doing their grammar homework? Students are often shy to admit that they can not solve the numbers of their homework. By writing, no one will know who is not able to complete the homework. The mistakes that may occur in the writing can be explained and corrected by the teacher in front of the class. For next writing, we can hope their less mistake or even no mistake. If the students, finally, make no mistake, they will get their confidence again. In the same way, if it is possible, students are allowed to send an e-mail to the teacher.
If is still not effective, we can go to the second thing. It is, most popular thing this time, yes, mobile phone. Mobile phone is possible to send a message in a fast and easy way. By using mobile phone, making mistakes in writing every word can be minimized. Why so? Most mobile phone today have been completed with T9 text input. Students can use this menu to write some messages to their teacher with less mistake in spelling. The T9 text input menu enables the handphone users to press each key of a handphone only once and a word is suggested. Or we can say that it is the mobile phone which predicts the word that may be intended in correct spelling. By using the T9 text input menu, we will just notice the mistake of the grammar of each sentence because the word, automatically, is shown correctly.
Those three things I mention above are not the only can be used to improve writing skill. There are, I am sure, some others more. But, a trip of thousand miles is always started in the first step. So, sit down and start to write. Release yourself from the mind of being wrong. Because you won�t know it until you do it. Just write again and again. Just like me at this moment. You may find quite a few mistakes in my writing. But you�ll see that I�ll write back again.
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