How can one enhance the quality of one’s
English writing?
Teacher: Tao ZENG
Time: Nov, 2014
1. Check Usage
2. Enrich Input
3. Produce Regular Output
1. Check Usage
Whenever you are not sure about usage,
check a dictionary or a usage book.
Language is concerned with very subtle
details. If you miss these fine points, you
fail miserably and your grasp of the
language will remain weak and unstable.
A number of online dictionaries, thesauruses,
usage manuals you can consult:
 Online dictionaries
a) Cambridge International Dictionary of
English.
Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary.
Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms.
Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal
Verbs.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/default.asp
Online dictionaries
b) Webster's Dictionary
http://work.ucsd.edu:5141/cgi-bin/http_webster
c) 林語堂當代漢英詞典
A Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Lindict/
Thesaurus
 Roget's Thesaurus
This is a standard book of synonyms and
near-synonyms, or words related loosely in
meaning, useful when you want to vary your
lexical choice in writing.
http://www.thesaurus.com/cgibin/htsearch?config=roget&words
Usage manuals
 a) The American Heritage Book of English
Usage
http://www.bartleby.com/64/
 b) The Elements of Style (William Strunk)
http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk101.html
Electronic version of dictionary
 a) WordNet
 b) Collinscobuild Dictionary
2. Enrich Input
 In order to upgrade your English proficiency, you must
enrich your input. There seems to be no shortcut around this.
According to language acquisition theories, if one doesn’t
have input, one is doomed to a poor command of the
language.
 Develop the habit of browsing a newspaper or magazine
website for 10-15 minutes daily. You don't have to
necessarily read the serious feature articles. Bookmark the
section that interests you most, be it sports, fashion, finance,
books, etc. And make sure you take a glance at it when you
log on the machine.
Good news sources in terms of quality of
writing
 a) South China Morning Post
http://www.scmp.com/
http://features.scmp.com/
 b) BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/default.stm
 c) The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/
 d) The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Good news sources in terms of quality
of writing
 e) Time magazine (Asia)
http://www.time.com/time/asia/index.html
 f) Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.com/news/NW-front_Front.asp
 g) CNN Asia
http://asia.cnn.com/
3. Produce Regular Output
 The secret to addiction is to be persistent. One
gets addicted to a drug by taking it every day. In
the same way, you can acquire the habit of
reading and writing by doing it on a daily basis.
One of the main discoveries in second language
learning is that one learns best when one is not
paying attention to it, when one derives pleasure
from the task itself.
Produce Regular Output
 Use your language actively in reading and
writing. You don't have to read long piece and
write long papers. A short news report a day;
a few paragraphs of diary-this kind of output
would be good enough. The point is one
should produce regular language output. One
should maintain a certain level of linguistic
performance, in other words. The difference
will be highly visible if you can use the
language actively for half a year.