It might sound like the most boring activity in the world, but improving your grammar skills is key to personal and professional success. A study by Tidio found that for 97% of people, grammar mistakes influence their perceptions of individuals and companies. Try the five proven strategies below to help you overcome poor grammar and achieve your goals.
🖊️ Is Spelling a Part of Grammar?
🖊️ Best AI Proofreader for Non-Native English Speakers: Grammarly, QuillBot, Engram, ProWritingAid, Ginger, Trinka [Updated 2023]
🖊️ Prepositions
What is Poor Grammar?
Poor grammar means putting words together incorrectly in your sentences.
Maybe you struggle with subject-verb agreement in those tricky cases.
"The class of elementary students is excited"
or "The class of elementary students are excited"?
Or you're not sure when it's appropriate to use the simple past tense versus the past perfect tense.
"I'm happy that you cleaned the kitchen"
or "I'm happy that you had cleaned the kitchen"?
Poor grammar is an inevitable part of every language learner's journey. There's no need to beat yourself up if you make a mistake here and there. But you'll be happy to know that there are simple ways to level up your grammar skills!
Tips to Improve Your Grammar Skills
1. Read as Much as You Can
When you read a well-structured piece of writing, you become accustomed to proper sentence construction. Getting repeated exposure to the grammar patterns in well-formed sentences can have powerful, long-lasting effects! Research shows that reading passages with specific grammar rules helps people learn those rules implicitly and test better on them.
2. Write as Much as You Can
Of course, you need to put your grammar knowledge into practice. Writing allows you to see what you produce, so you can analyze and edit it for further improvement. Even if it's a few sentences a day, try to use a grammar structure you recently learned and write some example sentences. Then, check your sentences carefully to see where you're still making errors.
3. Learn Grammar Rules
"Third-person singular pronoun," "past participle," "the subjunctive mood" - these terms can be really confusing. But learning the names and rules of grammar structures can help you be more conscious of how you're using them in your writing.
Start with the basics, the nine parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and articles. Study what part of speech a word is, and how the different parts of speech link together.
4. Seek Feedback
Seeking feedback from peers, mentors, or writing professionals is an invaluable strategy for grammar improvement. They can give you personalized feedback for a specific context with mini grammar lessons along the way. Just be careful to choose your editors wisely! Native speakers struggle with grammar rules and make lots of grammar mistakes, too.
5. Use Grammar Checkers
Maybe working with a professional isn't affordable, or you realized your friend also has no idea when to use the subjunctive mood.
The good news is the digital age has brought about many types of online grammar checkers, also called AI proofreaders. You can get instant feedback and suggestions, making them a valuable and convenient resource. Depending on if you're a native speaker or non-native speaker, some might work better for you than others.
Conclusion
Grammar is more than just a set of rules; it's a powerful tool that shapes how others perceive us. By applying these five proven strategies, you can significantly reduce errors, leading to more effective and impactful communication. So, embrace the challenge and remember that poor grammar doesn't have to stand in the way.
Write more effectively today with the AI proofreader Engram!
References:
Ayaz Nanji
Hannah YangSpeculative Fiction Author
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