Starting writing from square one

Read a lot, write a lot, correct a lot.


Ask any language learner the same question. Past picking up vocabulary and reading up on grammar, it all comes down to application. Reading, listening, saying, writing, correcting. Language is a tool. If you don't use it, you leave it to rust.

How do you get good at spelling? Correct it. Don't let spell-check correct; look up the correct spelling and rewrite it. Repeat if you wish.
How do you learn grammar and punctuation? He already knows most of it; he just has to learn and apply the correct stuff. Grammar and punctuation guides with examples will help. From there it's application in the form of reading/listening and writing/saying it.

How to practice it? Hell, anything is fine. Reading novels, writing novels. Reading car repair manuals, writing car repair manuals. Anything, as long as the content is better than Facebook comments and he's both correcting and checking how and why things work.

There's also probably guides out there to help him get his GED.

What helps a ton is interest. If it's a chore or an assignment, you'll trudge through it and do the bare minimum. If you're having fun, it's going to be a lot more effective.

My wife does tutoring with children with learning challenges. She finds out what they're interested in (Captain Underpants, zombies, etc) and gets them to write stories about whatever it is. The kids are usually totally into it -- this is way better than schoolwork! And strangely, their spelling and grammar improves...

I think it also helps to do a bit of metacognition and figure out what HASN'T worked in the past. Maybe he never went to school, or was COMPLETELY inattentive while he was there, in which case this probably doesn't really apply. But if he went to school and tried and it still didn't work, then he probably isn't going to have easy success trying the same thing years later. He might want to try a different approach.

eg. If his school was mostly rote learning, maybe he should start trying to figure out the REASONS for spelling and punctuation. I've struggled with spelling anything with double consonants for my whole life because I was taught spelling with word lists and other rote-learning tools, rather than learning that there are reasons words are spelled the way they are. Lots of exceptions, of course, but still... understanding that a vowel-consonant-vowel structure affects the pronunciation of the first vowel was a total epiphany for me! There are other spelling rules that make sense too, once you learn them.

Or, alternatively, if he was taught all the theory and it didn't sink in, maybe he'd be happier with flashcards and word lists.

If he really wants to learn, and has no learning disability, he can. It sounds like he doesn't read much, and he may not start just to learn how to read. Truthfully, at his age, he probably needs two things. 1. The willingness to do what it takes. 2. A competent teacher.

You learn by studying the right books, whatever your age, and it always works best if you also have a good teacher.

Angry Guy said:

What helps a ton is interest. If it's a chore or an assignment, you'll trudge through it and do the bare minimum. If you're having fun, it's going to be a lot more effective.

My wife does tutoring with children with learning challenges. She finds out what they're interested in (Captain Underpants, zombies, etc) and gets them to write stories about whatever it is. The kids are usually totally into it -- this is way better than schoolwork! And strangely, their spelling and grammar improves...

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What a great idea. My daughter had trouble with math so because she loved horses I related it all to horses and their feed and equipment. Worked like a charm.

I'll also agree with Angry Guy. My youngest son is not interested in reading--even though he's in a family of writers and readers. When I bought him books about Minecraft, I'd find him reading quietly in his room for the first time.

If your brother likes video games, perhaps help him find strategy guides to read. Or have him write walkthroughs for less experienced players to be posted on gaming forums.

My sister's husband (who is Albanian and has only recently moved to Australia and started to speak English) is going through a kind of similar thing. He's trying his damn hardest to come up to speed with English, and that's mainly through my sister reading books with him. They go through things like the first Harry Potter. I got him From Russia With Love because it's got a fairly simple prose style.

Actually, funny story. My best man speech was about how when I met him I could barely communicate with the guy, so I didn't really know who he was as a person... but then as his English picked up he started writing three panel comics about him and my sister and putting them on Facebook. As his English improved I realised he was using these comics to parody her. I figured if the guy's first correct use of English is to make fun of my sister, then he's gotta be alright.

Darkranger85 said:

Hey guys,

This question might be slightly out of topic, but I'm hoping you guys might have some input.

My brother, who is 28, is very poor at spelling, punctuation, grammar, and pretty much the whole nine yards.

He is planning on trying for his GED at some point, but would like to improve his writing ability first.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to really improve in these areas on your own?

Perhaps someone here has gone on a mission to improve their own abilities before and has a particular method they used.

For instance, one method I used was to keep a record of all words I misspelled and then I used the tried and true 5x each method from school till I no longer misspelled those words.

I look forward to hearing some of your thoughts.

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Reading, reading, reading.

Specific things to improve stuff depends on the stuff and the level.

To improve spelling, someone can work on learning word roots. For an adult, crossword puzzles and word searches can be an easier way than 'studying,' to pick up spelling cues.

For punctuation and grammar, the first step is figuring out if he knows the rules and doesn't understand exactly where/how to use them, gets overwhelmed with other stuff and forgets, or never learned. Then work from there. If it's never learned, get a grammar book for elementary school with worksheets that goes step by step. It might seem silly, but it's like math - if you miss what fractions ARE, that gap will keep screwing with you. You might get along using methods to work with fractions, but until someone goes back through the basic 'cut a circle into X pieces' type explanation, it's going to be confusing.

Writing he can do any time - write about what he's interested in. If he likes sports, he can write a fake news article about a game and compare it to a real one to see how they differ. He can write letters to an aged relative, if he's close to one, describing what he's doing. He can write stories about something he's into, or fan fic, or a letter to a politician - whatever moves him, preferably lots of different things, in different genres and formats. I'd suggest he also try writing thank you notes to interviewers, resume cover letters, other motivating things that can help his skills, remind him of the end product of his hard work and help him maybe focus on what he'd like to do once he's got the GED.

Reading cannot be stressed enough. I collected grammar books for years as well. But the thing that helped me improve the most, was daily writing on LiveJournal. The minute I posted I would feel instand parania that made me edit. Over time, I found myself editing less and that made me feel really good. Also running my writing through www.prowritingaid.com, then reading and researching every suggested error as I fixed them improved my writing. I went from having 20 or 25 grammar errors to 4 or 5 "errors" that were delibrate for style in about a month.