[How-To-Series001] How to hone up your writing skills as "foreigner"_Chelsea

 Learning to Fly by Kim Talor, licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

In the last post I pushed myself of writing out three reasons why should I (or say "we", assume you readers have similar interests as I do) hone up the writing skills.

In this post, I will summarize simply the approaches we (Hailey and Chelsea) are going to try in the first few weeks, and how we are going to take advantage of this blog format to achieve it.

Typically in terms of learning, there are handful ways to explore, depending on the particular skill set you want to pick up. For writing, which is more cognitive oriented, mimicry is the best way to start.




1. Mimicry-1st assignment

Find a mastery piece (model/template)-->
read it through-->
put it down, and rewrite it based on short term memory (aka, in your own language)-->
compare and take notes (aka, copy/paste your term, sentence, analogy, etc mentally)-->
put the template down, put the first draft down-->
rewrite the second draft-->
compare and take notes-->
...

You can replicate the steps as long as you want, which is basically proactively reinforcing yourself of the short term memory.

This method is a very generic learning process which can be applied to almost all kinds of learning in the initial phase. Especially as "English as second language" writers, our starting bar is better set onto the ground before handing our manuscripts to others, and asking for constructive feedbacks.

However, an intuitive question here would be:
Where can I find the template though?
It depends.

If you want to develop fiction-type style, your favorite novel is the way to go.
If you want to strengthen your professional writing, for example, we are particularly interested in scientific writing (but not as dry as academic articles), scientific news/report/preview would be the resources to check out.

It also depends on your personal interest. For example, if you are a fan of business/financing, Economist could serve the need. Or if you are following political news/trending opinions, Times at hand is easy to approach. In sum, online articles/magazines/books/blogs are the obvious choices.

Here for the sake of convenience, I will list out some that interest us:

(1) Scientific writing:
New York Times (Science)
New Yorker (Science and Tech)
Science (Psycology, my fav.:P)
Immunity (current issue, check preview)
Nature (Archive; updated)
Nature Immunology (Archive; updated)

(2) Non-scientific writing:
Times
Economist
New York Times 

(3) Blogs/Books
Given the variety of blog/book style (aka. professional, or humanized), it would totally depend on you to find out your favorite resources. (Welcome to share in comments!! And we will keep it updated in future posts)

2. Read and Comment-2nd assignment

Reading helps, in a subconscious but enormous way. It forges your thinking rhymes and to some point, you are not mimicking attentively, but learning when enjoying the piece. Treat it as a mental meal. You will find it more fun to learn and comment than rigidly copy/paste some opinions (for the sake of writing style) perhaps you may not even agree with in the first place.

Passively digest or indulge the knowledge itself without reflecting in your own system would be futile. Just imagine yourself indulging 5 lbs of high quality protein per meal without any good absorption. What's the point? On the other hand, chunk it down and add in your own thoughts and logic will make it more intellectually challenging but rewarding.

Let's not only mimic the writing style (frame) but also squeeze out the juice and taste the knowledge itself. Be a Chef later.

3. Reading_along the side
The more you get exposed to words, the more you are comfortable with words, the easier you are "in the flow" to generate lines. Therefore when you have 20 minutes free time, instead of curling up in the couch watching reality TV shows... Reading a tiny nice book would be a better choice, if you want to progress on writings (otherwise, go back to your TV...).

In the next post, I will list out some rewards/punishment/monitoring system we plan to set up, in order to form the habit and make it long term:)

P.S. Don't forget there are bunch of audio books out there if you find yourself stuck in the heavy traffic with nothing juicy to listen to.

P.P.S. Don't forget that speaking and listening and reading and writing are sisters and brothers, always hand in hand.

P.P.P.S Of course, this is very premature plan for the project. Wait for further updates and modifications.

Chelsea