You took too many English classes. Someone has told you that it’s more important to say it right than to say it at all.
Well, it is important to write correctly. It makes your communication clearer, and your reputation brighter. But it’s usually better to say what you mean poorly than to say nothing.
Why? Because once you write it, you can edit it. Or you can ask someone else to.
Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is garbage.” Well, garbage wasn’t the word he actually used, but you get the idea. If Hemingway, one of the most influential prose writers in the English language, thought that his first drafts were garbage, you should feel just fine if that’s what your first draft looks like. Garbage is honorable. It’s hard to improve on perfection, but it’s really easy to improve on garbage. Reading it again will give you all sorts of ideas for improvement.

 Writing is a form of communication, but for many amateur writers, its most important purpose is for communicating with themselves. That sounds strange, but seeing your own words on paper helps you understand who you are and what you’re thinking, even in the moment as you’re writing them down. Don’t underestimate the value of writing something that nobody else may ever see.
Ther’s nothing wrong with being your own sole audience. Emily Dickinson and Franz Kafka both wanted their works burned after their death. Writing can be therapeutic. Even if you’re a serious writer, you may not want a lot of people to see your early work. Though if you want to learn, show it to someone. That’s the only way you can know for sure how it’s coming across, or if it’s coming across at all.

1. Free Association

This is probably the most popular writing exercise to get the juices flowing. Pull up a new Word document, take a deep breath and just write whatever comes to mind. Dig as deep as you can into your subconscious and don’t worry about what comes out. Sometimes there’s a mental blockage with something that’s been bothering you, so it helps to write it down and get it out of your system.

2. Think Outside the Box

Think of something you’re passionate about, like a hobby or a love interest, and write everything you know about it. Sometimes writing slumps happen and it helps to write about something you love. Even if you just write a paragraph, it’s better to write something that’s not your current project. This will rejuvenate you to re-start on your current project.

I was talking with some college students yesterday about the value of outlining before you write. They were feeling overwhelmed by the formal outline their teacher (my friend) was insisting they write. I pointed out that even after many years working as a professional writer, I still create an outline before I write so much as a paragraph.
My outline isn’t as detailed or formal as the ones they need to create for their class, but it serves the same purposes. First, it helps me organize my thoughts and put them in a logical sequence. That means I’ll do a better job when I write, and I’ll avoid much rewriting.

You’ll do a better job of writing if you have ready access to good reference materials. First, and foremost, is a dictionary. Find one you’re comfortable with, whether it’s online or in print, and keep it handy. You want nothing to discourage you from consulting it, whether you need to check the meaning of a word, confirm a spelling, or find a synonym. I like the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, but there are other good choices out there.
Also buy yourself a good grammar reference book. English is difficult to master even if it’s your native tongue and you had a good grammar education, which few of us did. I have a shelf full of grammar books, but the one I turn to over and over is “Woe Is I” by Patricia T. O’Conner. It’s out in paperback and well worth the small cost. Her explanations of grammar rules are the clearest I’ve seen, and the book’s index is easier to use than those in many other grammar books.

This question has been  on my mind as I prepare to teach Public Speaking at a local college this summer. The excellent textbook selected by the college takes students through every aspect of preparing and delivering a speech. As I work my way through the book and prepare lesson plans, I’ve been struck by how often the advice also works for writing.
The book, for example, emphasizes the importance of having clearly defined goals for every speech and of tailoring talks for different audiences. Hmmm, sounds like good advice for the written word, as well.
Some of the instruction, of course, only applies to public speaking. When you’re sitting alone at your computer, dressing appropriately for the occasion is a non-issue, and you can gesture all you want without distracting your audience.

Assuming you’re not aiming to be a prize-winning novelist or poet, you probably just need to be reasonably proficient at writing–and comfortable with that attitude. One of the attitudes that discourages people from writing easily is the concern that they are not as good as they should be.
Interestingly, not being great at cooking doesn’t keep most of us out of the kitchen. Many of us know little about gardening, yet we don’t hesitate to plant bulbs or raise houseplants. We accept that we’re good enough for the tasks we want to accomplish.

Writing is an important form of communication. Good writers use different writing techniques to fit their purpose for writing. To be a good writer, you must master each of the following writing techniques.

1. Description

   Through description, a writer helps the reader use the senses of feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting to experience what the writer experiences. Description helps the reader more clearly understand the people, places, and things about which the writer is writing. It is the most common form of writing. You will find descriptive writing in newspapers, magazines, books, and most other forms of written communication.

   
   

Brainstorming, like freewriting, is a prewriting technique designed to bring subconscious ideas into consciousness. It's a good technique to use when you know a general subject you're interested in writing about but don't exactly know what aspect of the subject you want to pursue. Brainstorming is like a stream-of-consciousness technique in which you rapidly record all ideas related to a general subject. All ideas are equally acceptable; the purpose of brainstorming is to identify as many ideas related to the subject as possible.
Most likely you have either experienced brainstorming in a business setting or have seen it portrayed on television or film: the ad exec holds up a product and says to the advertising team, "All right, people, let's pitch ideas to sell this soap!," and a person standing by a flip chart jots down ideas frantically as employees shout them out.

Freewriting

Freewriting helps you identify subjects in which you are interested. It assumes that you know your interests subconsciously but may not be able to identify them consciously, and it assumes that you can bring your interests into consciousness by writing about them (as writing equals thinking). Freewriting is like stream-of-consciousness writing in which you write down whatever happens to be in your thoughts at the moment. After you do a number of freewritings, you may find that you have come back to certain subjects again and again. Repeated subjects are good for further development through writing, as they obviously are important in your thoughts.

How to Write an Essay: 10 Easy Steps

Brief Overview of the 10 Essay Writing Steps

1. Research: Begin the essay writing process by researching your topic, making yourself an expert. Utilize the internet, the academic databases, and the library. Take notes and immerse yourself in the words of great thinkers.
2. Analysis: Now that you have a good knowledge base, start analyzing the arguments of the essays you're reading. Clearly define the claims, write out the reasons, the evidence. Look for weaknesses of logic, and also strengths. Learning how to write an essay begins by learning how to analyze essays written by others.

A useful skill in English is to be able to tell a story or an anecdote. Anecdotes are short stories about something that happened to you or to someone you know.

How to start
Traditional stories often start with the phrase "Once upon a time". However, if you are going to tell your story after someone else has already spoken, you can say something like:
That reminds me!
Funny you should say that. Did I ever tell you about…
Hearing your story reminds me of when…
Something similar happened to me….

How to tell your story
First of all, your story should be quite short. Try to keep it grammatically simple as well, so that it is easy to follow.
Make it easy for the listener to understand by using sequencing and linking words:

Descriptive paragraphs are often used to describe what a person looks and acts like. Read this example descriptive paragraph, notice how descriptive paragraphs are arranged by putting together all the sentences about the same thing.
Here is an example of a descriptive paragraph:
I am forty years old, rather tall and I have blue eyes and short black hair. I wear casual clothes as I teach students in a relaxed atmosphere. I enjoy my job because I get to meet and help so many different people from all over the world. During my spare time, I like playing tennis which I play at least three times a week. I also love listening to classical music and I must admit that I spend a lot of money on buying new CDs! I live in a pretty seaside town on the Italian coast. I enjoy eating great Italian food and laughing with the likable people who live here.