Learning writing and composition
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:10 am
I learned to read early and pretty much never stopped. Thanks to that and about 17 years of school, I feel confident in writing on different subjects and for different audiences. In English.
When I write in other languages, though, it always feels very stream-of-consciousness and is never as clear as I want it to be. I wrote a quick little thing in Chinese on iTalki and was proud of myself until I got two separate corrections that both said "this is really confusing and hard to follow, maybe next time put some English in so people can understand."
I know that I have to master the basics first, and the basics in English started from weekly paragraphs about "My Family" and "What I Did This Summer." I'm thinking I probably need to keep doing short compositions until I can regularly write at the level of an elementary schooler, and perhaps even buy a composition textbook for children. I don't care if my style remains basic - I just want to be able to communicate ideas in writing and have them understood.
Is good target-language writing style something that can come from massive exposure alone? What are your experiences with improving the quality of your TL writing?
When I write in other languages, though, it always feels very stream-of-consciousness and is never as clear as I want it to be. I wrote a quick little thing in Chinese on iTalki and was proud of myself until I got two separate corrections that both said "this is really confusing and hard to follow, maybe next time put some English in so people can understand."
I know that I have to master the basics first, and the basics in English started from weekly paragraphs about "My Family" and "What I Did This Summer." I'm thinking I probably need to keep doing short compositions until I can regularly write at the level of an elementary schooler, and perhaps even buy a composition textbook for children. I don't care if my style remains basic - I just want to be able to communicate ideas in writing and have them understood.
Is good target-language writing style something that can come from massive exposure alone? What are your experiences with improving the quality of your TL writing?