Writing, another name of personality and thought identification. Writing has great importance in human life. In fact, it keeps the writer alive for hundreds of years after his death. Writers of the previous century are still known and studied a lot, and it is all their writing that has kept them alive up to now.
In CSS, writing is a crucial element to succeed. Every aspirant who wants to pass the exam must have excellent writing skills. CSS aspirants’ writing skills are not only assessed in English composition and comprehension but also assessed in the rest of the subjects they have chosen to appear in. Therefore, we do understand by now that writing has a significant impact and role in the CSS exam.
If we narrow down the discussion, we would understand that many aspirants seek good guidance for improving their English writing skills. Here, we will illustrate some key factors that are necessary for improving writing skills.
Build Your Content
The writing task of the CSS exam is not child’s play. You would never be able to write something if you had no content in your mind. No matter if you know good grammar or the structure of writing, you would still need content to write on a topic in the exam. It is like when a person knows driving and all the car’s functionalities, but he is out of fuel. Therefore, build your content through receptive skills (Reading/ Listening). Below are some tips that would help you not only in building content but also in improving your writing skills.
Read
Reading is the most important factor for good writing skills. Have you ever seen a two-year very young child who has learned something without looking at its various attempts and patterns? Of course, no child would be seen doing so. Reading has a similar impact on writing. If you read good time and again, resultantly, you would write good slowly and gradually.
What to Read?
Now, what an aspirant should read is another area of interest. There are various types of reading that leave a good impact on writing, and let us look at them.
Newspaper
This is the cheapest and most effective source of reading. Editorials in the newspaper would help you write with impressive expressions. Authors who write editorials have a great writing style, and they use several expressions, proverbs, and vocabularies that help aspirants improve their writing skills.
We must say that newspapers should be the top priority for reading and writing. It will not only build your content but will also give you a better way to write.
Research Papers
This is the second recommendation. Research papers are written in the most formal form, and you can read any research paper that seems relevant to your selected subjects; This will help you compare and criticize what you have read and what you already know.
Subject-oriented Books
In the CSS exam, you come across 11 subjects in total. Reading such books can also help you improve your writing, and such books are recommended in FPSC Syllabus.
Novels
Reading novels comes in the category of luxury reading. Books that you read interestingly always have an outstanding impact not only on your writing skills but also on your life. Once you start reading novels, you will gain the secret of the English language, and novels elaborate on how the English language is written.
Write Every Day
Once you have made a strong reading habit, it is essential to do writing practice in parallel. Reading alone cannot improve writing, and you have to write every day. It is considered one of the best exercises when you write what you have read in your words, and it helps you gain the insight of the writer you have studied.
Evaluate Your Writing
When you start writing every day without hesitation, it is very important to show your work to a senior writer or an expert. Sometimes, you may not rectify some of your mistakes which an expert would correct. Remember! Your mistakes will become permanent if you are unable to rectify them. Therefore, do get it checked by someone else who is experienced.
You can use online sources or pay someone who checks your work. Evaluation will always upgrade your writing skills every second day.
Work on Sentence Construction and Grammar
Apart from reading and writing, you need to improve your sentence construction. When you sit to write, the sentence is the first most crucial element that makes your overall writing suitable. Each sentence that is correctly written would make overall writing attractive.
There are several constructive forms of a sentence. Simple, compound, complex, compound-complex are the forms that must be accurately understood and used. You might be thinking that you have studied them in your college or university, but they may bring different levels of complexity. For example, he knows what he has done, and she knows what she has done because both are mature enough to understand the difference between good and bad. (A compound-complex sentence)
Improve Your Punctuations
Punctuations can either groom your writing or completely destroy it. An influential writer does care about punctuations because they leave a significant impression on readers’ minds. If you want to make your writing more attractive and expressive, you should use punctuation marks accurately.
On the other hand, misusing may change the entire meaning of the writing. For example
- Let us eat brother. This seems as if the brother is going to be eaten.
- Let us eat, brother. Here, a comma changes the entire meaning, and it seems that someone calls the brother to eat something.
Keep the Record
It is imperative to keep a record of your writing. It often leads to disappointment when you don’t feel improved over a long period of exercise. Keeping a record will always keep a cushion of your previous work where you can go back and compare your previous writings. Thus, you would understand your improvement and would get motivated each time you check.
All in all, writing is the art of displaying your personality on a piece of a page. After reading all of the above, you should know that writing needs a strong reading habit and then its implementation exercise. You would enjoy writing once you understand the joy of writing.
