How to imporve my writting skills?

[nancy]

Dear tearchers,
I am currently taking psychology course at university, but I always feel struggling when the time I need to write up my essaies. My problem is I do not know how to rationalize my ideas through writing. The most frustration thing is that a lot of good phrases or vocabs won't come into my mind when I need to write my paper. how should I help myself? because as a psychologist, I need to write a lot of things. I also want to be able to be a good writer, so that I can share my ideas with others but I just can not...
by the way, English is not my first language.

anyone could give me some tips? thanks.

[IvyEyesEditing]

Hi Nancy,

What is your native language? My first suggestion would be to do the groundwork for your academic writing in that language--build a structure, map out your analysis and argument, etc. Then, perhaps with the help of a native speaker, slowly work through a translation. The key is to build your skills in small steps!

As with other types of academic writing, there is a specific language that is appropriate in the psychology arena. Therefore, I would also be sensitive to this, and familiarize yourself with psychology literature and journals. This will give insight not only into language and style, but how psychology papers are structured.

If you would like to submit a piece of writing, I would be happy to take a look!

All best,
Paul
Ivy Eyes Editing
http://www.ivyeyesediting.com

[nancy]

Thanks for your reply and tips which are quite useful. I am trying to do it while doing my paper.
Well, do you have any tips on sentence phrasing and structure imporvement? any kind of excises I could do it by myself?

By the way, Chinese is my first language.

Thanks.
Nancy

[sinkinbullet]

First of all, it’s really great that you are studying psychology. I hope you would help other people in future with your skills. Talking about your concern, I feel that developing writing skills is not an overnight affair. I would, however, suggest you three ways that really work in improving vocabulary, and help develop writing skills to express your feelings in a coherent, cogent way.
1. Read Read Read- Make it a habit to read newspapers, journals and most importantly literature. Reader’s Digest is one good material that I would suggest.
2. Start writing Diary. Write whatever you like, but do write.
3. Use flashcards to improve vocabulary
If you need more help, feel free to contact me. I would be glad to help.