How to Practie Writing Using Social Media

Hey there! Some links on this page are affiliate links which means that, if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I greatly appreciate your support!

Using Social media has become one of our daily activities nowadays. We tweet to share what’s on our minds. We chat with our friends, family members, or even clients using WhatsApp. We check in on Facebook while having a vacation with friends outside the city and write about our experiences. 

However, many people think using social media is just a waste of time. They can’t contribute to one’s improvement of any essential skills. Well! Here, in this post, I’ll share how you can develop your writing skills by using social media.

Social media can be a great platform to practice writing and improve the skill, no matter whether someone is a student or a teacher, or a professional writer. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn can help us practice and improve our writing by being careful about grammar and spelling, using short forms, and proofreading before we click “send” or “post.”

You may try Fifty Ways to Practice Writing: Tips for ESL/EFL Students to practice and improve writing with pen and paper and typing. By applying these methods, you will write more, write faster, and write more correct and more interesting papers and letters.

Chapters

Writing is considered the most difficult skill of the three other skills: listening, speaking, and reading. Except for professional writers, most of us do not have that much interest or time to practice writing because it takes extra time and effort. 

To explore what a Cambridge University writing teacher reveals about writing blogs and business docs, you can try the course Writing With Confidence: Writing Beginner To Writing Pro (Udemy link).

Think about listening and speaking! In our daily life, we need to talk to people and listen to them. Thus we don’t need to manage extra time, and there is no need to put extra effort into practicing these two skills. 

But do we have any scope to practice writing as a part of our daily activities, only if someone is not a professional writer? Astonishingly, the answer is a big “YES,” as using social media has become a part of our daily activities, and most of us have access to them.

Though social media’s primary purpose is to connect people, we also use it for study, business, and whatnot! According to Social Media Today,

“Every day we spend 135 minutes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp.”

Whether we share anything on Facebook or Twitter or send texts to people via WhatsApp or Messenger, we need to write. Not only do people having good writing skills use these social sites, but also other people do that. Surprisingly, by writing on social media, we can improve our writing skills by considering the following ideas:

Take Some Extra Time to Write the Correct English

Write Correct English

We all are in a hurry, especially when we post anything on social media. Many of us do not bother to write correct English even. This habit may have serious effects on your writing. To improve your writing, try to write everything in correct English, even if it takes time.

Edit and Proofread, No Matter What You Post or Text

Edit and Proofread

Don’t forget to proofread what you write. Sometimes we send texts on messenger or post on Facebook without checking what we have written. This may create horrible situations at times.

For the first time, one of my friends, Jason, met a girl named Sara, a teacher at a school, and they had a wonderful lunch together a few days back. After coming back home, he texted her…

Jason: Thanks for the launch today.

Sara: Launch?

Jason: Sory! It’s lunch.*

Sara: Sory?

Jason: Sorry! I ment sorry.*

Sara: Ment?

Jason: Whoops! Maybe I am nervos!

Sara: Goodbye!

Don’t Depend on Auto-suggestions and Auto-corrections

Sometimes we use auto-suggestions while typing anything in messenger. This may lead us to some horrible situations. The machine, I mean the keyword, cannot read your mind. It just can guess what you are thinking to write. And if the keyboard guesses wrong, you might be in trouble.

However, we can use the “Auto Spell Checker” to check spelling, which is a good idea but not the best idea. It’s always better if you can use your prior knowledge. When required, checking spelling in online dictionaries is the best way to write correct English.

Avoid Using Short Forms If Possible

Avoid Short Forms

Writing short forms like LOL (laughing out loud) or IDK (I don’t know) is a time-saving way of talking to someone on social media. When you are in a real hurry, we can do that. But if we merely keep using abbreviations and acronyms, there is a high possibility of forgetting the spelling of the words. 

And even if it becomes a habit, sometimes you cannot resist doing it in your exam. Last week I asked one of my students to write about his last visit to Italy with his family in 100 words. Surprisingly, he used seven short forms like U for You, 4 for For, Frnd for Friend, Bro for Brother, 2moro for Tomorrow, etc. That was horrible.

So, I recommend not using too many short forms, and of course, we should not make it a habit.

Grammar! Yes, It Is Important

Grammar is Important

Many of us do not bother with grammar. Yes, sometimes you may not need it. While you speak, you should not bother with it too much. Moreover, if you are a native speaker, you speak naturally. But what about writing.?

Writing is different from speaking. Grammatical errors in writing can lead to problems communicating with the readers and difficulties understanding the writing. 

Read and Try to Follow the Styles of Well-written Posts

We all know that reading is a prerequisite to writing. The more we read, the more we will generate ideas and develop styles of writing. Thus my recommendation is to read well-written posts and follow the styles of expert writers. Gradually you will be able to develop your unique style, no doubt.

Read and Follow the Styles of Well-written Posts

Know the Purpose of Your Writing and Write Accordingly

Whatever we write should have a purpose. If the purpose is to convince your client by giving them offers, your writing tone has to be very convincing. The tone of any writing depends on the purpose. If we know the purpose, we can write in the appropriate tone. 

Don’t Delay: Never Think to Edit the Post Later

As human beings, many of us have tendencies to procrastinate. We post things on social media without checking grammatical and spelling errors and keep them to edit later.

I strongly recommend not thinking about editing any posts later because when you post anything publicly, people will not wait. They will see and read the writing with those grammatical and spelling errors. These errors can lead your readers to misunderstandings. 

So, does it have any use in editing anything after publishing it publicly?

Using Some Editing Tools May Help

Sometimes we may overlook our mistakes. Editing tools like Linguix can help us solve this problem. But again, don’t just depend on them for writing. Take help to identify the mistakes and correct them by yourself. 

Read Again Before You Click the “Post” or “Send” Button

Read Again before You post

Checking your every word at least once before you publish anything is mandatory. We are human beings, not machines.

We may make mistakes. So my recommendation is not to post anything or send any text to anybody until every single word is checked and corrected if there is any mistake.  

Happy writing!

Niaj A A Khan is an ESL Instructor with over 8 years of experience in teaching & developing resources at different universities and institutes. Mr. Khan is also a passionate writer working on his first book, "Learn English at Ease."

Leave a Comment