Tips to Make Your Written English More Powerful

Are your readers frequently failing to connect with your point? Do you get frustrated when someone misunderstands something you’ve written? It’s not easy to master written English, but Grammarly is here to help you learn the ins and out of this tricky language and—ultimately—to be better understood.

Refine your grammar

Poor grammar can quickly devalue your writing in the eyes of your readers. Seemingly small spelling and punctuation mistakes can catch someone’s attention and distract them from your point. Grammarly can help you catch these common mistakes and help you learn how to avoid them in the future.

Keep up your consistency

Mistakes inconsistency maybe another big distraction to your reader. The difference of a space or capitalization—like 2:30 pm vs. 2:30 p.m. vs. 2:30 PM—can make you look unprofessional and cause confusion. Other common consistency errors include inconsistency in punctuation, numbers, and tone. Grammarly catches these differences and helps you pick one and stick to it.

Grow your vocabulary

Sometimes, the easiest way to make your writing more powerful is to find the perfect word. The right word to describe something you’re writing about fits the tone of the piece while helping to drive your point home. It can be frustrating when you’re so close to the right word, but just can’t find it!

Grammarly can help—simply double-click on any word in the Grammarly Editor to see possible synonyms for the word you don’t like as much. Grammarly can even help identify opportunities to vary your vocabulary that you may not notice, like overused words and weak phrases.

Brush up on your idioms

Still can’t quite find the right word to fit the tone of your written piece? Try an idiom. Unsure about what an idiom is? This list of 30 English idioms is a good starting point.

These colloquial phrases often capture a situation better than a single word can. They can be tricky to pick up, especially if you’re writing in a language that isn’t your first. If you’re not certain about the idioms you’re using, let Grammarly steer you straight. Not only will you be a better writer for it, but you’ll better understand English in general and better connect to English speakers and readers.

Master some phrasal verbs

Like idioms, the individual words that make up phrasal verbs do not make much sense unless you know the phrasal verb as a whole. To make things more confusing, the object of the verb may fit into more than one spot. Check out some common phrasal verbs to help you get a grasp on these strange but powerful tools.

Because of their colloquial nature, phrasal verbs can be used to strike a casual tone in your writing. English language learners who appropriately use phrasal verbs will have yet another method to help them be properly understood.

Beware of false friends

False friends are words that appear to translate clearly from your primary language into English, but may actually cause readability issues. These little mistakes hang on writing like huge signs that point to a lack of fluency and they can undermine your point. Grammarly Premium’s writing suggestions catch these false friends in certain primary languages and help you write more fluently.

Learn more about how to use Grammarly Premium suggestions tailored to your primary language. Improve your readability

Quite possibly one of the most difficult things to detect in your own writing is readability. You know what you’re trying to say, but can the people who are reading your writing understand what you intended?

The Grammarly Editor offers a readability score that helps you hone in on your written piece’s readability using several different factors. If you find that your score is too low for your liking, Grammarly can help you implement suggestions to make your writing engaging and easy to understand.


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