5 Ways Reading Can Make Your Writing Better

Writing and reading have an obvious relationship to each other; neither would exist without the other. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to read more. You could peruse your local newspaper in the morning while getting ready for work, scroll through a website during lunch, or curl up with a novel before going to bed. Whether you’re reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace or the back of a cereal box, developing a love for the written word is a good starting point for finding your own voice as a writer and putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys).

Here are five reasons why reading will help you write better:

1. It can show you what good writing looks like

The more you read, the more likely you are to develop an understanding of what effective writing is. By reading the work of great writers, you will begin to see patterns that you can follow or techniques you can use to take your skills to the next level. Different writers may have different styles or may work in various genres, but they often have similar goals. Communicating ideas in a clear and interesting way is generally an important part of the writing process, and by reading the best articles, websites, and books, you can begin to see why these pieces are effective at reaching their audience. Even if you read less effective written works, you can identify the mistakes that they make and why they fail to resonate with you as much as their more successful counterparts.

2. It can increase your knowledge

To write effectively, you need to have some comprehension of what you are writing about. Reading can help you learn about the subject you are focusing on or give you general knowledge that you may integrate into your writing whenever you think it might be useful. By educating yourself on a variety of topics and building a solid foundation of facts or ideas, you can create a wellspring of information that you can draw upon when you need it. This will allow you to make connections between different concepts, understand historical events, and brainstorm interesting new thoughts about whatever you’re planning to write. Reading gives you access to ideas from around the world and across the centuries, opening up new perspectives and helping you understand other worldviews. This can only benefit your writing, as your mind becomes more open to diverse ways of thinking, and you can learn to express yourself in a more eloquent and informed manner.

3. It can improve your critical thinking skills

Once you have developed a greater base of knowledge, you will also be able to approach ideas with a critical eye, distinguishing between arguments that are reasonable and those that aren’t. You will be able to challenge your own preconceptions and question the dominant views of your society, gaining a better understanding of what makes sense and what doesn’t. You can root out your own biases, overcome prejudices, and pinpoint mistakes in your own thinking. By reading the opinions of people who have had different experiences than you or who come from other backgrounds, you will be better equipped to write in a way that is thoughtful and fair. This will make you not only a better wordsmith but also a more considerate human being.

4. It can improve your attention to detail

With improved knowledge and critical thinking skills, you will also begin to increase your attention to detail. Writers often describe a variety of details and ideas, giving key evidence for their arguments or making the scenes they are depicting come alive for their readers. By using each word carefully and with a purpose, good writers capture their audience’s attention and create new worlds or express unique ways of thinking. As a reader, you will develop an awareness of how words and phrases impact your mind or pull at your heartstrings; you will be better able to identify the little details that writers use to communicate the most important information or create the most profound emotional connections. With more attention to detail in your reading, you will become more skilled at including crucial details in your own writing, finding exactly the right words or pieces of information to reach the people who will read your work.

5.  It can inspire you

Reading not only can show you the best writing techniques, help you learn about the world, enhance your critical thinking, or improve your attention to detail, it can also motivate you to be better and inspire you to find what you are passionate about. By reading widely and deeply, we can find all sorts of ideas that will open our minds and expand our universe. We can also begin to see what is meaningful to us, gaining a deeper awareness of ourselves. With this awareness, we can better recognize why we want to write, and what we hope to achieve. When we read excellent writing, we may feel compelled to capture the things it has made us feel and put that same energy or emotion into our own work, impacting others in the way that the best writers influence us.

Conclusion

Writing and reading have a symbiotic relationship; they go hand in hand and couldn’t exist without each other. By reading more, you can improve your written work, learning from the best authors to expand your mind, think critically, focus on key details, and gain the inspiration you need to become the kind of writer you always dreamed of being.

At iPlume Writing Inc., we combine years of experience as writers and readers to provide you with the best in writing and editing services. Our ability to effectively research a variety of subjects, capture the most crucial details, and communicate ideas in the most compelling and inspiring way possible enables us to offer premier written work to our clients at affordable prices. Contact iPlume Writing today to learn more about how we can help you!