So in benignant gesture, here are some of the tips I found useful-

#Tips

Lets divide it into three part-a. grammar b. vocabulary c. reading

a. Grammar– this is the easiest part for those who have had a solid foundation and toughest for those who care not but for language styling. These people find themselves too much embroiled into the slangs, catch phrases, colloquial English while expressing themselves; it is a curse & boon of the social network & active netizens-ship. Here’s a book –Murphy’s English grammar by Raymond Murphy- Cambridge publication. It’s very useful plus it has a foolproof technique to step by step eradicate your habitual errors. Further I read that most writers-

1.Make errors in using past continuous tense, usage of would, could & present perfect tense.

2. The usage of articles esp. ‘the’ and their prepositions just kill the sentences.

3. Their structuring is too lengthy & loses comprehension –so work on informative & extra-informative clauses.

4.Over usage of double-past & reluctance to use simple past makes sentences complicated.

5.Use of regular and irregular verb forms – e.g. lay/lie ,hung/hanged

6. confusion of using –who/whom , i/me ,she/her ,prophecy(prediction)/prophesy (predict)

7.The book has a specific exercise at the back that determines the areas you need to work on, so all your problems can be taken care of by one book.Apart from that, follow the above points and be conscious about their difference & try to research further on the internet about it.

Vocabulary–

Vocabulary can only increase by extensive reading, once you engage your reading time into books of different genres, kinds, fields. you may notice that College level students have great vocabulary, it’s Because they are constantly challenged to dwell into unfamiliar topics & fields and increase their reading span and knowledge of different terminologies. So read all kinds of books, of all kinds of fields. you will definitely find interest in a few more subjects than you anticipate right now. The tips for vocab. Building-

1.Buy any good vocab builder that is based on etymology.

2.Always give importance to the form of word- i.e. noun,verb, adjective,adverb & try to look for a sentence of its usage.

3.The step by step process for learning new words-

The most common but wrong way–

People sit with thumb-nailing dictionaries & as soon as a word pops up into reading ,they are on their toes to look for its meaning. However, such ways can never build vocabulary as you are bound to forget the word & its familiarity. It is temporary & an inferior method, even though so many people do it.

The right way–

a.When you encounter a word, think of its meaning for few seconds, find all possible word roots or things it can mean. Then move on with your article.

b.When you meet this word again somewhere, you are more conscious to its presence & you are more aware of it.

c.It now has a stronger impact on you & it becomes clearer in a variety of context.

d.Eventually, new words would become old friends.

Reading tips–

1. Always read with a sense of urgency, i.e. your main aim is to get into the passage, get the main idea & central theme-get out.

2. Reading slow is a habit not a maladroit, so it can be changed with practice. try this book – “how to read better & faster by Norman Lewis”. It is excellent for the cause.

3. You should try to evaluate, how the writer has structured the article i.e. which para’s are theme based, which are simply Variations, which are used for points & elaboration. If you can figure this out,It will boost your reading speed.

4.You should always challenge your comprehension by pushing your reading speed, it spurs alertness which leads to interest and hence a fast paced & concentrated reading.

5.Always remember that reading phrase by phrase & looking for ideas is more important than crawling around word by word for details, because the ideas & effect will eventually turn out together in the end & it will become clearer.

6.Always try to have a time constraint in your reading. Give yourself a stretch of two hours and do concentrated reading. If you’re giving time to your reading before going to bed, you are simply dabbling around. It’s important to set a good time for doing it like an activity.

7.A good reader will always have tools for reading, like an efficient artist with different brushes & pencils, he will gear up at peripheral & sub-ordinate para’s but gear down at central ideas &themes based para’s.bad readers just read everything with a same dumb pace & tone. They try to over-emphasize on word-relations that on an ironical note, leads to bad comprehension.

8.Remember, good comprehension of a piece of writing is not based on the keenness of your memory but on the clarity of your understanding.

9.Challenge yourself to read material on fields you haven’t explored before, it will make you a better reader. People who keep exploring their limits & fields are the ones that turn out to be most efficient in the end. You should break the habit of reading average fiction & choose the good stuff- non-fiction material, editorials of newspaper, good magazines e.g. harpers ,Esquire, the new Yorker, news-week, time, today etc.

10.If understanding of a piece of article is the vivid scene of a forests and the words & phrases are its trees. It is rightly said for a poor reader.

“they can’t see the forest because of the thickness of the trees”- them bad readers.

11.However, it is a habit & habits can be changed with applying yourself like a student & a will to improve. After all, you DO want to see the forest, it is actually beautiful!

being a reader

godspeed.
vishu mishra