Writing skills are essential for college students who are working for their degrees and actively job searching. Writing shows up in our daily lives, whether it is texting, completing papers for school, or maybe drafting an email to a professor or employer. While there are many ways to improve your writing, I believe reading to be one of the most effective ways. Â
As a freshman college student who is interested in implementing writing into their future career, I would say that reading has been the #1 thing that has helped me improve my writing skills. Here is why I believe reading is beneficial for students who would like to improve their writing skills.Â
Numerous Forms of WritingÂ
There are numerous styles of writing, including but not limited to poems, journalism, short stories, books, and academic papers. Reading is an amazing way to introduce yourself to different styles of writing, and how they are formed to get the most out of their intended audience. From persuasive writing pieces, you can learn psychological tactics and words that authors use to influence their audiences. For storytelling, you can examine different aspects of the author’s ability to keep a story interesting for their audience. Â
There is so much to explore when getting into different genres/styles of writing. For one, it is beneficial to have knowledge of different writing forms. Also, reading different styles may help one find out how or what they want to write, and how they want to convey their stories through words. Â
VocabularyÂ
 Reading is an amazing opportunity to expand your vocabulary. For me personally, I can admit that I have a limited vocabulary. However, I’ve learned a lot of new words from reading. One major part of writing is having a wide-spread vocabulary to utilize instead of repeating the same adjectives or verbs — especially if you want to impress your professors with academic papers!Â
Inspiration
For most individuals, they want to practice a skill because they are inspired by others who are profound in that area. Inspiration is the key to motivation and propels people to reach their goals. For example, someone who is new to going to the gym might be inspired by gym content creators, or a friend that has been going to the gym for a while. When someone is trying to change the style of their apartment or clothes, they go on Pinterest and create boards. Â
In a similar way, reading can inspire others to become better writers. Some may read purely for entertainment, while others may look at writing pieces and feel inspired to write their own. This also goes hand-in-hand with the specific styles of writing; different kinds of writing could inspire a writer to modify their writing format, content, or their intended audience.Â
I personally got into writing when I started writing research papers for school. I soon realized that this was something I enjoyed doing, and my teachers saw writing as one of my main strengths. One thing I love about research is that you can examine other’s thoughts on the topic you would like to be more educated on. Each author varies in their speech, thesis, and the way they express their knowledge. Research was the seed that inspired me to grow my writing skills.Â
Ultimately, there are so many tactics to use when it comes to growing as a writer. I believe that the art of writing has endless opportunities. Writing can be used to inform, persuade, entertain, or emotionally connect with an audience. With limitless capabilities of writing comes countless ways to obtain writing skills. However, I believe every writer is bound to take away a few memorable lessons to improve their writing through reading.Â