Let's Get the Writing Started Right! I had to work on mine for years

Many people express that they have problems with writing formally and informally. It is evident in the poorly written business correspondence, the ureadable emails and text messages and the poorly written homework assignments.

If you want to be a good writer, you need to read more and write more. That's why teachers encouraged us to keep diaries and journals so that we can write more often. Now we have the blog concept which is the same thing except we are typing instead of hand-writing. It does not matter once ideas are logged somewhere. Try to proofread your own work to minimize errors and if available, ask someone to assist.

I had to work hard on my writing skills over the years. I was OK in school and passed English with a B and received a General II grade for English and Literature. I think that I could form individual sentences correctly but struggled to write essays and short stories.

I head to the then BVI Community College (now HLSCC) and passed the Effective Business Writing Class but still was not confident with my English skills. I still felt that I was 'up-to-par' and could express myself. It was when I accepted to UVI that I realized that I need helped. I passed the entrance exam for both Math and English but failed the essay portion.

This was quite a blow to me and I ended up having to take a Skills class. In that class, the other students would say 'Why are you in this class?' because I seemed to get everything right. It was then that I realized that I really need to work hard to improve my writing skills - not just the barebones grammar but the finese and expression. I needed to understand how to put the well-written sentences together to create an interesting, concise yet detailed work.

I kept at it and was able to progress in my English and other classes. In the journey, I was encouraged to write poetry and today I have over 200 poems. I think that I have been blessed to find professors and other students who showed interest in my growth and who encouraged me to pursue things that I did not believe I could attain.

It is heart-warming for me to share today that I have expanded my writing resume to publishing every once in a while locally and I have written for CORE Magazine, Brown Eyez Magazine, DISH magazine and now Suite101.com. I love the challenge in it and I love sharing information that I think is useful to others.

My blog, Words of Ribbon, was left alone for a while but I must return more regularly to share some thoughts or some poetry. Afterall, my greatest philosophy is that parable about the servants in the bible. I honestly feel that it was their LITERAL talents that they were hiding and the master took them away when they did not use the talents.

Therefore, don't bury your talents. Use them for the good of mankind.

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