# Does reading a lot of books help improve writing skills?



## karma police (Nov 13, 2003)

Common sense would say yes. But I would just like to ask anyone here what there opinion on the matter is. I really want to develop my writing skills, as well as improve my reading comprehension. I think by reading more books, I can do both at the same time. But I'm not sure. Anyone here think they're better then average writers? If so, how do you think you became such a good writer?


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## Kardax (Dec 29, 2004)

Stephen King once said that for every 4 hours of writing, one should spend 4 hours reading 

In my own experience, reading a lot does help in subtle ways.

-Ryan


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

Well, I'm not good at writing but...

I think reading a lot is a good idea. I really don't read much. Read as much as you can without it being a chore. It's ok to read whatever you want, but you might want to ask yr english teacher for some recommendations of good literature too.


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## Christian (Oct 5, 2006)

YES. I can speak on my own experience and say that by reading a lot you WILL find yourself writing a lot better. After reading, you will write sentences the way that you've seen them written down before. They'll all flow together.


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## Johnny1234 (Nov 16, 2006)

Yes, reading a lot helps. Heres my story: I am a junior in high school, and I enrolled in an AP US History class, which is bascially a writing class. I wasnt that good at writing upon entering the class, but from all the advanced text that we had to read, plus the textbook, I have learned to write so much better, at a college level. My AP Psychology class probablly helped a lot as well, and since then Ive found myself reading more for fun, which increased my writing skills even more.


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## Gerard (Feb 3, 2004)

i think it does....


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## emptybottle (Jan 3, 2005)

My teachers say that all the time, and it should be true. I'm a big reader; I read like 55 books a year, and I even began a subscription to The New Yorker way back when I was 16 because I thought it reading it regularly could help me be a good writer.... But I really really suck at writing essays. I haven't seen much improvement in my writing style since I was a high school sophomore. I have just as much difficulty expressing myself in words as I did back then, and in many of my papers for school now, my thoughts come off very disorganized and read like just the worst stream-of-consciousness drivel.


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## TheTrickster (Nov 27, 2005)

I think it does.

And just a tip, if you havent had any good English classes (ive learned virtually nil about grammar) just take a foreign language class. Ive learned so much about grammar through my German class then in any of my english classes.


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

I have to break ranks and say nope it hasn't seemed to help me. I read like a maniac.. sometimes going through 4 books a week. Always have been an avid reader since I learned how to read. I can't write worth ****.. down to grammer and spelling. Can't come up with the words to express what I want to write.


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## karma police (Nov 13, 2003)

Thanks for all the responses. I really appreciate it. I am going to try to make reading a new hobby/addiction. Reading seems like one of the few productive activities where being an addict is not detrimental to ones psyche.


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## Strength (Aug 12, 2006)

Yes it helps. Especially if you are a type of person who is a "thinker" because you will subconsciously remember the style that something was written in and it will build your writing skills.


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## cakesniffer (Nov 11, 2003)

I've heard that before. And I think it's true. My writing was pretty average, and maybe even below average, in high school and my first two years of college. But after I started reading daily in late 2001 and became an English major in 2003, my writing began to improve. By the end of college, I was getting a lot of great comments on my papers.

But that doesn't mean you can sit down and write a good paper in an hour, for me at least. Outlines, drafts, rewrites are all part of the process. And it's frustrating most of the time.


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## ghostgurl (Sep 20, 2004)

I love to read a lot, but I suck at writing. Especially if it's something I'm not interested in the first place.


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## shelovescliche (Dec 17, 2006)

Yes, it does. I read A LOT, and I have one of the highest vocabularies in my class. Though I've been an avid reader since second grade, so I'm not really sure how long it took to get like this.


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## VeronicaM (Dec 4, 2005)

What sort of books do you recommend reading in order to improve one's writing?


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## killuminati87 (Oct 2, 2012)

Two tips:

1. Read what you love. Don't give a h00t about trying to get all deep and pick up Faulkner for the sake of Faulkner, for example. Most halfway decent writers allow you, within certain bounds, to come up with your own meaning, and dig as deep as you want to. Even J.K. Rowling's writings allow one to do this. Coming up with your own interpretation within the bounds a writer has set is, IMO, one of the most critical skills there is to reading; and if you read what you love, you should be doing this naturally as you progress because you're just so freakin' excited to be on this roller coaster ride that is a book and you want to find out everything there is to this piece of fiction (or non-fiction if that's your style). 

2. Write about what you love! Again, don't give a h00t about being a genius and striking some profound point, that's a silly way to go about things. Just find a nice little forum where you can share what you think and pound the keyboard away. After a while, you'll find yourself writing excellent, well written, well laid out analyses, and making profound points to boot without ever having willed it.

The overall point being, love what you do, and practice what you love, and in due time, you'll be a lean, mean, read and writing machine.


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## forex (Dec 29, 2010)

by reading , your vocabulary becomes better and that can result in better sentences.
by reading , you can express yourself much better and if you can express things betters 
its the same as writing the expression , so for your question i say YES.


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## anosh88 (Feb 26, 2013)

Without a doubt. Before I started reading avidly, I couldn't write a single legible expression to save my life. Now, I can find my mind flowing with ideas. The only problem is that I just need to learn to organize my ideas even more. But overall, I would say, yes, reading helps your writing, comprehension, and analytical skills.


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## GetOutOfMyHouse (Jan 9, 2012)

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