The importance of reading in improving written expression skills

Reading is not limited to a certain age or even a certain category, so it should be taught to children from an early age, as parents and those responsible for child care should pay great attention to their children and encourage them to read and motivate them to make it a useful habit, because reading has great benefits in developing their mental skills, improving their intelligence quotients, and giving them experiences and knowledge. Reading is also a good way to fill free time, and a wonderful way for enlightened thinking, as reading is the light of the mind that illuminates paths in the brain that were almost dark due to lack of knowledge. Reading also plays a prominent role in developing and improving written expression skills, and acquiring creative writing skills. If you are not a skilled reader, you can never be a professional writer.

The importance of reading in general:

The importance of reading is evident in the great benefits that the reader obtains. When the reader browses through books, he reaps many benefits and delves into all knowledge and experiences without needing to go to educational centers, as the reader reaps the essence of the knowledge and information that the author has reached, and quenches his thirst from the journey that the writer has gone through. Reading is considered one of the most prominent factors that stimulate the mind and enlighten the mind. It is the sport that preserves the health of the mind, protects it from weak memory, and even stimulates the skills and abilities of the mind. Reading also helps relieve stress and depression; as reading is one of the most prominent entertaining hobbies that a person can practice, as it relieves him of the pressures of life. When a person reads, he merges into a world full of pleasure and imagination, which in turn gives the mind comfort and tranquility.

Reading also helps relieve insomnia and stress before bedtime; reading for ten minutes a day in soft light helps you sleep deeply. Reading also provides learning opportunities that are less expensive than enrolling in courses and educational centers. Not only that, but reading is one of the best ways to increase your vocabulary, as the reader acquires a lot of vocabulary, which in turn raises his self-esteem and gives him good opportunities, whether on the social, personal or professional level. This is about the importance of reading in general, but if you want to know how you can motivate your children to read to improve their writing skills , follow the next title.

How can we motivate children to read in order to improve their writing skills?

You can motivate your children to read in several ways, namely:

• Enhance their reading skills by taking them to libraries to buy useful books and choose them with their full desire and freedom.
• Make sure to always surround children with useful books, by always having books close to them and within their reach, to encourage them to read.
• Read stories to your children every day, and make sure they choose the stories themselves.
• Provide an organized library at home with many books in all fields.

Dear father, if you are keen on these methods and encourage your children to read and make it a life skill, their lives will change for the better. You will even find in them what pleases you, and you will make them cultured people and professional writers, and you will enhance their creative writing skills. But what is creative writing?

Concept of the term creative writing:

Creative writing is the writing that expresses emotions, feelings and human experiences of all kinds. This type of writing includes writing stories, novels, songs, poems, prose texts and others. In this type of writing, the author or writer relies on talent and creativity to convey his ideas and feelings to the reader in a distinctive and interesting style. Perhaps the main goal of creative writing is entertainment or sharing feelings such as love and so on. This is about the concept of creative writing, but what about creative writing skills and written expression skills ? Are they innate or acquired skills? You will find the answer below.

The most important skills of written expression and creative writing:

Some written expression and creative writing skills are innate and are given to a person by nature, such as talent and creativity, for example. Others are acquired skills that come from learning, constant reading, and continuous training. The following are the most important written expression and creative writing skills that a writer must possess in order to produce interesting creative writings that attract readers:

• Talent: Talent is an innate trait that a person is born with. A person is born with creative abilities, but the lack of talent does not mean the inability to write distinctively. With training, practice, and learning, along with the availability of other writing expression skills , the writer will appear as if he was born talented.

• Broad imagination: Broad imagination is one of the most prominent skills of creative writing. Imagination provides the writer with opportunities for creativity and innovation of unique ideas. For example, you find the writer with a broad imagination creative in writing novels and stories, and he creates interesting endings for the story that the reader could not have imagined.
• Perseverance: Perseverance, determination, insistence on reaching the goal, and the effort and urgent desire to reach an advanced level are among the most important skills that distinguish a creative writer.

• Mastery: The most important thing that distinguishes any work in general is mastery, and therefore the creative writer is the one who is keen to master his writing and produce it in the best possible way, free of any errors.
• Narrative skill: Narrative skill refers to the writer’s ability to organize his thoughts and arrange his sentences in order to convey his ideas, experiences, and emotions to the reader in the best possible way. This skill is widely used in plays, novels, stories, and other creative writings .
• Research skill: This is the skill that is related to the writer’s ability to quickly search reliable sources such as books, websites, and magazines, in order to access the correct information necessary for his writings, in the sources.
• Proofreading and editing skills: This is the writer’s ability to edit and review texts, and ensure that they are free of any grammatical, linguistic, or spelling errors, so that they reach readers in the best possible way.
• Time management: This is a skill related to the writer’s ability to organize his time to complete the texts and writings required of him with the best possible quality and without delay, by allocating, for example, an hour to research information and brainstorming, two hours to write texts, and an hour to review, proofread, and edit.

Can writing and creative writing skills be improved?

Yes, of course, as the writer’s creative writing skills can be improved in many ways, the most important of which are the following:

• Keep writing, as the more a person continues to write, the more his writing and creative writing skills will increase.
• Be keen on reading and constantly reviewing texts and creative writings, as you cannot be a creative writer unless you are a skilled reader.
• Emulate the style of skilled authors, and over time you will develop a unique and well-crafted style.
• Taking the opinion of other creative authors on the texts and writings that have been completed, to know the strengths and weaknesses of those texts, and then work on strengthening the strengths and improving the weaknesses.
• Be keen to learn and practice new creative writing techniques and technologies.

The role of reading in developing culture and improving written expression skills

Throughout the ages, reading has been and still is the main means of developing culture and spreading knowledge. Not only that, the role of reading is not limited to merely spreading science and knowledge, developing culture and spreading paths of awareness, but the benefits of reading extend to include professional life and the academic field, including improving writing expression skills . In fact, reading is one of the most important factors influencing writing. When reading various books and articles, the reader acquires new and innovative methods and ideas for writing. These ideas acquired from reading can be used by the reader to provide good content and creative writing. Thus, the reader learns how to improve his writing by organizing and arranging his ideas and following good writing methods.

For example, when you, dear reader, read a book or an article, your mind and intellect focus on the writing style of that article or book, and the ways of using words and phrases, and this in turn helps you acquire new and different writing styles, in addition to acquiring diverse experiences and knowledge that you can integrate into your own writing, thus this helps you greatly to improve your writing expression and creative writing skills .

In addition to the above, reading contributes greatly to improving the reader's vocabulary and providing him with a linguistic stock. By reading articles and books and their meanings of new words, the reader can build new vocabulary and use it accurately and skillfully in his writings. This is in addition to the role of reading in improving the reader's spelling and grammar rules. Not only that, but reading contributes to developing and enhancing the reader's feelings. When you read, you are exposed to different and varied types of ideas, techniques and methods that you can add to your writings. Reading also helps you formulate sentences and phrases, and how to use punctuation marks accurately, in addition to the ease of expressing your ideas. All of this will help you communicate well with others. Therefore, if you are a writer and want to improve your writing and creative writing skills , you should read and study continuously.

How can a content writer benefit from reading?

Reading different texts from books, articles and magazines helps improve the content writer’s writing skills. Here are the most important benefits that the content writer gains from reading:

• Increase vocabulary and develop its use in various writings.
• Improve spelling and grammar.
• Developing concentration, thinking and attention skills .
• Acquire new and innovative writing styles and techniques.
• Improve the skill of expressing ideas accurately, easily and smoothly.
• Gaining knowledge and experience and learning about different points of view, which leads to the production of rich and knowledgeable texts and writings.
• Getting rid of creative fatigue, as reading can restore the content writer’s desire to write and get rid of the monotony and boredom of writing.
• Expand your horizons and see the world from more than one perspective.
• Getting rid of writing obstacles and difficulties. When a content writer faces difficulty in finding new ideas, reading the writings of others can provide him with new ideas.

Now, do you think that reading has types? Yes, of course, reading has different styles, and you will find them below.

Different styles of reading:

There are seven different types of reading, and the type of reading varies according to its purpose, and they are as follows:

• Survey reading : This type of reading is based mainly on quickly browsing the book’s content to determine whether you want to read it or not.
• Scanning reading: This is one of the best methods you can use before examining the contents of the book, or to take a quick look at the contents of the book. This method includes reading the main and sub-headings, reading the book’s index, introduction, conclusion, and prominent information in each paragraph.

• Interactive reading: This is a reading method that makes you interact with the content of the book with your full awareness, so that you begin to immerse yourself in it and read everything that your eyes fall upon. This type of reading improves the reader’s written expression skills , because he acquires new writing styles and ideas, and also learns spelling and grammatical rules, and his linguistic vocabulary increases.

• Detailed reading: This can be called reading between the lines, as it is a careful reading of all the sentences, phrases, and ideas in the book. It is one of the best types of reading for learning and acquiring knowledge and information.

• Speed ​​reading: It is one of the most productive types of reading, as you gain information quickly without affecting your understanding of the main ideas. You can practice this type of reading, as it is useful and time-saving.
• Anticipatory reading: In this type of reading, you anticipate and recall everything you know about the book’s content and information before you even start reading it. Once you reach complex and new information, it will become easy to retain it in your brain, because your brain will consider it unique and new information.
• Reading aloud : This name is given to reading out loud. This style is preferred by many readers, but it takes more time than silent reading.

Now, is there a difference between academic writing skills and creative writing skills?

We previously discussed the concept of creative writing, so what is the concept of academic writing? Academic writing is known as a style of writing, but this type of writing has its own words, tools, and linguistic format. It is also used by students, researchers, and specialists to write scientific research, reports, scientific articles, summaries, theses, and so on. There is no doubt that academic writing skills greatly require improving written expression skills . To learn more about the characteristics and skills of academic writing, follow the following:

Academic writing skills:

• Text organization skills : This skill is related to formulating clear and accurate titles that express the content, dividing the content into an introduction, body, and conclusion, then dividing the content into balanced, coherent paragraphs, each of which expresses a new idea.

• Time management skill: Here you can set a schedule to manage your time, this schedule may be weekly or monthly, so that this schedule is consistent with the academic writings you want to write, but make sure that this schedule takes into account your activities, personal life and professional tasks, such as time spent with family or friends, or recreation, and always make sure to set priorities to preserve your time.

How does Madrasa.com support reading and improve writing skills?

Madrasa.com pays great attention to improving the reading and writing skills of its students. Madrasa.com provides many means and methods such as courses, educational curricula and various exercises. Let's not forget that Madrasa.com is clearly interested in improving creative writing skills and academic writing skills as well. The following are those methods in detail:

• Educational courses : Almadrasah.com provides its students with various educational courses that suit their educational level at all educational stages, in order to enhance their reading and creative writing skills. The educational courses include critical thinking, text analysis, and extracting meanings.

• Diverse educational curricula: Al-Madrasa.com offers comprehensive educational curricula that cover all reading and creative writing skills. In them, reading concepts and creative writing methods are presented in a simplified manner to ensure that students understand and apply them correctly.
• Exercises and applications: Madrasa.com provides various applications and activities to improve students’ ability to read , organize and connect ideas, and comprehend different texts.
• Integrated system for evaluating student performance : Almadrasah.com also provides different systems for evaluating student performance.
• Providing educational resources and various educational tools: Al-Madrasa.com provides a variety of educational tools designed to help students develop reading and writing skills. Students can access them at any time and easily. These educational resources include articles, exercises, and educational files.

In conclusion, reading and writing are two of the most important skills and activities that are a fundamental factor in developing culture and spreading thought. Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin, as there is a strong connection between reading and written expression. Reading and creative writing constitute an endless cycle of creativity and innovation. Therefore, if you are a professional writer, do not stop reading, and if you are a skilled and enthusiastic reader, never stop writing, as the mutual relationship between reading and creative writing is the key to creativity and inspiration.