What a question! Last week someone came to see me, “Patrick, my writing is terrible,” he said to me, “what can I do?” Unfortunately he had not brought any work with him. I sent him away and asked him to write something and bring it to me. Then we would have something to work with. But he hasn’t come back yet. I suspect that he still hasn’t written anything which I think illustrates the problem – people who aren’t very good at writing don’t do it very much! The first step in improving your writing is to write! Set aside a few minutes a day to write and write! Keep a diary in English. Send a postcard. I’ve got an idea – write a message on the new message board at English for University! If you can start to write regularly you might begin to lose some of your inhibitions and fears of writing. You need to do some casual writing when you are relaxed and not worried too much about making mistakes, which is why the message board is a good idea. One purpose of the message board is to get you using your language so that you build up your confidence with your English. Overseas students are too quiet! The danger of being quiet is that your lecturers think you aren’t interested or you don’t understand. But you want to say something, but you are too nervous! OK, so get over to the message board and register. It only takes a moment to register. Post a message, ask a question, answer a question, come back the next day and pick up another thread. As you start to interact your confidence will grow and you’ll be happier using English away from the message board in college.