Improving English Expression?

[Quantum44]

"Read the newspaper" and "ready classic fiction" gets a lot of traction when questions like this rock up but honestly, who the fudge can be bothered to get through Dickens, Austen etc. in the middle of year 12?

My advice - read some shitty fiction that's "beneath" you. Books intended for 15 year olds are great because you can read then after school without it draining your energy but it's infinitely better than nothing.

If a big writing project cropped up for me through uni or through work at ATAR Notes and I was struggling, I'd always smash out some shitty fiction books (I am Number Four series worked a treat) just to get the reading and writing juices flowing a little bit without having to slog through anything heavy. It's "low-hanging fruit" if you will - something that ANY Year 12 can do. Realistically, is anyone reading this thread planning on picking up a Jane Austen novel before their English SAC? Probably nah. But spend 12 bucks at your local Collins bookstore on some super popular fiction intended for young adolescents. Chances are, the expression is still better than yours (and mine) 

Just avoid Dan Brown at all costs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/

[armtistic]

"Read the newspaper" and "ready classic fiction" gets a lot of traction when questions like this rock up but honestly, who the fudge can be bothered to get through Dickens, Austen etc. in the middle of year 12?

My advice - read some shitty fiction that's "beneath" you. Books intended for 15 year olds are great because you can read then after school without it draining your energy but it's infinitely better than nothing.

If a big writing project cropped up for me through uni or through work at ATAR Notes and I was struggling, I'd always smash out some shitty fiction books (I am Number Four series worked a treat) just to get the reading and writing juices flowing a little bit without having to slog through anything heavy. It's "low-hanging fruit" if you will - something that ANY Year 12 can do. Realistically, is anyone reading this thread planning on picking up a Jane Austen novel before their English SAC? Probably nah. But spend 12 bucks at your local Collins bookstore on some super popular fiction intended for young adolescents. Chances are, the expression is still better than yours (and mine) 

Agreed, I hate slogging through slow, verbose books like the classics. Although I don't read them now it was basically a lot of enjoyable fiction that helped with my expression and even vocabulary, a lot of words I know now are simply from reading e-books which have that handy define feature and etc.