You can damage your English by writing in English
Do you want to improve your writing skills? Do you believe that you should write more in English? We are going to explain how writing in English can damage your English. Yes, writing can reinforce your mistakes. You can damage your English by writing in English!
If you don't make many mistakes in writing, then you can write in English and it cannot damage your English. It can only help.
But if you make many mistakes in writing, then every time you write, you reinforce your mistakes. As you write, you repeat your mistakes constantly and your incorrect habits become stronger.
Now do you see our point? You write — you make mistakes — those mistakes become your habit, they become your way of writing in English. The more you write, the worse your English becomes.
This is a paradox. You need practice to learn English. And when you practice, you reinforce your mistakes.
Michal suggests a simple solution to this paradox: Never make mistakes! Here is what he says:
It is close to the truth that I have never written an incorrect English sentence.
I knew many grammatical structures and I used only those that I knew. My sentences were similar to sentences which I knew to be correct. I followed good examples, so all my sentences were good.
In the beginning, I could write only very simple sentences, but all the simple sentences were correct. Then as I advanced, I added more and more complicated structures, and again all my sentences were correct.
Because of this approach, I was never reinforcing bad habits. I never had any bad habits! From the beginning, I copied only correct sentences. With every sentence that I wrote, I reinforced my good habits.
We would like to hear your opinions and questions about this.