Ways to brush up on your grammar

Studying in school is not enough when it comes to learning grammar and language for that matter. After all, those technical terms on verbs, nouns, pronouns and conjunctions can be pretty confusing when you take them all in. Not to mention all those rules on verbs. When do you exactly put an S and an ES. When do you use the words HAVE or HAD. Why would you use the PAST and not the PAST PARTICIPLE. Honestly, the rules can give you a headache. 

But there are other ways to learn the language without really going through all the rules. Like language, you need to use it in order to learn it. The same with grammar, you have got to use it. This means constant exposure on the language. You need to live, breathe and work with the language in order to master it. For though you will not necessarily memorize anything while reading or speaking, your mind will remember the structure and thus, books will be purely instinctual. And unlike learning a language for the first time, you already have the basic foundation and thus, you can already easily grasp the rules.

Here are some of the easy ways that you can brush up on your grammar. 

1. Read. 
This is the most basic thing that you can do to brush up on your grammar. Reading allows you to expose yourself to the language in a leisurely way. Thus, you can relax while you are learning. Although reading a book will not really give you a technical lesson on grammar, constantly reading will allow you to discover the various ways that words can be weaved and used. You will also be exposed to the various word forms and sentence forms. As an added bonus, you will also be able to learn a few more words that you can add to your vocabulary, something which you need to be able to write effectively. 

2. Write
Practice makes perfect. As clichéd as it sounds, it is true that when you constantly do something, you hone your craft. Writing and grammar can be developed with constant doing and revising.  Do not be afraid to write because your grammar is not perfect. Even the best editors in the world also commit mistakes when they were young and like you, they worked on their grammar by constant practice. 

3. Consult 
Criticism is not a bad thing. In fact, when taken the right way, criticism can help you brush up on your grammar. If you want to learn, ask people that you respect in terms of grammar to read your work and give their advice on them. Make sure that they explain why they have said such criticisms and learn from their words. By constantly having your work critiqued, you will learn your usual mistakes and be able to correct them in the long run. Even the best editors in the country also edit their own work and have people also edit their own work. 
Grammar should not be something that we should be afraid of. With constant practice and effort, one can also learn how to write well and write the right way. One just needs to have the commitment and the drive for excellence.
