Do you have a formal education in writing?

I don't have any formal education in writing either. When I first went to university after high school, I studied for a BA degree with a major in English. While I don't remember much of it now (it seems like a lifetime ago) it was very useful at the time. I think just the exposure to other thoughts and constantly being made to write is the biggest benefit to taking courses. I don't think it matters so much as to what the course is in just learning and expanding will help your writing. Of course special writing courses would help you develop much faster but you have a great writing style so be careful about changing to suit someone else too much. The trick is in finding your niche. Once you find that the words will flow like a river down the mountain

Hello, Sillychick. I have a masters degree but not in writing or English. However, I have had to take a few writing courses. I do think, at the very least, English Composition is a good one, that may be the college course you already took. I have found that in all of my writing, whether it was term papers or theses for classes or articles for the web, a good solid knowledge base to fall back on comes in very handy. Plus, if you like writing stories, Creative Writing might help you. Good luck with your writing. Pearl Grace

I believe it is good to have the right professional skillset to be a good and effective writer. It will definetely help in the editing. I do not have any formal education in writing. But through reading lots of books of all subjects, I am able to improve my writing.

I do not have a formal education in writing and I never went to university or college and not only that, but the last two years of high school I switched from the academic to the general program because my father took all the money my mother had saved for our education and I had to get a job as quick as possible after I finished high school. So I joined the Writers Digest book club and bought as many books on writing, a dictionary, and a thesurus, and used those means to compensate for my lack of writing education, and not only that, wrote small stories until I got better.

No, I've taken a few extension courses at the community college, but I've never had any formal training. Of course, they had few classes of that sort when I was in college (mumbly-mumble) years ago. I tell people, the way to learn to write is to WRITE. You don't have to have formal training to be a writer, heck, these days you barely have to be able to SPELL to be a writer. The computer will help you with that. If, after you have something written, and you want some help, or you decide you want to try some different techniques, then a course would be helpful, but an informal writers group would probably be just as helpful.

No I haven't taken any class in writing and indeed I must admit that I am wondering the same thing as you. I would love to take some courses if they would help me write, but I am not sure if I should practice myself in the writing sites more or if I should spend the time to go to school and stuff. But for now, I think I will be practicing first, and maybe when I have saved up enough money, I might take a journalism or creative writing course depending on my interest.

I dont have any formal training or education in writing and to be perfectly honest with you I really have no desire to get any...I like the way I write when I'm doing creative writing and I'd be concerned that taking a class would actually hold me back or get in the way...

I think you can learn without taking courses. Sign up for newsletters from good writing websites like Writer's Digest. I have a subscription to Writer's Journal. I find reading articles and books on writing have helped me immensely. So has meeting one-on-one for personal critique with published authors. I do not have any formal training aside from the one year of creative writing I took in high school. I am not about to take a course now. I am involved in a writing group which meets every two weeks and I think we learn a lot from each. The more you write, the more you learn. I have written two novels. My first novel is sitting on a shelf waiting for a major overhaul because I have learned so much since I wrote that book. My second novel (hopefully polished and ready to go) is much better. I am very pleased with it. And I have a couple of ideas for more novels. There are websites and writing message boards that will be helpful as well. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get educated on the ins and outs of writing. Good luck!

I don't have any formal training in writing. I've always enjoyed writing, from the time that my parents encouraged me to write stuff, like diary entries, stories and whatnot. Then in high school and college, I continued to write well, turning in papers that earned excellent grades. As far as classes go, you might consider taking a class in screenwriting, novel writing, nonfiction writing, or technical writing. You can even take online writing courses with Writer's Digest. But for the most part, consider taking coursework that is directly related to things that you love to do and would like to improve your expertise in. You'll get plenty of writing practice and a lot of great material for stuff you'll want to write later on.