This piece is aimed at communicating those mistakes to the aspirants which they commit while improving their writing skills. Since it is one of those subjects about which I am so sensitive to discuss and guide, I am not going to mince words ergo.

Pertaining to the improvement of writing skills, one of the major mistakes which aspirants commit nowadays is to pay more heed to the usage of archaic, old fashioned and obsolete words otherwise known as ‘recherché’. They think that they can befool the examiner through employing such expensive words.

While doing so, they neglect the “expression” which can be considered the core element of writing good prose. Without a shadow of doubt, when aspirants become too cautious of using difficult vocabulary and less careful about clarifying their point of view, the whole piece of writing may go unnoticed.

Just understand one thing: Verbosity is not English. Nobody gets impressed by the usage of vocabulary from GRE word list if you are not “using proper word at the proper place”. You are highly mistaken if you ever thought in this way. Anyone can employ antiquated words and phrases but it takes to be an excellent writer to use the words and idioms in the relevant context.

I cannot say anything for others but to be quite honest, whenever I see a person writing obsolete words merely to impress others, s/he appears to be a joker to me. I mean who are you really kidding? You can certainly befool or impress an ordinary person by these archaic terms/phrases but a writer or a voracious reader will always mock such pieces of writing and laugh over you.

I am not advising you to write simple plain English like students of 8th grades do so. Just make sure that you clarify your point of view in short sentences and employing easy synonyms of common place words and terms.
Moreover, one word substitutions and idioms can definitely take your writing to a whole another level. Ditch thesaurus and open your mind.

Those folks or aspirants who cannot find a teacher to check their work or who cannot afford it begin to write blindly. You will find no coherence in their ideas, lack of expression, irrelevant usage of vocabulary, misspelled words and even mistakes of grammar. They care a fig about ameliorating their writing skills and pay more attention to pleasing their inner self like; “Aj tou yar kia likh diya hai maine.. Kamaal he ker diya”. For God sake, at least do not deceive yourself.

Do not indulge in day dreaming that everyone is getting blown away by reading such lousy writing which contains everything but English because even the most ordinary educated persons can catch your mistakes.
I know it is the hardest task to find a competent teacher to check your work but unless and until, you have no one to check your work, how can you know about your basic mistakes which you commit while writing? It is common sense, no rocket science.

Do not strengthen your mistakes by writing again and again while repeating your blunders because with the passage of time, you may never be able to get rid of them again.

For instance, once you develop the habit of reading about a topic first and then writing about it, you may never be able to write on any topic on your own. Likewise, once you are used to employ old fashioned vocabulary in your writing, you may never be able to use proper words at the proper place.

So, do find a “competent” teacher who can tell you about your flaws and mistakes and teach you the tips and trick to polish your writing in tandem.