How to improve english writing

In conversational English, we are concerned with the aspects of stress and intonation, but in writing, we focus on vocabulary, collocations, structure of sentences and development in each paragraph. On top of that, we also pay close attention to form and content. We must be able to express difficult ideas and know how to handle facts and opinions.

I believe you have a fairly good command of English vocabulary. In sitcom, soap opera, talk show… people use slang and everyday English. You are more interested in the kind of vocabulary that is used in academic writing regardless of which discipline you are concerned with. For example, a competent teacher (a good teacher), the bank is financially sound. (the bank is good) In other words, you have to focus on diction. (- the choice of words)

Collocations are the key to fluent English. Learning words on their own may enable you to communicate, but to sound natural, you must learn which words typically go together. e.g. wide awake, sound asleep, launch an attack, spotlessly clean, pronounced dead …just to name a few. Please buy a good collocations dictionary.

An essay is divided into paragraphs. Each paragraph is a group of sentences which develop one central idea. You should learn organizing ideas, selecting information and using linking words and phrases. After much practice, you should write a unified, coherent paragraph and know what a well-written text should be.

Finally, you should cultivate a good habit of reading the texts from the work of a wide variety of authors (e.g. George Orwell, Somerset Maugham, Chris Patten) so you become familiar with different styles of writing. Most teenagers in Hong Kong rarely read English newspaper daily, let alone classic novels. I suggest you read editorials from newspapers, articles from Times, New York Times or South China Morning Post, essays, biography, book and film reviews if you have time to do so.

Good luck!

Different kinds of writing requires different kinds of skill. Writing a poem is different from writing a lyric; different from writing a science report; or a law book. Don't get discouraged by your teacher's comment. I believe what you really want to know is how can I get a better grade from my teacher. Each teacher has his or her own preference on what he or she likes. Borrow some work from your friends who got a good grade. Study what your teacher would consider good and start from there. If your English is good, this should not be hard. After a few times, you should see your teacher will begin to like your work. Sorry, that sometime does not mean your English is getting better. It just mean you now know how to make your work pleasing to him/her.
Good work does not always get appreciated. Consider that is a lost to your teachers, not youself.

Hope that helps.

To be honest, the best way is to read more books, it's because conversations in drama are very casual, it is quite different from actual writing. However, watching drama can definately improve your accent. If you want to learn more vocab., perhaps you can start reading dictionary.

A rhetorical style on sentence transformation.To describe something with various vocabulary.
(1) They say that he was a popular writer.=He is said to have been a popular writer.
(2) She was surprised to hear the (gossip girl)gleeing.=She was surprised because she heard the (gossip girl) gleeing.
(3) having gleed=has gleed;
was a gossip girl=to have been a gossip girl,
=has been a gossip girl.

You might need to learn different sentence structure and linkers.
If you have to depict sth, you have to make it to be descriptive with vary vocabulary.