Thinking about writing and speaking

[xela]

This morning's email included a pointer to a question on Quora I found myself entirely drawn into answering. The question being

How can I improve my speaking and writing skills? My reading & listening skills are very good so is my grammar but those two skills are my problem.

You can see my answer in context on Quora. (I decided against copying it behind a cut. But if you'd like to comment on it here, please feel free.)