My writing ability developed in high school and college due to a few specific causes. 1: Being forced to write for my AP European History course in HS (the regular assignments were just lists of questions&#x2F;prompts to be answered with a few sentences or a paragraph or so, it&#x27;s amazing how valuable that experience was). 2: Writing proofs in advanced math courses (elementary analysis, abstract algebra, etc.) 3: Participating in usenet newsgroups (by far the biggest contributor).<p>P.S. I meant to point out the irony that English classes contributed comparatively little. Actually writing about something and putting in the effort to string together something coherent is what really exercises and builds writing abilities. It&#x27;s nice to have some of the groundwork laid, but practice is by far the most important component.