Engage in pre-writing. Pre-writing involves brainstorming ideas and organizing those ideas into a cohesive flow. Pre-writing also means that you sufficiently researches your topic especially through reading. Finally, pre-writing entails a sort of plan about how you want to approach what it is that you are going to write.
Collaborate with your peers. You can collaborate with your peers at any stage of the writing process including pre-writing, drafting and writing. Collaboration allows you to see what others see. A new and different perspective can often greatly improve your writing.
Practice summarizing what you read. The ability to correctly summarize what you read will go a long way to improving your writing skills as a middle school student. As you progress in your academic career, you will be responsible for preparing papers that ask you to critically assess a text. In order to do this, you must know how to identify a thesis and summarize the main arguments of a text.
Keep a daily journal. There is no substitute for frequent practice. It doesn't even matter what you write about in your daily journal as long as you continue to write. Be creative and allow yourself no limits. A daily journal will help teach you how to express what you feel through the written word and ultimately give you the confidence to tackle more difficult writing assignments.
Read everything you can. This includes everything from local newspapers to classic novels. Reading as much as you can will help you recognize different styles of writing, as well as the function of various linguistic constructions. It will also increase your vocabulary so you can express more precise meanings with fewer words.