The length of time to strech the sound depends on the area or reagion of country but please be careful about this. Hi, I enjoy reading your home page always. As many people say, I, too, think writing is the hardest among other skills in English. I'm majoring journalism in the US currently, and I always struggle while I'm writing news stories. First of all, writing in English is pretty different compare to that of Japanese.
Native people tend to use straight-forward sentence to make their point clear.
I recommend to write e-mail to somebody in English. It requires spontaneity and surprisingly reveal own weakness and style. Hi, sorry I did not respond your question. I did not chech this web site recently. As pointed out, writing skill is critical.