What can I do to improve my writing?

The Huffington Post published an article a few years back giving college students some ideas about things they might want to ask their professors and also topics from which they probably want to steer clear. Today’s question that you might want to ask your instructor: what can I do to improve my writing?

When students ask me about improving their writing, it typically comes after receiving a poor grade or review on a paper or assignment (some clear indicator that improvement is required). There are so many ways to improve writing. Here are some of my favorite tips:

·         Give yourself time to write. Lack of planning when it comes to writing a paper typically means a lot of last-minute work that is not your best work (no matter how much students try to convince themselves that they “work best under pressure”). You simply don’t have the time required to write drafts, edit, and revise if you’re writing your paper the night before it’s due.

·         Put your work through the electronic paces. There are so many electronic checks these days: Grammarly for grammar and Turnitin for plagiarism are two of the main sources. Taking the time to check your work electronically is a good first edit to get the biggest of the grammar and possible plagiarism problems worked out of your paper.

·         Get some beta readers. Just like coders use beta testers for new and developing programs, beta readers should read your work and provide comments and critiques. The most important part about working with beta readers is that you cannot take their advice and comments personally! If you get into an argument with your beta readers, they won’t be willing to read future work for you. A better strategy when faced with comments you dislike is just to thank your reader and carry on. You are the author and you can take or leave advice or comments as you wish.

·         Proofread, put it away, proofread again. Take time between edits and revisions to “cleanse your palate” of your own writing. Getting away from your writing will give your brain time to reset and be able to look at your work later with fresh eyes later.

·         Read your writing out loud. Reading your work out loud helps you find errors that you will otherwise miss. Students are often surprised, once they try reading their work out loud, at how easily errors become obvious with this method!

Good writing is an integral part of not only your college experience, but likely your future professional life. It is critical to develop good writing skills and habits while you’re in college so that once you’re in your career job you can focus on the skills for your job, not the fundamentals that you should have learned and practiced in college.

Kelley