Work On It Wednesday: Writing Well

By Emily Young MA ‘16

 Writing college papers can be a daunting task: the amount of writing, the standard that teachers expect, the level of research behind it—and did I mention it’s due in a week.  In high school, we wrote papers about our thoughts and feelings on book we read in class.  Now that we are in college, we’re expected to use the book we read in class to stimulate a topic idea, research the topic more, and present unique arguments and critical thought.  Not only is this style of writing new, but on top of that different professors may want different writing and citing structures that you might not be familiar with.    

 Unfortunately, the best way to get better at writing college papers is to write more.  However, I find focusing on the writing process and making specific checkpoints makes the writing assignment a less daunting task. Here are my writing tips to help you start getting words on the page and write well:

Keep up with your readings and attend class.

This may be an obvious point, but it’s important.  If you don’t keep up with your assigned readings you’ll be overwhelmed with the amount of material you need to catch up on before the paper is due. If you don’t go to class you may miss key takeaways, assignment clarifications, or maybe even a paper extension announcement.  You’ll have a lot more to write about if you have done all the readings and have taken good notes in class.

Familiarize yourself with the prompt. 

Not all writing prompts you receive will be straightforward.  This is an intended strategy to encourage critical thinking about the prompt and design of your paper.  Write down some ideas you generate when you read the prompt.  I encourage you to talk through those ideas with peers, TA’s, or even your Professor.  It will help those ideas become clearer and point out something you may have overlooked.

Pay attention to the requirements of each assignment. 

Every class is different and so is every Professor.  Therefore, it’s important to know what is being asked of you. Is it a research paper, personal response piece or literature review? How many pages is it?  What is the format MLA or APA?  A lot of these questions should be answered in your syllabus, but is important to know before you begin writing.

Do more research.

A lot of papers require additional reading and research outside of what you did in class.  Looking for additional research is also a great way to generate ideas about a particular topic.  Make sure when you are researching you use credible sources and arguments.  Being published is no assurance of credibility or that an argument is sound.  Look at the evidence, the reasoning, and at the author for any sources of bias.  Also, make sure you save all of your sources.  It will save you time later when you are trying to remember which idea came from which source and with citing at the end of the paper.  (The USC Library is a great resource of academic articles https://libraries.usc.edu/)

Define your main point.

Now that you have done all this research, the first step to writing is finding your main point.  This often comes in the form of a thesis—an idea or argument addressing your professor’s assignment.  In any kind of writing, finding and focusing on a subject is the first, and sometimes hardest, step.  To help generate your thesis start by writing down what major arguments and conclusions you found in your research and see if there are any connections.

Write an outline.

Having an outline helps you establish the direction of your paper and maintain focus. If you don’t know what is coming next in your paper, it’s easy to get off topic and have poor transition sentences. Furthermore, having an outline before you start writing allows you to test if your sources and thoughts match your thesis and prompt.  

Write the “sloppy copy.”

The important thing is just to begin writing.  You can organize and revise your notes later. You will discover all kinds of things by just beginning to write.  Writing about something leads to ideas you’d never have thought of unless you were already writing.

Revise.

The goal of any paper is to present an argument or idea in a clear concise way. However, most of the time, this is not how we write.  This is the place to restructure your argument, eliminate weak claims, or support claims to make them stronger.  Once your paper is in the right order make sure it’s connected with transition sentences and ties back to the thesis so it flows.  In terms of vocabulary, aim for clarity.  Don’t use a word you don’t know.

Proofread, proofread, and proofread again.

Grammar errors are not acceptable in and professors’ eyes, but we are human and we will make them.  Therefore, you need to catch them before your teacher does.  Proofread, proofread out loud, have a friend proofread, and proofread again; it’s the only way to find all of them.  Additionally, try a grammar check program to clean up mechanical and structural mistakes.