Mary Sherafati, Allie Degner, Shayani Almeida – Writing Consultants
How to write (Mary):
If you want to learn how to become a good writer, you should write every day. It will help you exercise the part of your brain responsible for your writing skills. For example, you can write in a diary. It can help you focus on your writing without worrying about your audience or anyone else’s thoughts. Moreover, it will provide you with a space to practice vocabulary. You should, in addition, read a lot. Reading is an excellent way to improve your writing skills. You can begin reading short novels and stories that interest you. Please think positively about writing and do not be afraid of it. You can also take some courses. I highly recommend you take part in our writing sessions. We have open writing time, faculty and graduate student writing groups, and creative writing groups. Through participating in our writing sessions, you can receive constructive feedback that can help you improve your writing. Please do not be afraid to ask for feedback from peers or editors, as it is one of the best strategies to improve your writing.
Remember that becoming a good writer takes practice and dedication, so do not be too hard on yourself as you start. It would be best if you also learned to overcome resistance since writing can be difficult at first, but it is essential to push through the resistance and keep going. You can develop your skills to produce excellent content with time and effort. Remember that building a confident mindset is essential to becoming a more confident writer. You can do this by setting realistic goals and controlling your internal dialogue. Focus on your strengths and celebrate your successes, no matter how small they may be.
Creating a topic (Allie):
Sometimes, developing a topic can be the trickiest part of your paper or assignment, as the rest of your project is determined by what it is your topic will be. There can be a lot of pressure on figuring out a topic, but do not stress! It is not as hard as you think.
First, if you have a list of possible topics but need help narrowing it down, focus on the topic that seems like most applicable to what the assignment is. Looking at assignment guidelines, what topic seems to fit the project the best? What would be the most interesting topic you could research or discuss for the assignment? Exploring these questions might be helpful for thinking about the topic in terms of what the assignment is asking for. However, you also want it to be a topic that you are also interested in, because that can help to fuel your motivation for completing the assignment. There is nothing worse than having to pour time into exploring a topic that you are not the slightest bit interested in. So, choose something you like!
Of course, your topic will vary depending on what the assignment is for your class. A lot of assignments require outside sources, and if this is the case for yours, it is always helpful to first check out what kinds of sources there are for your topic before you decide. If you can narrow down potential topics to three that stand out to you, it is helpful to therefore explore library databases or Google scholar to find what kinds of sources there are online that will help further develop your topic. Depending on the assignment you are doing, it is either a good or unhelpful thing if there are not many sources. It is helpful to not have many sources available for a topic because that will leave you space to do your own research for that topic, but also can be unhelpful if that is not what the assignment calls for.
Once you have browsed around for sources and depending on the assignment that your professor has given, you can ask yourself a couple of questions based on your findings: are any of the sources you have found particularly interesting and would be a good addition to a potential topic you have looked into? Has one of the topics you researched had little helpful sources? Has one of the topics had an abundant amount of sources? Or are they all about the same?
By looking into what kind of research is already out there, it will hopefully help you narrow down a topic for what you can discuss in your writing assignment. If you are still having trouble narrowing it down, remember that there are different resources that can help you! Professors are always available for spring boarding ideas, and us writing consultants in the Writing Center are also always available for helping you choose a topic. If you need help figuring out what sources are available for your topic, the research librarians will spend time with you and help you search for some, too. Do not be afraid to use the resources that are available to you!
Revising and Editing (Shayani):
I notice that most writers find it difficult to revise and edit their drafts to make an excellent final paper because they do not know the techniques for revising and editing. Revision is not like proofreading, although in the final stage, editing includes checking specific details. When reviewing your text, you take a second look at your ideas and you might want to add, remove, change, or make something more convincing. When you start editing, you should take a second look at how you have expressed your ideas. Here, you might add or change words, check, and fix any problems in punctuation and sentence structure. In this stage, you will improve your writing style and make it to be the product of your best efforts.
Once you complete your first draft, set aside your essay since you need to look at it from a fresh perspective. It might be too soon to make changes, so take a break. Reading aloud will also help you identify the key points that you have not addressed in your essay. The next step would be asking someone to provide you with feedback and constructive criticism. Then, look at your essay objectively and take the role of a reader in this phase. When reading it for the second time, we should think, are we satisfied or dissatisfied as readers? And why? This can help us get the best out of our revisions and editing. At the writing center, we help you figure out these techniques and help you create an excellent end product.