WHAT I WISH I'D KNOWN FOUR YEARS AGO:  
A Senior Writing Tutor's 20/20 Hindsight On Writing  
By Craig Thomas

Writing well is one of the hardest things to do. I've learned in my four years at Wesleyan that, when confronted with a blank screen or a horrendous first draft, every little bit of writing advice helps. Unfortunately for me, it took a long time and many unsatisfactory grades to come by this advice.  

As a writing tutor--first for a creative non-fiction class, then for academic papers in the Writing Workshop--I discovered that many students lapsed into panic attacks when confronted with writing.  I felt that they could benefit from some simple, down-to-earth advice: concrete things that they could actually do, tips and ways of thinking they could add to their writing process.  

Here, then, is a list of such advice (some of it stunningly simple, but also invaluable), all of which I wish I'd known four years ago as a frosh: 

You Are the Writer  

I realize that this not only seems obvious, but also a bit moronic. Of course you're the writer: you're the person sitting and typing letters on a keyboard, forming sentences and getting frustrated... But people tend to forget this when writing academic papers. Many student writers feel that in an academic setting, their language must be dry and distanced from themselves--and God forbid that they write anything resembling their own opinion. This mindset results in language like, "One might, given the aforementioned evidence, hypothesize that..." or, "It is not unfair to say that..."  

But the thing is, you're the writer: just say it! It is perfectly obvious that "one might say" what you just said--simply because, you just said it.  

My point is, whenever you write something, it is an expression of yourself. Contrary to popular belief, academic papers are better when you put something of yourself into them---so take a stand, illustrate your point of view, build an argument based on your own feelings about the reading. The other day, I re-read a bad paper I wrote frosh year, the thesis of which amounted to roughly this: "Shakespeare is a really good writer." Now, I'm not saying that you should write about why Shakespeare is a bad writer, but rather that the more specific you can get in your thesis, and the more of an argument you can construct, the better your paper will be. Writing will always be more interesting when it also interests the writer. 

Become Your Own Reader  

Perhaps the most helpful thing to establish about college writing is this: step one, edit your work. And when you're done with that, go to step two, which is edit your work. I came to college thinking I didn't have to edit, simply because I'd had some success with laziness in high school. It took me about a full year of college to understand that I was not above editing my writing (nor is any writer, living or,dead). The trick with editing your work--whether it is a feature-length screenplay, the Great American Novel, or a 5-7 page history paper--is this: to attain anything resembling objectivity regarding your own work.  

Usually, you'll think one of two things about your work: either that it is gorgeous and perfect and needs no revision, or that it is so very bad that nothing but a roaring fire could do it any good. Either way, you're usually wrong. The question is, how can you figure out what needs work when you are so emotionally close to the piece? 

Print Your Draft For Editing   

No matter how accustomed we get to computers, words on a screen will always remain something of an otherworldly mirage. Writing doesn't become real until you can hold it in your hands and flip the pages, until there is a danger of spilling coffee on it. You'll be surprised what a better self-editor you become when you print out to edit. You'll realize that someone other than you could--and will--read this. Editing on a printed copy makes you more objective about all aspects of your work, from tiny grammar mistakes to large structural issues.  

An added bonus of this trick is that, if you keep a file of your printed edit-drafts, you will have a record of how your writing improved. You will become more likely to spot recurring problems, and fix them. You will also become more aware of what works. There is no downside to this ever-so simple advice, except of course the recycling issue. Oh well. There's always something. 

Read Your Work Aloud  

You'll always be more likely to spot an awkward sentence if you read it aloud. Imagine that the sound of your voice is exactly how the writing will sound in your reader's head. Though people may think you're insane, sitting in your room talking to yourself, this trick really helps. When something doesn't sound right out loud, when it doesn't make sense, make changes. You'll be surprised how many bad sentences your eye will lot slip by, but your ear won't.  

An ESL student I worked with who had only recently arrived in the US was 99% more likely to catch errors when we read her sentences aloud. She could hear the mistakes rather than see them. I think this is true, to varying degrees, for everyone, not just writers new to the language. 

Buy The Little, Brown Essential Handbook for Writers by Jane E. Aaron   

I'm not related to Ms. Aaron or anything, this is not some blatant advertisement for her book. It's just that the Little Brown Handbook has everything you'd ever want to know about grammar rules, from commas to footnotes to the ever-mysterious semicolon. And, true to its title, this book is very little and convenient (though my copy is not brown, but inexplicably white and green). Find a spot for it next to your computer and already your writing will have improved.  

Alternate Sentence Length  

If you're miserably bored with your writing, if all your sentences begin to sound the same, if the rhythm of one sentence is exactly like that of the next, then stop typing. Just stop.  

In academic writing, people tend to string together endlessly long sentences and think that this is good. Try varying the lengths, structures and rhythms of your sentences. This idea came from a fiction-writing teacher who gave her class an exercise to write a scene in which no two sentences were alike in length, structure or rhythm. It made for some extremely interesting and good writing.,  

Read through your draft (again, reading aloud is extremely helpful here) and try to hear if too many of the sentences sound the same, if they seem monotonous. Try varying the length, shortening some of those long "academic" sentences, breaking them up into more than one sentence. When you finish a paper and feel like something is still not quite right, this trick can come in handy. 

You Don't Have to Retell the Entire Story  

I mention this because I used to do it all the time. I'd get an assignment to write about, say, the role of women in Great Expectations in 5-7 pages and what I'd do --- rather than focusing in on the assigned topic and choosing meaningful examples accordingly --- is try to retell the entire story of the novel (note: Great Expectations is much longer than 5-7 pages). I learned that you really don't have to do this.  

Get right to the point in your paper. Set up the story line only as much as you need to for the purpose of your argument. Choose details and quotes and scenes from the book that help you discuss the topic at hand, leaving out extraneous summary of the story.  

This is true for papers on any work, fiction or non. The idea is not to do a book report, but to discuss a specific aspect of the work. You don't necessarily have to be chronological, nor do you have to fill in events you skipped over that have no relevance to your argument. Realizing this helped me feel less overburdened and more focused in my paper-writing. 

Make an Outline   

Even a little scribble will do. Drawing a visual representation of how you will structure your paper can be very helpful. Sometimes I think of the perfect way to structure my paper and promptly forget it while writing. Having a little "picture" of the structure near your computer is a good thing, especially if you're writing in a rush. 

Intros Are More Important Than You Can Possibly Imagine  

Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic, but they are really important. In an academic paper, whether you write the introduction (or thesis paragraph) first or last, it should clearly state your argument (or thesis) and reflect the structure of your paper.  

I've found that a good way to think about your introduction is as a roadmap for the argument in your paper. This makes both the introduction and the rest of the paper easier to write. Writing tutors are often advised to spend the most time on the beginning of a paper, and here's why: if the thesis is not clearly stated in the intro paragraph, it will most likely not be any clearer on page four. The introduction is your chance to show that you are sure of what you are arguing and how you will argue it.  

Many student writers forget to write their thesis in the thesis paragraph. I have often asked people what their paper is about, received a great verbal answer, and then, when I begin reading the thesis paragraph, the thesis isn't in there! Make sure you state your thesis clearly, so that the reader is oriented and knows what to look for.  

Well, hopefully all of this is helpful. Again, these tricks and ways of thinking about writing may seem incredibly simple, but writing is difficult, and having some incredibly simple advice can help a lot. Good luck!