6 Writing Tips from a Writing Grad

*4-Minute Read*

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During undergrad, people would be intrigued upon finding out that I was majoring in writing. "I can't stand writing. I'd rather study for exams," they'd say and my heart cracked a bit. "Can you write my paper for me?" No. "How can you major in that?" I'm about to tell you...

1) "When in doubt, cut it out."

I first heard this piece of advice from my ACT prep instructor regarding the English section. In other words, if you're unsure of the answer, bubble in the circle next to "OMIT the underlined portion" (when applicable). Why? Because it's repetitive and/or unnecessary.

When we write, we tend to pen the same message multiple times, just in different ways. While reviewing a short story of mine, a professor once asked me, "What should you do with this last paragraph?" I shrugged my shoulders and she proceeded to jot an X over the entire thing. The whole passage consisted of only rephrases of information that I had stated earlier on in the story. State it once (directly or indirectly), then move on.

Also, avoid stating what's common knowledge to your audience. A basic example: You wouldn't write "the red stop sign" because most people know that all those signs are that color. If you have more of a niche audience, the number of implied statements may increase. The average person may not be able to define a specific term but, if you're writing for experts in whichever subject your paper is on, you probably don't need to include that term's definition. This is a large reason why you should keep your audience in mind as you're writing.


2) Take advantage of quotations.

Now, you may be thinking, Liv, all you're doing is shortening my paper. I'm struggling to hit the word count. What do I do? Block quotes are the best. If someone's statement takes up at least five lines of the page, you're golden. You can now make it its own paragraph and indent all its lines by 0.5 inches. But regular quotes are helpful, too. They usually require in-text citations and those, when all added up, can take up lines of the paper. And it's not just the quantity that improves. When quotations support your narrative/argument, the quality of your work improves.

But quotations aren't only useful in research. With creative writing, including a character's dialogue and thoughts is a great way to give readers a break from passage after passage of narration. It allows them to see the characters from his/her point of view, especially if you're writing in second or third person. When I had the "aha" moment of including more of these in my stories, my grades significantly improved.


3) Refer to Purdue Owl for citations. 

It's where I learned how to use block quotes. It's where anyone can find out how to properly cite in the MLA, APA, Chicago, IEEE, AMA, or ASA format. I'm not opposed to EasyBib, but I would use it more like a template. I've made edits to my EasyBib works cited after referring to Purdue Owl.

Why do I see it as the most reliable? It's backed by Purdue University (a well-respected public school in Indiana), and I've been advised to utilize it since I was a freshman in high school. Also, it covers all those confusions---what if I can't find an author name, do I have to include the access date, etc. If nothing else, I would look at one of the sample pages. For me personally, they're the most helpful.


4) Wikipedia's sources could become your sources.

You probably know that Wikipedia should never be on your works cited. It can be edited by absolutely anyone with a wifi connection, which means that the articles can get inaccurate quickly. (Fun Fact: My dad has a Wikipedia page, and I edited some outdated information.) However, the site can be a starting guide.

At the bottom of each page should be a works cited of the sources where the page creator got his/her facts from. Go access each website and judge its validity. If it is obviously a credible source, then yay! That's something you can use for your writing.


5) "Don't assume, get it right, no cliches."

This was what one of my journalism professors at TCU would say. Unless you make it clear that a statement is your's or another's assumption, leave it out. Otherwise, you may be stating incorrect information. And ditch those common cliches like "driving me crazy" or "easy as pie." We all know what they mean, but they're boring. Create your own figurative language. For example, instead of saying "___ will happen when pigs fly," say that "___ will happen when I swim to the moon." They both have the same message (the chance of ___ occurring is impossible), but the latter is much more creative. 


6) Read your work out loud before you submit it.

It's amazing how many dumb mistakes I find all over the paper when I do this. I just don't catch them when I'm reading through the text silently. When a sentence becomes difficult to read, you've probably caught a mistake. I suggest that you then repeat the process to make sure your revisions flow with the rest of the paper. Oh, and if you're feeling lazy, I've heard of people using Google Translate to do the work for them. 

Now, I'll end this by saying that, time permitting, I can help you. But I won't write for you.

- Liv