Tips: How to
Write Better
Writing is, at base, an
exercise in thinking.
Setting down thoughts
on paper forces the
writer to examine the
logic—or lack of it—
behind those thoughts
r
America » colleges and unuersities hate
a wide variety of writing requirements, and
every instructor develops techniques to help
students improve. But in surveying writing
programs and teachers across the country,
Newsweek On Campus found that the has
ic advice they give students is surprisingly
uniform. Here, distilled from the experts,
are sei<en tips for better writing:
Rut—u Macs as yas CM. Teachers of
writing almost unanimously em
phasize that reading and writing
are inextricably linked "I don't
think you can write any better
than you can read," says University of Tex
as English Prof. John Trimble, who adds
that even many bright students are not
very sophisticated readers. If you are al
ready a reader, make it a point occasionally
to sample books you wouldn't ordinarily
try Someone steeped in 20th-century pulp
fiction, for instance, can get surprising en
joyment—and learn a great deal about the
rich variety of the English language—from
the works of 19th-century novelists If you
are not a regular reader, try to get into the
habit. At the very least, set aside some
regular time to read something that is not
required by your studies.
^ ' !
II.f.UMTNATIONM HV KWTH BKNfHK
■ Orpsnlza baton you Hart. Writing i», at
base, an exercise in thinking The very act
of setting down thoughts in words forces
the writer to examine the real meaning ol
those words and the logic—or lack of it
that leads from one thought to another It
requires careful decisions on which infor
motion is unimportant to the task at hand
and which iscritical And it demands at ten
tion to the most effective order in which to
present the critical information The clear
message is that writing is much easier il
you have first outlined just exactly what it
is you want to say. An outline is not set in
concrete: even the best writers revise their
plans as they go along But simply throw
ing a jumble of thoughts onto paper or a
computer screen without prior consider
ation produces just a jumble of thoughts in
a new medium—not good writing
■ Simplify. As you write, beware of highfa
lutin word choice and pretentious phras
ing. Always try for the simplest, clearest,
most lucid way of expressing what you
want to say. Beware, too, of jargon. It is a
common misconception among students
that adopting the specialized idiom of a
particular discipline sounds more knowl
edgeable or important, and therefore
makes their writing "better." This is not
true. In fact, a student who can wrestle a
complex idea into felicitous new phrasing
demonstrates that he or she has mastered
the idea behind the jargon.
a Rsvlss and rawrfta. Professors say this is
where college students most often fall
'short: once they see their words written or
typed out, they think the job is done. Noth
ing could lie farther from the truth. Start a
writing assignment far enough ahead so
that you will have time to do it again and
again, if necessary Read closely for mean
ing. A re the words you have chosen the best