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