Tips for Good Writers

Yale Center for Teaching and Learning recently released a somewhat humorous post about what “good” writers do in their writing. However it does make some valid points (points that tutors can pass on to their clients!)

The first tip that Yale Center for Teaching and Learning gives is to BEGIN WRITING BEFORE YOU’RE READY TO DRAFT. Instead of planning in your head and doing a cold draft the center instead advises you to, “jot down notes about what interests you and what concerns you have. Write while you’re doing the reading and initial research: how does this reading differ from others you’ve looked at? Let yourself write about your beginning ideas without trying to make it sound like an introduction or a real paper. All of these practices harness the power of writing to discover and will allow you to develop richer, more complex ideas” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning).

The second tip Yale gives is GET FEEDBACK ON YOUR WORKS OF PROGRESS. It is important to get help early because then your professors/teachers can guide you in the right direction. The Center says, “Ask professors or teaching fellows to give feedback on drafts or on an initial thesis/introduction; they can give you the most guided suggestions about how to succeed on an assignment” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning). Especially if you are unsure about your grasp of the concept it is essential to get help from a peer. Professional writers often get help from at least 3 or 4 editors before they publish their work.

The third most important tip is MAKE SURE YOUR THESIS HAS NEWS IN IT.  Writers often present a boring, formulaic thesis that lacks creativity because they are so focused on their ideas/stance. The center has the cure for this problem. They say, “Inexperienced writers often make claims that represent superficial interpretations of the relevant evidence. As a result, they use their sources only to illustrate ideas that most informed readers would find uncontroversial. Experienced writers, by contrast, develop what are known as arguable claims—ideas that an intelligent person, looking at the same evidence, might disagree with. One effective way to ensure that your thesis is arguable is to address the counterargument briefly in your essay” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning).

The fourth tip is ADD ANALYSIS AND REFLECTION TO YOUR SOURCES. Yale Center for Teaching and Learning says, "If it’s worth quoting, it’s worth discussing. Never assume that your evidence can speak for itself—if it can, why would we read your essay rather than just go to the original source? Always add commentary to ensure that we know which parts of the evidence are most important and how it fits into your larger argument. When working with written evidence, it’s good to observe the rule of two: the writer should supply at least two words of analysis for every word of a citation, and usually more" (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning). For beginner writers the "rule of two" might be a bit difficult, but the important thing for beginners to understand is they need to provide commentary and explain why the quote is relevant. This tip will help them provide commentary.

The fifth tip is EMULATE GOOD WRITING. This may sound like plagiarism, but I assure you it's not. It simply means find a writing style/device that you like and use it in your own way. The Center comments, "With your advisor’s help, identify texts that exemplify the best writing in your field. Read these texts to understand how they work, what techniques the writers use for analyzing evidence, paraphrasing theory, representing counter-arguments, even sentence-level techniques such as introducing a quotation with a leading term. Then try to incorporate these strategies into your writing. You can extend this emulation to any text you admire, remembering that some techniques may seem out of place in a particular writing context" (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning). Something borrowed something new! 

If you wish to learn more about Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning then visit this link: Yale Link