When in college, one receives the joy of cramming for midterms, putting off projects until the last minute or having to write an essay. While some students may not care at all about how well they write, the reality is that a professor with a Ph.D. in the subject you’re writing about is going to read your paper and grade you on it. On top of that, writing is an important skill to have for the future -- whether it’s for short thank you cards or for graduate school essays. It’s not necessary to be a Grammar Nazi, but it certainly helps when your writing is easy to read and grammatically correct.
1. Don’t use the thesaurus as a crutch.
You’re trying to spruce up your writing, and you’re tired of using words such as “happy” all of the time. So you go to thesaurus.com and find other words like “delighted,” “cheerful,” “ecstatic,” and “content.” Which to choose? If the character you’re describing has just received great news, they’re going to be more than just content. Yet time after time, I see people using words that don’t quite fit the context of their writing. This is not condemning any thesaurus use at all. Sometimes, you just can’t remember the word you’re trying to think of. Don’t simply use words unless you are familiar with their connotations.
2. Know how to use punctuation.
Oftentimes, people are incredible writers. Their syntax is flawless and their word choices are beautiful, but they seem to use the wrong punctuation. Maybe they didn’t separate clauses with a comma, or they didn’t know how to use a semicolon. If you're unsure about where to put dashes and quotations, there are resources such as the Online Writing Lab or GrammarBook. Use them!
3. Have someone proofread.
Even if you’re convinced you’re a brilliant writer, it doesn’t hurt to have someone look over your paper for a little formatting or for grammatical errors. If none of your friends care about you enough to read your essay, you could also try reading it out loud and seeing if it makes sense. If there’s missing helping verbs or an awkward-sounding sentence, you’ll notice.
4. Elaborate simple adjectives.
Instead of saying, “The antagonist was bad,” explain the subject’s actions or qualities that make it so. Instead, you could write that “By manipulating others around him, the antagonist proved himself selfish and cold-hearted.” Using examples and facts to describe something instead of just using adjectives gives the reader a better idea of how “bad” your character is.
5. Know your audience.
Context is everything, especially in writing. Is this a paper for your surrealist poetry class, or a research project on chemical analysis? Different topics have different writing styles. The context in which you’re writing in can determine whether or not you can use first person, how you should format your paragraphs, and how formal you should be.
6. Learn how to use "compose" vs. "comprise."
This is such a common mistake. It may not seem like a big deal, but I see the word "comprise" misused in even scientific peer-reviewed papers and textbooks. Take a few minutes to learn the difference here.
