Improving your writing
If you want to improve your writing be prepared for it to take a little time and some consistent effort on your part. However, it is worth doing because strong communication skills, including writing, are highly valued by employers and will increase your chances of getting a good position after you graduate.
No matter what your standard of writing, think about improvement over the long-term, rather than focussing only on one unit of study at a time. Use feedback on writing you were given in past units of study to help direct your writing in future assignments. You can use the WriteSite as a resource throughout your time at University, rather than in isolated units of study.
Before you start, it is a good idea to make some decisions about which strategies you will use to improve, make a plan and set some realistic goals.
Here are some ideas about how you can do that.
1. Identify your writing problems
Think about the following questions.
It may help to look over as many of your past assignments as you can. Compare the comments made by the markers and see whether there are patterns of mistakes and issues that are recurring.
- Can you identify persistent problems in your writing?
- What is the severity of the problems?
Make a list of the recurring problems in your writing.
Rate them from 1 to 5 where 1 is minor and 5 is very severe.
- Can you tell which problems will take a long time to fix and which ones you can improve quickly?
- Are there things you can improve for the next essay?
If you are still unsure about your writing problems, you could try speaking with your tutor or lecturer.
Next, use the list of problems to create an action plan.
