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How to Write in College
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1. Analyze the assignment. Read the handouts or computer screen pages carefully. What exactly are you being asked to do? Try explaining the assignment to someone who is not in your class, just to see if you really understand it.
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2. Create a timeline. Look closely at the assignment deadlines. Mark them in your calendar. Figure out when you will have time to work on each portion of the assignment based on your school, work, or family schedule. Be liberal in your estimates; most things will take longer than you think they will. Also, budget for interruptions and distractions because they will undoubtedly occur!
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3. Do the homework. Most course projects at Longview are designed to be done in increments. No one expects or even wants you to attempt to do all of the work in one night or one weekend.
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4. Jot notes and ideas as they come to you. If you don't write ideas down right away, they will go away. When you get an idea, nail it down in writing. Take notes as you go on everything you read. This will save you time later and keep you from having to reread. Also, take time now to keep track of your information. You will need to acknowledge ALL of your sources at the end of the project.
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5. Impose order on the information you have brainstormed or collected. Figure out how you want to present the information that you have learned. Imagine your classmates as your readers. They have worked on the same assignment but they probably haven't written about the same topic. Be sure to orient your reader to your topic before you launch into your paper. Put the ideas and information into some logical order.
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6. Produce a draft. Look over your notes and the order you want to present your ideas. Start developing these into sentences and paragraphs that fully discuss the information and explain your ideas. Elaborate by giving plenty of details and examples. The goal is to be so clear in the communication of your ideas that your reader understands your message after reading just a single reading.
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7. Get feedback. Have others read your writing. Find out if they understand what you said. Ask them some questions about what they have read. Ask them to point out any parts that are unclear.
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8.Talk to your instructor. If you are unsure about anything within your draft or unsure about how others have responded to it, ask for your instructor's feedback. He or she is in the best position to give you directions on how to revise your writing before you turn in your final version for grading. Your instructor will be happy to talk things over with you.
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9. Make changes based on the feedback you've received. Now that you have gotten a sense of how others have responded to what you have written, give yourself some time to reconsider your draft. You might need to come up with more information or delete some. You might need to reorganize or even rephrase parts to make them clear. Basically, revision is changing things to see if they work better.
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10. Proofread! Proofread! Proofread! If there is one thing that drives college instructors crazy, it is that student writers don't look back over what they have written to find and correct mistakes and typos. Most instructors will interpret grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors as carelessness and will deduct points for it. Use grammar check and spell check at every turn, but don't rely on these to catch everything! Computers are available in most buildings on campus if you need access to good software.
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