Productivity

Improve Your Writing Instantly

Wize Tips
The Wize Teams' quick tips for solving all your University woes

Writing is hard, but nobody should have to feel like Lisa. 

7 Steps to Improving Your Writing Instantly 

1. Write Like You Talk

The #1 goal in your writing should be for your reader to understand what you're talking about. Write as if you were speaking to the person marking your work - not overly casual, but prioritize simplicity > complexity and make sure to only use words that you know are correct. 

This website (https://ttsreader.com/) is a great tool that allows you to hear your writing spoken back to you. Try copy and pasting your essay into the text box at the link and see if you can understand yourself! 

2. Start With a Plan

It is ALWAYS a good idea to have a rough outline of how your paper will progress before you start writing. What will your thesis be? 

What good evidence do you have to support that claim? How can you best use that evidence in paragraphs to support your thesis? Doesn’t need to be fancy, but have an idea where you’re heading before you get writing.   

3. Start Early 

A lot of the time, even with an outline, you will decide to change aspects of your essay part way through writing. Start early enough so that you can make these changes stress-free! :) 

4. Get Somebody Else to Read your Writing

Sometimes, when you read your own writing enough, you will make sense of it even if it makes no sense at all. Ask a friend to read your work and give you feedback. 

5. Ask the Marker for Feedback & Suggestions

Every prof/TA looks for different things when they are marking. Go into office hours and visit whoever is marking your work to ask them what they would like to see out of your writing.  

6. Use a Roadmap Paragraph

One easy way to improve the clarity of your writing is to use a “roadmap paragraph,” which comes directly after your introduction. 

The paragraph should be built something like this: “This essay will proceed in “x” sections. The first portion will accomplish y. The second section will deal with z”…etc. Constructing a brief outline like this at the start of your essay allows the reader to see what your plans are and decreases the chances of them getting lost. 

7. Short Sentences, Short Paragraphs

It would be a mistake to write sentences and paragraphs that are so long that your reader can hardly keep track of what you are trying to say and even if they wanted to they couldn’t read the whole thing in one breathe because it’s so damn long and wouldn’t it be nice to just write short sentences and paragraphs to divide up your thoughts so that people can actually follow along (see what I did there). 

Keep it concise! 

Liked these tips? Follow us on Instagram for more tips on how to best #studywize.
instagram.com/wizeprep