By Ryan Anthony
CIACI VIP ENGLISH
You should never, absolutely never underestimate good quality prewriting and revision! It goes without saying right? The kind of planning and prewriting I am referencing may not be as complicated as what you may imagine. I am simply referring to some areas that I often see lacking in academic writing. As a professional proofreader, I come across plenty examples of poor prewriting. Another bit I would like to draw attention to is if it does not sound right, it is probably not the best way to say it. Going back and revising is never a bad idea even when you think your writing is solid. So, here is some advice that I would like you to strongly consider.
Make Some Lists
As we all know, it is our job
when writing to attract and make our audience interested in reading our work.
Thus, it is a good idea to vary the words that you use whenever possible. I am
not talking about keywords or terminology associated with your topic and
research, but instead, I am talking about the kinds of transitions and
connectors that you use. It is also a wonderful idea to vary intensifiers. This
may not seem like a big deal at first, but it really does add quality to your
writing. With that being said, I challenge you to make a list of all the
connectors and transitions you know. Also come up with a list of synonyms for
everything you write. The great thing about this is that you can use these
lists over and over again thus making your next writing session much easier.
Simple Is Not Always Better
It is also extremely helpful when
it comes to improving your writing by having a look at your sentences and looking
for solid relationships among your ideas. Even though you may have wonderful simple
sentences or cross paragraph transitions, have a look at the individual
sentences themselves. See if you can connect some simple sentences and turn
them into complex ones. For the audience, complex sentences offer more
information at a time and they are much more attractive to the eyes. Just
because your sentences may be quite wordy or lengthy does not mean they are
complex in structure.
Tackle Problem Areas
I find it pretty funny when I
hear people stating their weaknesses over and over again regarding the academic
writing process. I think to myself, why do not they just improve themselves? If
you know you have certain challenges when writing, it will not kill you to work
hard on improving your writing skills. There are many references and sources
out there about grammar and usage. There is just way too much free information
out there for you not to take advantage of. With that in mind, I encourage you
to spare time and spend time studying grammar and vocabulary. It is also a good
idea to practice often. Before you know it, you will have improved a great
deal.
