8 Writing Tips for

College Students

1. Catch Your Own Typos Change the font. Change the

background color. Print out and edit by

hand. Don’t be afraid of the

spelling and grammar check.

2. Grammar Counts Know the “its, it’s,” and

“their, their, they’re” rules. Hyphenation: the

difference between a guy who owns a small business (a small-business owner) and a short guy who owns a business (a small business owner).

3. Read it backward Natural flow of

reading prompts you to skip over mistakes.

Start with the final paragraph and move up from there.

Improve transitions from one paragraph to the next.

4. Be clear, not “impressive” Your primary goal

should be clarity, not proving you can use a thesaurus.

Think about how you would tell a friend.

Be concise, use plain language, get to the point.

5. Start with an outline Keep yourself from

getting off track. Check back to it and

make revisions as needed.

Writing is a process. Make it a thoughtful process.

6. Emphasis on “draft” Revisions are a major

component of writing. Trust yourself to get

ideas down, then go back for fixes.

Just because it’s on paper (or a digital document) doesn’t mean it’s good.

7. Don’t take edits personally You asked for help,

right? Some writers get too

attached to their copy. There’s always room for improvement.

Catch errors, reorder text and think about the piece differently.

8. Write what you know Helps with accuracy

and giving your piece a better flow.

Don’t know? Do some research.

Feel confident in your copy.

Writing “off the top” is counterproductive.