NOVEMBER 2005 :: ON CAMPUS

The Mighty Pen
Good Writing Will Serve You Well in College, and Beyond

By Caitlin J. Noris
Special to The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition

If the thought of writing a term paper makes you want to hit yourself repeatedly in the head with a keyboard, you might want to bring a few bottles of aspirin to college.

Writing is a component of many college classes, and students of all majors will be expected to churn out a term paper or two each semester. This month, we'll work on how you can improve your writing, save your sanity, and keep your keyboard intact.

For this, I've enlisted the advice of Geeta Kothari, director of the Writing Center at my college, the University of Pittsburgh. Since she has tutored and taught college students writing skills for 16 years, Ms. Kothari is well-versed in the problems students most frequently break pencils over.

Ms. Kothari believes the most common mistake students make when writing a paper is failing to adequately brainstorm beforehand. Lack of planning, she says "turns the whole enterprise into a very painful event." Don't try to research and write a paper at the same time. Instead, use index cards, graphs or outlines to structure your paper first. It may take several drafts to fully form your ideas, so leave time for revisions.

Cart Before Horse

If you suffer from writer's block, try skipping to the middle of the paper instead of fiddling with the introduction over and over again. "Sometimes it makes more sense to write the introduction last, after you've figured out what you're saying," says Ms. Kothari. "At the Writing Center, we often find that papers begin in the last paragraph-the conclusion-and the writer has spent the previous three pages warming up."

If you're struggling with a paper, ask for help! Most colleges provide students with free on-campus tutoring. A professional can pinpoint mistakes you make repeatedly and suggest improvements. "Once a writer starts to recognize her own pattern of error, she can learn how to read for it before she hands in her paper," says Ms. Kothari.

Common mistakes include grammar and spelling errors, which appear sloppy and are easily avoidable. In addition to a dictionary and a thesaurus (which will improve your vocabulary), writers at all levels should purchase a good writing-rules book. Personally, I like "The Little, Brown Handbook" by H. Ramsey Fowler and Jane Aaron, which describes the writing process, grammar rules, research techniques, avoiding clichés and the latest guidelines for citing sources in a variety of styles.

All that brainstorming and outlining can seem like just too much work, and some students try to avoid it altogether by plagiarizing (stealing someone's words or thoughts). Ms. Kothari recalls a student who tried to fool his professor when he "handed in a paper with huge chunks lifted, verbatim, from a Web site, which the professor found by using Google. When she confronted the student, he tried to deny plagiarizing the Web site, but he couldn't deny the obvious similarity between the Web pages and his paper," Ms. Kothari says.

Finally, Ms. Kothari recalls, the student confessed, telling the professor: "'I got my buddy to write the paper. How was I to know he was going to copy a Web site?'"

That student and his co-conspirator probably had more guts than brains, but plagiarizing is more than just stupid. It's morally and academically reprehensible. If you're caught plagiarizing-and with Google, detecting plagiarism is almost as easy as committing it-you may fail the course. You might even face expulsion. In short, don't even think about it.

If you're ever in doubt about how much you can borrow from another source, make sure you ask your professor for advice, and cite all your sources in footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography, even if you're not using direct quotations.

Additionally, proofread everything you turn in, or better yet, have someone else proofread it. Be especially careful with proper nouns that won't get picked up the spell-checker. "When I was interning at our school's athletic department, I interviewed a football player and wrote an article about him for that week's football program," says Robyn, a junior majoring in Communications at Pitt. She failed to ask him the correct spelling of his name. "I misspelled his name throughout the entire article," she recalls with a groan. To prevent small mistakes from becoming big ones, be sure to fact-check, reread and revise before turning in a paper.

Beyond the Classroom

Of course, writing in college goes beyond the classroom. Now that I'm a senior, instead of being tormented by term papers, I'm focused on writing stunning cover letters and tweaking every word of my resume. Employers of all fields seek students who can express themselves in writing with both accuracy and style.

If you're sending an email, keep in mind that grammar and spelling rules still apply in cyberspace. Also, be respectful and use formal salutations. "Until they've established a connection with the person at the other end of the email, students should follow the formalities of professional writing," advises Ms. Kothari.

Of course, the best way to improve your writing is to write and read as much as possible. Being technically accurate in a paper won't matter if the writing is lifeless. For that, read books written at a level slightly higher than you're used to, and you'll improve your tone, style, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, creativity and ability to use allusions and references.

I'm slowly tackling a list of the 100 best 20th-century novels. I figure the next time an employer asks me what I read recently, I'll be able to say "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov or "The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway." Hey, it's better than admitting I'm addicted to reading celebrity tabloids!