Finally, as a general guideline, don’t write anything you wouldn’t say to the writer face-to-face.

That means no bland, vague statements.

Think, again, about helpful feedback you’ve received in the past; now, think of a time when you received criticism that wasn’t helpful. Generally, writers respond to bad, negative feedback in one of two ways: 1). “How DARE you insult my beloved work? I’m not listening to ANYTHING you have to say!” or 2). “You’re sooooo right, it’s terrible, it’s all trash, I’m throwing the whole thing away and starting over, or maybe I’ll just give up!”

Some writers struggle with giving negative feedback at all;

The writer can look at these and go, a-ha! I’m funny. I should add more like those two.

However, positive feedback is only useful if it’s specific. Think how nice it is to see “Good job!” written on top of a paper

It shows him/her that the reviewer isn’t just “out to get me.”

“What I thought you were writing about was _________” rather than just having him jump in with criticism.

In general, we accept feedback best from people we trust because we believe they have our best interests at heart.

Negative feedback generally means that the reader struggled with something in your piece: either they couldn’t follow the timeline, or they couldn’t see enough detail to understand your point, or they were otherwise confused

any feedback you receive is not about you, as a person, or even you, as a writer: it’s about the paper that’s in front of you.

Remind yourself, as you edit, that your goal is to help make the paper you’re looking at into the best version of itself that you can.

Learning comes from vulnerability, from admitting that we don’t know everything, that we might — on occasion — need some help.

What if they don’t like it? What if they laugh in the wrong place? What if they don’t know what they’re doing? What if they take this last-minute draft and assume that I’m a terrible writer?

This is the hard part. It’s difficult enough to acknowledge to ourselves that things are wrong with our own work;

A bunch of diving boards lined up without a pool (tons of quotes with no analysis) wouldn’t please anyone

and if you stumble as you enter a quotation, there’s probably something you can adjust in your lead-in sentence to make the two fit together well.

And it will be a lot harder for readers to take you seriously if they think you’re ignorant or rude.

When this frustrated reader walks away from your work, trying to figure out, say, why you used so many quotations, or why you kept starting and ending paragraphs with them, she may come to the same conclusions I do about slow drivers:

“I thought all drivers knew that the left lane is for the fastest cars,” and the reader who thinks, “I thought all writers knew that outside sources should be introduced, punctuated, and cited according to a set of standards.”

But here’s the thing: writers can forget that their readers are sometimes just as annoyed at writing that fails to follow conventions as drivers are when stuck behind a car that fails to move over.

To make a cluster, start with a big concept. Write this in the center of a page or screen and circle it. Think of ideas that connect to the big concept. Write these around the big concept and draw connecting lines to the big concept. As you think of ideas that relate to any of the others, create more connections by writing those ideas around the one idea that connects them and draw connecting lines.

Who: Who is involved? Who is affected? What: What is happening? What will happen? What should happen? Where: Where is it happening? When: When is it happening? Why/how: Why is this happening? How is it happening?

Cause/Effect: What is the reason behind your topic? Why is it an issue? Conversely, what is the effect of your topic? Who will be affected by it?

Freewriting

Freewriting is a technique that actually generates text, some of which you may eventually use in your final draft. The rules are similar to brainstorming and clustering:

However, many writers work best from a list of ideas or from freewriting.

Do not censor your ideas

Some people dive right in, writing in complete sentences and paragraphs, while others start with some form of brainstorming or freewriting.

You’re going to use your higher brain right at the start, before it gets distracted. Speed, right now, is your enemy, a trick of the lower brain

the primary audience is the director or coach who decides whether you’ll be first clarinet or take your place in the starting line-up.

Writing just your opinions, theories, and arguments is a lot like serving plain Jell-O

even a one-sentence paragraph.

What paragraph-length rules have you been taught? Should a paragraph be five to eight sentences? always more than two sentences? never longer than a page?

Essay exams—or those last-minute, started-at-1:22-a.m. essays that you may be tempted or forced to write this semester (but not for your writing teacher, of course!)—generally go wrong by failing to meet one of the three principles described at the beginning of this essay.

What’s hard about writing an essay exam?

Good revisers go back and adjust the recipe, seeking a workable combination

Writing teachers are always going on and on about audience

Writing teachers are always going on and on about audience, as if you didn’t already know all about this concept.

Show, don’t just tell.

Always have a thesis. I before E except after C. No one-sentence paragraphs. Use concrete nouns. A semi-colon joins two complete sentences. A conclusion restates the thesis and the topic sentences. Don’t use “I,” check your spelling, make three main points, and don’t repeat yourself. Don’t use contractions. Cite at least three sources, capitalize proper nouns, and don’t use “you.” Don’t start a sentence with “And” or “But,” don’t end a sentence with a preposition, give two examples in every paragraph, and use transition words. Don’t use transition words too much.

I also think, though, that writing is made harder than it has to be when we try to follow too many rules for writing.