If you’re just starting out writing, I recommend writing character-focused stories. If you’re not already familiar with the terms, character-focused stories are based around a central cast of characters and their journey of adventure, growth or perhaps survival. Within this framing, stories exist along a sort of spectrum and on the opposite end from character-based stores are plot-based stories, which are stories that focus more on events and the situation being depicted than the characters caught up in said events or situations. I’ve never encountered a story that is purely one or the other; most simply tend to rely on one or the other and thus are said to be based on plot or based on characters.

But as I said before, I think character-focused stories are a good place to start. I’m not going to just come right out and say that character-based stories are easier to write than their plot-based counterparts — that isn’t really true, after all. It’s more that character-based stories are more manageable and come more naturally to beginning writers — usually, but not necessarily. So if you wanna go out and write something plot-based, please, don’t let me dissuade you. Here, however, I am going to talk about character-based stories.

The characters in a story should be based in some way on people. Even if your character is an emotionless robot or an ornery badger, there should be some element to them that an audience can identify with because they are, assumedly, also a person. Coming up with ideas for characters in my experience isn’t particularly hard, but at times, writing good characters can seem impossible — especially when you’re just starting out. So, with that in mind, I’ve written a handful of tips aimed at helping people improve their story’s characters.

Give your characters clear motivations

Ask yourself, “what drives my characters?” Each of them. Readers respond to characters that have clear goals. I’m not saying you have to spell it out for the audience or have every character shout from the mountaintops that they’re looking for the six-toed man that killed their grandfather in a quest for retribution. That’s pretty cool, if you don’t mind me saying, but the point is: your audience should get some sense that they’re after something.

A large component of this idea is the difference between an active and a reactive character (sometimes referred to as a passive character, though those terms are not necessarily synonymous). A character that has motivations and then acts on those motivations is a driving force in the plot; they have agency and their actions often lead to consequences for other characters that they must in turn react to, creating (in a lot of cases) this domino-effect we call a story, a plot. Your readers will have a clear understanding of what your character’s place in the story is as a result, and these are the characters readers can grow to love and never forget.

Write your characters’ backgrounds

This is a trick I learned a while ago from a writer friend of mine, and it has to do with an idea I’ve related in a previous article—that no words are wasted. Your story is probably focused on your protagonist (or several protagonists) and written from their perspective. However, you also likely gave them some side characters to aid them or tag along, and there’s probably also an antagonist making their life difficult. All of these characters need detail, need to come to life in order to be convincing and interesting. But before a character comes to life on the page for your readers, they have to come to life in your imagination.

If you know how a character talks, how they act, how they think, the color of their favorite undergarments, what they dream of, what they fear—the more details you can invent and solidify in your mind about them then the more life-like that character is going to be as they act in your story. You have to get to know them, kinda like a new friend. However, rather than ordering some pizza and taking an hour to finally pick what movie you’re going to watch, the best way to get to know any of these characters, including your protagonist, is to write part of their story with them at the center. Explore each of your characters. Write them into being.

Sometimes you’ll find that they’re more interesting than your protagonist. Most of the time, you’ll gain a familiarity with that character that you wouldn’t otherwise have had. You get ideas for their unique mannerisms and turns of phrase, where they’re going, what motivates them, where they’ve been and a whole bunch of other stuff that’s occurred in their past. Sometimes I do this and end up with notes or scenes for other stories I want to pursue with these characters at the center, other times these scenes or short narratives end up in the “main story” that I’m writing. And I don’t have any recommendations for how little or how much to write. However much or little you write, all of it should enhance your “main story” and ultimately lead to a more well-rounded cast of characters.

Don’t slack on dialogue

Not every character story has dialogue, but a lot will. I could probably write an entire article on dialogue, but the best and simplest advice I can give upfront is: pay close attention to how actual people talk. A lot of us think we already do this. I know I certainly did. But trust me, you don’t. If you’re fortunate enough to have some really good readers or helpful fellow writers look at your work, I’ve found they often dispel this thought for you very quickly. I highly recommend getting some of those if you can.

Writing convincing dialogue is difficult, and in spite of their misguided certainty that they already know how to do this, a lot of writers somehow still know this intuitively. When you’re watching a kid’s cartoon, a B-list movie or a TV series that only lasted a single season and you hear that one character give the most forced and unnecessary exposition dump to another character that should probably already know all of the things they’re being told, and you can’t help but cringe or roll your eyes, that is terrible dialogue standing out. It happens all the time. It’s stiff and unnatural and makes you feel like the story is wasting your time. And there are a whole slew of other things in dialogue that have a similar effect: characters who say things that don’t quite align with their personality, intimate characters being overly formal with one another, an imbalance of words and actions, use of confusing adverbs etc. Dialogue is one of many skills in writing that you can always improve, a repertoire that you can always grow, and doing so goes a long way in bringing your characters to life.

Gloss over nonessential characters

Say you’re writing a story set amidst the little boxes of the 1920s suburbs. Your story focuses on the families of a particular cul-de-sac within a development and the drama that ensues as their children antagonize one another and drag their folks into the mess. Perhaps the men are all vying for status as top dog. Well then, the milkman that comes every morning, drops off the milk at every door and leaves, is probably not that important (and while I agree with those of you thinking there are plenty of ways he can be made to be, let’s set those possibilities aside for now). He doesn’t matter, so don’t even bother naming him. It isn’t worth your audience’s time. Don’t tell us about his uniform or his endearing smile or the skip in his step. Have him come in, do his thing and head right back out, asap.

A lot of the stories you’ll write will have these: the janitor, the security guard, the friendly neighbor, the woman at the grocery store, yet another nameless soldier—the list goes on. When you add detail to anything, attention is brought to it, and if you’re bringing attention to something then your audience is going to think that it’s important (some writers will even tell you that you should only bother detailing things that are important to the story). So make up your mind ahead of time whether or not these characters matter, and if they don’t, just let them be “the milkman” and leave it at that.

So, have you got any cool characters you want to show off? Please, I’d love to see them! Need a hand with your dialogue? I’m all ears. If this article’s been of any use to you and you’ve written anything cool you’d like feedback on or advice about, then come see me at the writing center. I’m always down to talk about writing—storytelling and good characters especially.

Contributed by: Lyle Davis, Writing Center Tutor

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Have a question? Submit it to us, or come see us in the Writing Center for some more great advice!

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What is the MLA’s approach to the singular they?

In its publications, the MLA generally does not use the plural pronoun they (or their, them, and themselves) to refer to singular nouns. While the singular they is not uncommon in spoken English and in some informal contexts, in formal writing it is best to reword for agreement in number. In the following example their and they are mismatched with each student:

Each student is expected to choose the topic of their research paper before they take the midterm.

In our editorial practice, our first preference is to cast the reference into the plural or to reword so that no pronoun is needed. In the first revision below, we have made the subject plural to agree with the pronouns. In the second, we have eliminated the pronouns.

Students are expected to choose the topic of their research paper before they take the midterm.

Each student is expected to choose a research paper topic before taking the midterm.

Alternatively, you may revise the pronouns to agree with a singular subject:

Each student is expected to choose the topic of his or her research paper before taking the midterm.

But constructions such as “his or her” are often cumbersome, and some writers may find singular, gender-specific constructions insufficient, given that many people do not identify with a particular gender. Using plural constructions, if possible, is often the best solution—and the most inclusive one—especially when you’re editing someone else’s writing.

Writers who wish to use a non-gender-specific pronoun to refer to themselves may prefer they and their (or a neologism like hir). Likewise, writers should follow the personal pronoun choices of individuals they write about, if their preferences are known, and editors should respect those preferences. They may be used in a singular sense according to a person’s stated preference for it:

They are writing their research paper on Austen’s Persuasion.

The MLA’s usage guidelines mostly follow the consensus of good practice among authors and editors of scholarly works. If a consensus emerges on a singular generic personal pronoun, we’ll most likely incorporate it into our usage. 

If writing papers is something you struggle with, then it can be tempting to just throw down your thoughts as best as you can, and not look back before you turn it in. However, revising is vital to the process of writing a good paper, and it can even improve your grade if you do a thorough job.

Here are a few pointers on how to revise your paper effectively. 

Print your paper out. 

This step may seem unnecessary, but there is a difference in mentality when you are looking at your paper in a word processor on the computer and when you are looking at your paper on physical paper. When you are working in Word or Google docs, it’s much easier to erase and replace, and then try and reword what you replaced it with, and then get caught up on that one word you want to use — in essence, the text in your electronic document is too malleable. In order to get through your paper quickly and efficiently, it’s best to have your words in an unchangeable form. This allows you to isolate the problem areas without the ease of slipping into composing mode. Of course, if you don’t have access to a printer, this step isn’t necessary for the process — it just helps. 

Read your paper aloud. 

You may have heard this before, and rolled your eyes and said, “Yeah, okay professor,” but it really works when you’re self-editing. When reading silently in your head, there there are a lot of things you can easily skip over (if you don’t believe me, go back and read that sentence again — out loud if necessary). There is something about reading out loud that makes our brain pay more attention to the things we’re reading, to make sure we’re saying it correctly, and so it’s a lot harder to skip over silly small mistakes, like accidentally omitting a word, or spelling something wrong. 

Not only does it help with catching careless errors, though. It can also help you figure out how your ideas sound out loud; and how your ideas sound out loud to you is a good way to gauge how your ideas will sound to someone else, whether they are reading in their head or not. And if a sentence doesn’t make sense to you out loud, it most likely won’t make sense to the person who is trying to read your paper. This is a great way of catching problem areas in your essay before you give it to your professor to read.

If this feels too silly for you, then try reading it out loud to someone you trust. 

Utilize the prompt. 

If you’ve finished your paper, that likely means that you think you’ve answered all the prompt has asked of you. But some students miss some points because they haven’t returned to the prompt and double-checked that they have everything they need in their paper. Don’t be this person! Return to the prompt and identify the specific things that were asked. Then go back into your paper, and underline or highlight each of these elements where you find them in your paper. If there is something that you don’t find, make sure you add it before you turn it in. 

Show someone else. 

This is one of the best ways to get feedback, and its how the pros perfect their work all the time. Take your paper to your mom, or your best friend, or your younger sibling. Have them read it and tell you what they think. And if you can’t find anyone willing or able to read your paper and offer helpful feedback, bring it in to us! We are always happy to help. 

Happy writing! 

Have a question? Submit it to us, or come see us in the Writing Center for some more great advice!

Follow the UMBC Writing Center Blog here: https://umbcwritingcorner.wordpress.com/blog/

When the new semester comes around and you find your time consumed with writing essays, lab reports, research papers, reading responses and/or everything in between, it’s easy to develop a… contentious relationship with writing. But, while writing is often work we have to do in order to learn from our classes and get good grades, it doesn’t always have to be.

Hi, I’m Lyle. I’ a writing center tutor, I grew up on the Chronicles of Narnia and Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars novels and I’d like to encourage you to try and write for yourself for a change.

Writing for yourself, or at least writing for something or someone other than your professors, can have a profound impact on both your ability to write and your opinion of writing in general. Writing can be personal, therapeutic and even fun. When I write, I keep a regular journal that helps me process my thoughts and be creative. But I really love reading genre fiction too, and when I’m feeling brave, I like to write some of my own. I wish more people did. It’s a rare treat that a student comes in for an appointment with me to work on a piece of creative writing (though it has happened). That said, creative writing’s not for everyone. Just like not everyone paints or plays the trombone, and not everyone should. The worst thing you could do, though, is give it a shot—you may just end up liking it.

If you’ve never done this sort of writing before, or maybe if the last time you did was in grade school or something, it can be a somewhat daunting prospect. Suddenly without strict guidelines for formatting, content and word count, you may find yourself floundering in trying to figure out how to start. For that reason, what I’ve written here is a collection of five pieces of advice or tips I would love to have given myself if I was just starting out again. Perhaps they’ll give you a better idea how or where to start.

Write to satisfy your tastes.

Everyone has taste. It’s that voice shouting in the back of your head when a character in the movie you’re watching does something you think is stupid, when you would have painted the spaceship a completely different color or when a story’s plot holes are just begging to be pointed out. Turn your frustration into inspiration: try and write it better! I think this is how a lot of writers get started and it’s one of the easiest ways to find something to write about that you can really invest yourself in. A lot of the time, you’ll struggle to, and that can be a useful lesson in understanding how hard writing a good stoy can be. But maybe sometimes, you’ll manage it and you’ll have a story worth sharing.

Focus on your characters.

Depending on the kind of writer you are (or perhaps are primed to become) this may or may not be a problem for you, but I know that I’m the kind of writer that gets really lost in the setting. I can get caught up in building and describing something I feel is really strange or novel, but if you think about any setting in any story you’ve ever liked, all of those settings were occupied by characters, and it’s those characters that made the story, not the setting. Don’t lose sight of your hero amidst the misty forests and towering skyscrapers.

No word is a wasted word.

This is an important lesson for writing in general, but personal creative writing is arguably the best place to learn it. It’s a trap a lot of writers fall into early on. You’ll quickly find that not everything you write will be good. Not everything you write will even be decent, not for a while. But part of the process of writing is just getting those not-so-great words on the page anyways. Understand that everything you put down on the page serves some purpose. Sometimes it gives you an idea that you’ll want to rewrite your entire story around. Other times, you’ll write something you hate or you’re not comfortable with and you’ll know to avoid writing that sort of thing for the time being. But don’t feel the need to fit every sentence you put down into the story. You might end up getting rid of entire pages, but that doesn’t mean that the effort you put into those pages is wasted. First things first, however—get those words on the page. Once they’re there, you can start learning from them, start figuring out how to improve them, but you can’t do that until after you’ve started.

Writing more leads to writing better.

The point before is a bit of a downer but let me try and turn it into an upside for you because, in truth, I think it is one. Your early writing can be as experimental as you like. Have an idea for a fantasy adventure without any of the standard fantasy orcs and elves? Give it a shot. Want to try your hand at a space opera piece that doesn’t involve a galaxy in turmoil? By all means. Interested in an existential horror story that substitutes the occult and otherworldly entities with all-knowing faeries and insidious forest creatures? …uh, go ahead. Maybe you just want to try your hand at a simple fable, a children’s story. That’s fantastic. The best way to get a feel for writing is to “feel” everything—everything that interests you at least. Try it all and don’t commit yourself to any one idea, because when you limit yourself, it’s really easy to get burned out or have a run-in with the infamous writer’s block, and self-imposing limits is an easier trap to fall into than a lot of writers think. And it can be good to self-impose limits, but not without purpose behind it. You’ll know when you’ve got something you really want to commit to, but until then, try it all.

Don’t worry about order.

I think there’s this urge or this unconscious logic that we all follow when we write things, pushing us to try and write from the start of everything, beginning to end. Everything we watch or read is in order, no one reads a research paper and then the abstract, there’s no shuffle button for a Netflix series, so why shouldn’t the same go for what we write? Simply put, I don’t think this is how most people actually think—even though it’s easy to think that it is… Stay with me now. When you’re brainstorming, sometimes you get an awesome idea for how a story should end, then you’ll get another idea for how another story should start and a whole bunch of ideas for cool scenes in the middle of other stories—rarely are any of these ideas in order. Do yourself a favor and ignore the tidy, obsessive part of your brain when you pick up the pen and just write that idea you have, regardless of its place in a larger narrative. You’ll often find that you come up with the other parts in the process of writing or revising what you have, or you’ll have enough pieces already that it’s relatively easy to just fill in the gaps. Not everyone writes like this, but I encourage you to try it. Treat your story like a puzzle, not an obstacle course. Find all of the pieces first, worry about assembling them later.

So, those are my five tips. Inspired? Have any ideas yet? Awesome. Glad to hear it. Get those thoughts on the paper or mash them into your keyboard asap! And once you do, come and seem me in the writing center. I’d love to have a conversation with you about your writing. Still not sure how to start but know that you want to? Come see me anyways—I can help with that too. Either way, let’s talk about writing!

Contributed by: Lyle Davis, Writing Center Tutor

Follow the UMBC Writing Center blog here: https://umbcwritingcorner.wordpress.com/blog/

Have a question? Submit it to us, or come see us in the Writing Center for some more great advice!

If you’re reading this because you’ve gotten through your entire paper and aren’t sure what to do now, then congratulations! You’ve gotten through the hardest part. But now you might not be sure what to stick on the end of your paper that your professor will actually be looking for. 

In fact, maybe you’ve heard them mention something called the “so what,” but you’re still not really sure what it means. Well, not to worry — the big “so what” is not as mysterious as it sounds; it all just has to do with context. 

If you read our article on introductions, then you’ll remember that context is what it’s called when you show how your topic fits into reality and the world at large. You should always start your paper by providing some context, and now I’ll explain how to close your essay with a little bit of context, too. However, the context that goes at the end is a little different. 

It may be easier if we think about this in a chronological way: 

• The context you include in your introduction is the past of your topic. Perhaps the development of the topic, how it came into being, laws that were introduced, and other similar things that describe its past. 

• The content of the body of your paper can be seen as the present of your topic — it might be how something works, current statistics, and current, immediate effects of that topic. 

• So now, the context in your conclusion, or the so what, should be the future of your topic. You could include things like a solution to a problem that should come as the next step, possible future implications (even if you’re just speculating), or both. Something that discusses the aftermath of the topic that maybe we can’t foresee yet. 

But why do I have to do this?

Thegoal here is to provide exigency, or a strong sense of urgency, for your readers, because you can’t rely on them to care otherwise. This is the point at which it’s okay to stray from your main point just a little bit, in order to show readers what the stakes are. 

To use the example from the introductions post, it might look something like this:

If we don’t do something to protect the polar bears now, they may disappear forever.

Now we are still discussing how the topic of polar bears and the environment fit into the world at large, but we’re focusing on what happens if the topic isn’t addressed. We are showing our readers what the stakes are.

But what if my topic doesn’t have stakes?

Impossible. No matter what you’re arguing, if you care about the topic then chances are that someone else somewhere will care; you just have to find the right audience. For instance:

Bleaching hair is bad for the scalp and should be stopped as a beauty practice. 

Anyone who bleaches their hair, or anyone whose job it is to bleach other’s hair, would be your audience, and so you just have to consider what would be important to them in your conclusion. 

Although both are valuable, engineers are more important to construction projects than architects. 

While this might not appeal to a general audience, it would certainly appeal to engineers, architects, and anyone who needs to employ those people, like large companies, whose bottom lines might be at stake.

Puppy mills are unethical businesses that treat dogs like produce and should therefore be outlawed. 

This topic is going to matter to anyone who cares about dogs (and there are a lot of us!). This may seem like an obvious one, but the point is that the fate of the world doesn’t have to be at stake to make your audience care; seemingly trivial topics have their own set of stakes. You just have to look for them. 

Now let’s compare: 

Here is an environmentalism conclusion that a lot of people likely turn in because they aren’t quite sure how to end their papers. 

In conclusion, we need to implement environmental protections because the ozone is deteriorating, water is becoming a scarce resource, and lots of animals are dying off as a result. This is why the environment needs to be saved. 

There are definitely some nuggets of real-world urgency in here, but if these are points you’ve already made in your paper that you’re just parroting off again, you’re writing a conclusion that you can expect your audience to skip right over. This may cause them to think that what you’ve already said is where the conversation, and the consequences, stop. 

Here is the exact same conclusion, but tweaked a little to have the so what incorporated into it. 

With the ozone deteriorating, water becoming a scarce resource, and many species’ populations dwindling towards extinction, it’s clear that the U.S. government must impose environmental protections on states. If this doesn’t happen soon, it’s no telling whether the next humanitarian crisis could happen in our own backyards as we struggle to share the few natural resources we have left. 

Notice how much spookier that one was? And that’s the whole point! You want to end the paper with this kind of a tone, in order to make sure your reader leaves your paper having something to think and wonder about for themselves. This will leave a much deeper impression on your audience than just giving them a laundry list of what you’ve already told them, and may even make them want to learn more.  

Happy writing!

Have a question? Submit it to us, or come see us in the Writing Center for some more great advice!

Follow our Writing Center blog here: https://umbcwritingcorner.wordpress.com/blog/

I transferred here from M University in a small city in southeast Texas. It was the big town surrounded by small towns, so when citizens of those small towns went to college, they went to MU. That means there were a plethora of people with conservative, small-town ideals congregated together in one big, closed-minded campus. For my first assignment in English 100, we were to choose a topic regarding the modern-day issues that American society faced. I turned in an essay entitled “How Media Portrayal Contributes to the Dehumanization of African Americans” which mainly dealt with the murdering of unarmed Blacks by American police and how some media outlets would spread misinformation when reporting on those cases.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t shocked when I received my graded paper and realized that the professor’s comments largely ignored the quality of content on my essay. Instead, they focused on how all the facts presented in my text were wrong. She had written in the margins what really happened during an incident that I had used as an example. That should have been a great, eye-opening, learning experience, but it wasn’t. I had used credible sources and still, my professor was attempting to correct me with inaccurate information. In fact, she had succumbed to the very misinformation I had denounced throughout my paper. In every word of her “corrections” I could read her intolerance and I knew that every paper I’d want to write would be misunderstood and belittled. I knew that the discussions our class would have were ones that I wouldn’t want to be involved in; so I dropped the class, feeling dejected and like an outcast in society.

Fast forward some three odd years to an embarrassing transfer credit report and me as a junior retaking English 100, here at UMBC. (Whoever said colleges make students retake classes unnecessarily to make money?) However, I did get a much warmer feeling from my English 100 professor. This time the first essay was about a book character. Being the outlandish topics person we’ve already established me to be, I wanted to write about the bisexual coming out of the titular hacker in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I submitted a rough draft, omitting her sexuality for the peer editing phase. After our peer session I went up to the professor and told her I felt I could make my paper stronger if I discussed the character’s sexual identity, but I wasn’t sure if that’d be appropriate. She assured me that she’d love to read about that and encouraged me to write about anything I’d like. So I did.

I wrote about the aforementioned character. I wrote about womanism, about how white feminism is exclusive, and that women of color and non-gender conforming people need feminism too. I wrote about abolishing tipping wage and how tipping itself actually has racist foundations that trace back to slavery. I proudly let my inner black feminist — my inner womanist — out in every paper that I wrote and I was allowed to do so unapologetically. Unapologetically, because my professor enjoyed my writing and continued to encourage me to write more. Her comments on my essay included details about how thought provoking my topics were and considerate insights on how to further improve my writing. I believe it was the same for the rest of the class, because other students wrote about the privatization of prisons, socioeconomic class’ effect on SAT scores, and the meaning of communism. Our professor didn’t let her personal opinions of content impact or influence her grading.

At the end of the semester, after reading my essays and viewing my interactions during peer editing sessions, the professor approached me to ask if I’d be interested in tutoring at the UMBC Writing Center. She was the director there and felt I’d be a good fit. I thought back on my experience in her class. It had been an open and welcoming environment for the diverse group of students within it. Even our class’ Writing Fellow ensured students received the help they needed and felt comfortable about their essays. With all of that in mind, I was overjoyed to be presented with the opportunity and accepted her offer to tutor. I agreed because I was excited about being able to help other students. Additionally, I was excited about belonging to a group that was headed by Professor Elaine MacDougall. I want to contribute to other students having a welcome and encouraging place to work on writing so they can come to love it like I do.

Thank you, Director MacDougall, for making the Writing Center that place.

With how writing is treated in high schools, it’s no surprise that many students dread the act of writing, and put off writing papers until the very last moment possible. Needless to say — this is a bad plan. Not only does this leave you short on time, but if you labor over trying to write the perfect paper the first time, then you’re likely wasting a lot of that precious time. 

This is where free writing comes in. It goes against everything high school probably taught you, but it’s a surefire way to get through your paper quicker, and if you follow these three easy steps, you might find it’s a strategy that works for you. 

STEP ONE: Make sure you have your basic essay idea in your head, including all citations and evidence. 

This part is important, because if you’re writing a research paper, then you’re going to need to have your research done beforehand and know the vague supporting ideas you plan to use; that’s just part of the process, and free writing won’t really help with getting that done faster. However, if you’re writing a personal narrative, then you might just need to identify the moment you want to write about; or if you’re writing an opinion piece, just have the topic you want to argue about in mind. 

Also worth noting: if you’re the kind of person that is organized and operates using outlines, make sure you have that prepared as well before you begin step two. But if you’re the kind of writer that likes to bravely forge ahead into the wilderness of the unknown, then advance to step two. 

STEP TWO: Stop trying to edit while you write. 

The instructions here are fairly simple: Just start writing. Don’t edit, don’t reread, don’t pass go or collect 200 dollars. Just write. Turn off the editorial voice in your head and simply write whatever comes to you. Even if it’s mush. Even if it’s repetitive or poorly worded or doesn’t quite make sense. Just get the ideas out of your head and onto the paper. This is critical, and it should go on until you run out of the thoughts you had planned for your paper.  

This step is going to be harder than it sounds, because we are largely taught, unintentionally, that ideas need to be perfected before they come out of our heads and are committed to writing. As a result, we often end up editing the thoughts as they are coming out, and this ends up being incredibly tedious and time consuming. We fiddle for long minutes with finding the perfect words to express what we mean. We write, erase, and reword sentences until they are flawless. We stare at the wall as we wait for ideas, whole and lucid, to hit us across the face like a ton of bricks. But what isn’t said enough is that it doesn’t need to be perfect the first time! In fact that there are no good writers, only good revisers, as most professional writing we see today has been revised several times over.

STEP THREE: Revise that mush! 

NOW you have permission to go back and rewrite, edit, and revise the imperfect thoughts that you’ve written. Only now does the amorphous brain goop that spilled onto the page in the previous stage have any obligation to start looking like recognizable, coherent thoughts. Once you have all of your thoughts out on the paper, take your editor’s pen (or your cursor, depending on your editing preference) and go through your free written essay, moving, rewording, and deleting things as necessary. 

While this may sound like a lot of work, it can save much more time than attempting to compose a perfect essay the first time, as revising words to better fit what you mean is significantly easier than generating content the first time around. And oftentimes, once you are able to see the full picture of your essay in your head, from start to finish, you’re more easily able to understand what you’re trying to say. 

And if you’re worried about revising, don’t hesitate to bring your first-draft paper into the writing center! We’re always happy to help. 

Happy Writing! 

Have a question? Submit it to us, or come see us in the Writing Center for some more great advice!

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And even if you’re stuck with a lame, super un-spicy topic like saving the polar bears, you can still make your readers interested, without trying too hard. In fact, it’s surprisingly easy to do, as long as you start by providing context. 

Context 

While it may be tempting to wonder why you can’t just jump right into your topic and run with it, imagine if you tried to start a conversation the same way. Can you just start talking to someone about why tanning beds should have age restrictions, or why we need to protect the environment? No, and the reason for that is simple: they simply won’t care until you give them a reason. 

But if you were to mention a teenage girl who developed cancer from using tanning beds, or discuss the dwindling numbers of polar bears, this will tell your readers why they should care by providing a sense of relevant urgency. 

This is called providing context. Context is what it’s called when you show how your topic fits into reality and the world at large. The morality of tanning beds fits into the world because it affects people in real life by making them sick. Environmentalism fits into the world because it affects the animals we love, like polar bears. 

Providing this kind of context should be the focus of your introduction, because once your reader thinks your topic is important, they will be invested enough to read the rest of your paper. 

What this might look like: 

In the year 2016 alone, the number of polar bears living outside of captivity dwindled from 25,000 to 15,000.  

Background 

The next thing you want to discuss is some background. This is any information your readers will need to know in order to understand your topic. So, for instance, if any important, relevant laws were recently passed, or if your topics require lots of complicated definitions, then this would be the time to discuss such things. 

What this might look like: 

Although quite a few laws have been passed in favor of reducing humanity’s environmental impact, the populations of many endangered species continue to decline.  

Thesis and Moving On 

Once you’ve finished framing your topic you can move onto the part where you actually tell your audience what YOU think about the topic you’ve picked. So this would be the point at which you say: 

Due to these concerning ecological patterns, it’s morally mandated for the US Senate to introduce new legislation that will incentivize citizens to be more earth-conscious. 

And PRESTO — you have a basic introduction! Just keep in mind that your context and background portions should probably be larger than these examples, but not TOO big. You want to give your readers just the right amount of information to get them hooked without boring them. But most importantly, remember — you can do this! 

Happy writing!

*Follow the UMBC Writing Center Blog here: https://umbcwritingcorner.wordpress.com/blog/

Meagan Barrett — Writing Tutor 

Major/Minor: English major, pursuing both a Creative Writing and Psychology minor
Strengths: English, creative writing, and overall organization
About me:  I’m a huge writing and reading nerd; when I’m not in class or working in the Writing Center, I’m almost definitely either reading, writing, or drawing. I hope to edit novels some day, and maybe write a few of my own!