As a non traditional student coming from a very technical background, I'm used to writing a certain way. I'm currently taking physiology and neural systems - both of which are writing intensive courses at my university. I'm at the end of my semester and I'm still struggling with how to convey my thoughts and ideas in a more cohesive manner so my professors can stop telling me my sentences don't make sense. I realized, maybe a little too late for this semester but still not too late for the future, I need to try to improve my writing.
Does anyone have any ideas in terms of what I could read/look at to improve this? I know I can get down the concepts and memorize facts, but relaying them together and making my paragraphs "flow" seem to be the biggest issue. Apparently, I write too much, and do not get across to the reader that I really understand something.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Writing is incredibly important and its great you want to improve your skills. Try getting a copy of "On Writing Well" -- it's a great handbook.
I've written down some notes on how to structure your ideas and writing. Maybe they'll help.
1. Write down your main idea, in school they call this a thesis statement.
2. Under that write 3-5 general "facts" (depending on how long or short the piece of writing will be) that support your main idea.
If you're writing a persuasive essay or an argumentative essay, you'll also want to jot down 3 or more opposing arguments.
3. For each supporting "fact" for your main idea, write a paragraph for just that fact. Whatever you want to write about that fact and its support for your main idea, go for it. All in one paragraph. Don't worry about tying it in with your other facts, just focus on one fact and one paragraph at a time.
For a persuasive essay, do the same for each opposing argument. Tell us why your opponent would give arguments A,B, and C. Show some empathy, and then show why each of your opposer's ideas are false or weak overall.
4. Now look over all of your supporting paragraphs. They are all related, some more obviously than others. Decide which facts overlap and group them sequentially. Decide which ideas we readers need to know about first to help us understand more later.
5. Now you have all of your info for the meat of your piece. It's up to you and the length of your assignment to decide how much of what you've written will make the cut to the final product.
Look for repetitive ideas that don't tell the reader anything new, you don't need all of them. Tell us once or twice, that's enough.
Also, don't be afraid of breaking sentences and ideas up to make your writing more clear and concise. It's a lot easier to digest this:
"Apples are very nutritious fruit. Their skin holds much of the Vitamin x and y, which aid with a and b."
As opposed to:
"One of the most nutritious fruit is the apple because its skin contains vitamins x and y, which aid with a and b because..."
The latter is too long to keep track of. Concise language keeps both you and your reader on track.
I hope this helps a bit with fleshing out your ideas. If you need someone to proofread/edit some short pieces, I'd be glad to do it.
