Gayeon Lee/What's important to get writing right/Tuesday 5-6

What is a good piece of writing?

A good essay arouses readers' attention and engages them into the author's story. It can make a strong impression on the readers or even change their notion. This is why many people, whether he or she is a professional writer or a mere college student, are interested in mastering their crafts of writing. Therefore, there are three rules which I believe important that students can follow to make a good piece of writing; organizing well, getting feedback, and writing over.

Student writers tend to make irrelevant sentences as they go through paragraphs. A good piece of writing should be well organized. The basic format would be introduction, body, and conclusion. With this basic rule, a writer can include his own idea and supporting details. Whether the subject is stale or not does not matter if a writer can make his own point. This way, he or she can turn an ordinary to a fine piece of writing.

There are some types of writing which are kept for the writers themselves, but most of the writings are written to be read. For most student writers, it is hard to elaborate an excellent writing without other people's help. For example, even professional writers ask for some help from their peers before publishing their work. So it is important to get feedback from peers or instructors who actually know how to write. Through this process, a writer can get an objective view over his or her work.

In addition to getting feedback, revising is also an important factor in writing. It is even better to take some time and write over his or her work several times. For example, after finishing the first draft, rewrite in a few days and then in a weeks. This method is quite helpful in that people easily fall in love with their work that they sometimes miss the point or give wordy explanations and never find out their mistake.

It is hard for most of students to write a full page of essay. I myself started to write 500-word essay from middle school. However, it is still hard to come up with the topic and even start a word. Therefore, following the organizing rules, getting advice from instructors, and revising several times are essential.