Making The Same Mistakes

There are a great number of lessons to learn on the road to becoming a better writer. Usually, we have an idea of how we want our writing to look and sound like. The lessons we learn and the effort we put in go toward turning our writing into a form we are happy with. Eventually, you will be able to do that. Then what?

I do not think I am the greatest writer in the world, but when I work on a project, my finished product is something I'm proud of. I have the ability to write a rough draft, then revise and edit it until all the little mistakes I made are gone. So what are my goals now in terms of writing ability?

In short, my goal is to not make those mistakes in the first place. It's largely impossible to write a perfect first draft, but at least I can work on not making the same mistakes that I make over and over again.

I don't worry about writing run-on sentences; they have never been much of a problem for me. However, I do have a problem with putting in useless words and phrases. A common one we're taught in school is to not use phrases like "I think" and "I believe". The idea is that if you are writing the paper, it is understood that we are reading your beliefs. But there are other words, words that we use in spoken language that just weigh down writing. Words like "probably" and "maybe" make you sound unsure and don't add anything to a sentence. They weaken writing.

As such, when I am writing, if I catch myself using weak language or just writing in a circuitous fashion, I will delete it and rewrite it in a clearer and stronger way. I know that if I edited my work, I would catch those mistakes and clean them up, but I just want to save myself from needing to fix anything in the first place.

Of course, this is something you can start right away. Even if you are still trying to figure out how to make your writing just the way you like it, if you notice yourself making the same mistakes, try to avoid them while you're writing the next thing.