Be a Good Student: Take Notes<\/h2>\n
In order to studying writing, you must be ready to take notes. So, while you read, keep a pencil in hand and a reading journal ready. Write the title of what you are reading and any other information you might want to recall about the piece later. As you read, consider a few of the following questions and jot down your answers:<\/p>\n
- \n
- If I had to draw an image to correlate with this writing, what would it look like? Would it be an even line of sharp black dots? Or a waving trail of blurry blues?<\/li>\n
- What is the goal of this author? Inform, convince, entertain, create emotion?<\/li>\n
- Is this piece easy to understand? If not, what makes it difficult to understand?<\/li>\n
- What is the average length of the sentences? Less than one line? Multiple lines? A half of a page?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Find & Apply Patterns<\/h2>\n
Soon you\u2019ll begin to notice patterns. Do you generally find that longer sentences are more difficult to understand on a first read through? Or maybe you notice that most newspaper articles have short sentences, like staccato black dots in a line. Compare that to sentences in journal articles in your field. Note patterns when you discover them.<\/p>\n
Once you feel confident that you\u2019ve identified some patterns, you\u2019re ready to start translating that into writing. This exercise is fun and can be repeated with different material every time you use it:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Pick one paragraph from an academic book\/article in your field. Introductory paragraphs often work well for this exercise.<\/li>\n
- While thinking about the patterns you\u2019ve noticed in your readings, re-write the paragraph as a short news article.<\/li>\n
- Then, re-write it again as poetry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Now you\u2019re applying those patterns, which means you have really learned them. Keep putting aside a little time every day to practice your writing\u2014and keep reading and taking notes, too. Over time you will begin to notice that writing becomes easier for you and your results are improving. This means not only will your written work become easier to read and more polished, but you will save time editing and tweaking.<\/p>\n
Before you know it, people will be saying they admire your writing!<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-generator-for-wp\/admin\/src\/images\/PDF_Tray.svg\" "\\"Generate")
<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"