The most common mistake I see in students’ writing is trying to cram too many ideas into each sentence.
They write a decent sentence, but then they don’t stop. They continue the sentence with a rambling series of phrases that add so many additional ideas that the reader gets lost. Suddenly, what should have been a paragraph is one long, very run-on sentence. It’s nearly impossible to understand, and it’s a grammatical nightmare.
My advice to students: One idea per sentence.
If you’re a teacher, tutor, or parent trying to help a student improve their writing, this is the most powerful advice you can give.
Keep it simple. Err on the side of too simple.
So often, students want to write in a way that’s fancy.
They think their writing needs to be complicated. They try to use big words and impressive phrases. They think it’s boring and elementary to say only one thing per sentence. But in trying to be fancy, they lose track of the real goal of writing: conveying ideas with clarity.
Above all else, your writing needs to be clear. If the reader can’t understand what you mean, you’ve failed. And the best way to improve the clarity of your writing is to simplify your sentences. Stick with one idea per sentence, at least as a starting point. After writing your paper this way, if you see opportunities to combine sentences without sacrificing clarity, go for it.
If you start by trying to write something that sounds good, you’re doomed. Writing something that sounds good straight from your head is a skill that takes thousands of hours of practice. No student should expect themselves to be able to do that.
Start by getting the right ideas on the page. You don’t even have to put the ideas into sentences or paragraphs to start. The ideas don’t even have to be fully formed. Start with whatever you have. Just get them out of your head, one idea at a time. Then put your ideas into a logical order. Cut and paste to rearrange them. Then write them into simple sentences. Then work on making them sound good.
Remember, you can always enhance the style of your writing during editing. You can swap out basic words for fancier words, but only if they add clarity. You can embellish. You can add flavor and detail that were missing from your first draft. It’s way easier to do this after you’ve gotten the right ideas on paper.
Chris Loper has been working as a tutor and academic coach since 2014, racking up over 13,000 hours of experience supporting students.
Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the co-creator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families.
Chris writes the popular self-improvement blog Becoming Better, where he also offers habit coaching, helping busy adults with habit formation and productivity.
Chris’s most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more.
In 2021, he published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons.
He lives in Issaquah, WA, where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.