Why Writing Matters

Have you ever been in the position where you have painstakingly researched your essay, spent hours in the library or online piecing together your information, certain you have the correct data for the job, but then, contrary to all your expectations, you don`t get the mark you expected? It could be that it`s your writing that is holding you back. Most people do not even consider the possibility that they are not a good writer. After all, the majority of us can physically write. Almost everyone can string a sentence together that makes sense (to them, at least). So where`s the problem? As a university lecturer, I mark hundreds of essays, and I never fail to be astounded by the number of essays with basic errors in punctuation, spelling, and basic grammar. It is not uncommon for essays to contain numerous incomplete sentences, comma splices, and run on sentences and that`s just for starters. Frequently, students have no control over their paragraphs, flinging information together any old way, with no overall coherence at all. Too often, the right information is there but in the wrong order or, worst of all, written in such a way that it is almost impossible to make any sense of it. Students too often make the mistake of thinking that because they know what it means, their reader will do too. However, a good writer never leaves the reader to guess what they intended to say: a good writer writes what they mean.