Pulling Back From the Brink

Every once in a while, we all need help. Whether it’s a steady hand to keep us afloat or just some encouragement, there are times when things go far enough wrong that going it alone might not be enough. If this is happening with a writing assignment, we encourage you to visit us at the Stone Writing Center and sign up for a tutorial session.

Many times, students express the belief that they’re bad writers, and this is often not the case. Every writer will bring a specific set of strengths and weaknesses to the writing table. Not all assignments play to those strengths, and many times, an individual writer will simply be missing craft skills that professional writers have spent their entire lives building. Much as no one begins as a great surfer, no writer ever begins as a master. Even Stephen King received rejection letters before he became a success.

While truly bad writers are rare, sometimes an essay can turn out so badly that it seems like a total loss. If that happens, keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily a reflection of your own ability to write. Even the most celebrated writers sometimes turn out a bad piece of writing. Instead, remain positive and actively look for a solution to your essay’s problems.

Identifying the problem should be your first step when you revise. Is there one larger problem that dominates the essay, such as a weak thesis or disorganization? If this is the case, then addressing that one area will dramatically improve your essay. Alternately, are you dealing with a mass of smaller persistent problems that weaken the whole? While that will be more difficult to address, try correcting the larger problems and then work towards the smaller ones as you revise the essay.

Consider getting a second opinion as you revise, whether it’s a professional tutor or a secondary reader. Most writers are often too close to their work to evaluate it objectively. As writers, we often look at our own work and see what we expect to see, not what may actually be on the page.

In most cases, this process may be enough to turn your essay around. However, in rare occasions, the current draft may be completely unsalvageable, no matter what you do. If this should happen, it’s most often because the draft ran adrift from the central idea that it should address, or else it doesn’t answer the terms of the assignment. If this should happen, try to look for the strongest parts of your current draft and salvage them; these may be details that could be useful to include in the next draft. Even a weak draft will usually have at least one strong point to its favor.

The worst that can happen is that you may have to start over from the beginning. However, even then, you can take one thing away from the first draft: the knowledge of what didn’t work the first time around. Even the worst failure is an opportunity to learn. Learn from your previous attempts, and then do your best to improve.

See you next time the breeze is cool, the sun is up, and the waves roll into view! ‘Til then, hang ten!