Your Writing Speaks Volumes

Everyone has had to write a paper at some point in their life. Whether it was for school, a newspaper, or even a job, a person's writing says a lot about who they are. As stated in the Norton Field Guide to Writing, "Your ability to produce clear, error-free writing shows something about your ability as a writer and also leads reader to make assumptions about your intellect, work habits, even your character." If you have a paper full of errors and mistakes, whomever your reader is will not think too highly of you or your writing. Therefore, what can one do to make a paper better and advert this problem?

The answer is simply editing and proofreading. Along with the book, I agree that a person's writing says a lot about who they are and what abilities they bring to the table. It would be a shame to turn in a paper to your potential boss with many punctuation and grammatical errors on it. Most likely, you will not get the job by taking that approach. Instead, carefully read what you are writing. Take the time to read it over, and over, and over again. When you think your paper is perfect, give it to multiple people to read, and I guarantee someone will find an error that you have missed. It's hard to find every error in your own work because once you have written it, you are automatically biased with your writing, and you tend to skip over small little details that might make or break your paper.

Follow a few easy steps and ask yourself questions. Is there enough detail? Does the beginning catch the reader's attention? Is the paper free of punctuation and grammatical errors? Once you have written, read, read again, passed on, and corrected it multiple times, then your paper should be ready to turn in. It might take longer and it might be a tedious process, but the results of having a quality paper is both rewarding and gratifying.