Writing is one of the most important of life’s skills. Okay, you know this already...you’re in high school. Teachers have been talking to you about writing for the past ten years. You know all about sentences, paragraphs, and essays and you have an intimate relationship with the writing process. Before you decide that your writing doesn’t need any improvement, think about this: People often make decisions about you based on your writing before they’ve even met you.

No matter what you decide to do after high school, your writing skills will likely be the first way you are judged. Whether it be on a college application essay, a business letter, or a résumé, what you write and how you write it is often the first thing others know about you. Here are some tips to insure that your writing always makes a great first impression.

Imagine you’re writing a note to a friend to tell her about the great movie you saw last night. As you finish up, you remember that there’s a party Friday night, and you write your mom a note to ask permission to stay out past your curfew. How are these notes different?

The purpose (why you’re writing) and the audience (who you’re writing to) should have a strong effect on what you actually write. Be sure the organization, word choice, and tone are appropriate for the audience and effective for delivering your message.

A drop of food coloring on its own is a very strong color; mix it with water, and the color gets lighter. The more water you add, the lighter and more diluted the color will become. Think of your message like that drop of food coloring. You don’t want to dilute it with flowery language.

Keep your writing simple, clear, and direct to make it most powerful. Use the fewest words possible to get your idea across. Eliminating needless words makes your message more potent.

There are certain errors that students make all the time. You can really stand out as a writer if you learn to avoid these pitfalls:

	Shifting verb tenses — Choose one tense and stick to it. For example, don’t write: The new Spiderman movie was coming out last night. We can’t wait to see it, so we went to the movies. Instead, stick with the past tense and write: The new Spiderman movie came out last night. We couldn’t wait to see it, so we went to the movies.

Neglecting to make the subject and verb agree — If the subject of your sentence is plural, so must be the verb. If the subject is singular, so must be the verb. For example, don’t write: Playing basketball and hanging out with my friends is my favorite thing to do. There are two things you like to do, so the verb must be plural. Instead, write: Playing basketball and hanging out with my friends are my favorite things to do.

You can avoid many writing blunders if you double check your work. Take the time to look carefully for errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, word meaning, and typing before you turn your work in. Don’t trust your computer or word processor to catch all of your mistakes. After all, the spell checker won’t pick up on the fact that you’ve typed the word moron instead of the word maroon all throughout your art history paper!