<p>You can be taught biology, math, etc., but I don't think you can be taught to write well. What makes a good writer, and how does one acquire excellent writing?</p>
<p>My English teachers always told me how to improve, and I took their advice....so I guess that's how I learned to become a better writer.</p>
<p>Although, I'm reading The Elements of Style and On Writing Well this summer to try to somewhat prepare for AP Lang next year.</p>
<p>Practice makes perfect. For important essays, plan well before you write. Find a trusted editor to look over your work and give you pointers. </p>
<p>Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.
-James Joyce</p>
<p>
[quote]
What makes a good writer?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The ability to make complicated ideas seem simple.</p>
<p>Good answer, averin.</p>
<p>Know a lot of vocabulary :]</p>
<p>Read... a lot</p>
<p>And not books on writing - just books. Any books, but preferably classics, ancient and modern.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You can be taught biology, math, etc., but I don't think you can be taught to write well. What makes a good writer, and how does one acquire excellent writing?
[/quote]
Exactly! I have always wondered how creative writing is taught in colleges.</p>
<p>Well, how can music be taught? art? theatre? most of it is just loads of studio and practise.</p>
<p>also, something you can try: directly imitate some writer's style. i remember reading tons of essays for a mark twain paper in 8th grade (long time ago!) and i had a difficult time getting words out. so i studied how they wrote and since then, research/analysis papers have been alot easier. you'll find your own voice in due time. maybe it was just my odd epiphany though.</p>
<p>Anyone can become a good writer, it just requires practice (and lots of editting). Writing is a craft. Are carpenters borne out of the womb? No, they're made. Writers are made too.</p>
<p>Practice. And most of important, have fun.</p>
<p>My grandfather is a carpenter and he showed me a picture of him coming out of the womb with a mini toolbox. It was pretty slimy.</p>
<p>read as much as you can in every subject, you'll pick it up. that's how i learned to write.</p>
<p>Many writers start by imitating, consciously or un-consciously. Reading helps some, but many of our great writers hadn't read much before writing.</p>
<p>Music and art can't be taught. I don't think that there's any need to got to university, if you aren't doing sciences or something like that.</p>
<p>"But the Humanities - they seem to me to be worthless disciplines."
<a href="http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/naipaul_04_06.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/naipaul_04_06.html</a></p>
<p>To me, a great writer is someone who can say everything they plan on saying, even if it's complex, in one sitting.</p>
<p>Find a writer that you admire. Ask that person to help you. </p>
<p>Reading widely is useful, but many famed writers have styles that are dated.</p>
<p>Many of my college professors say the same thing: "Good writing should be painful." It takes constant practice and revision. </p>
<p>I find that varying your sentence lengths works well, as too many short sentences get annoying. It really does. Short sentences blow. Especially if they don't stop. It feels too choppy. However, on the other hand, creating really long sentences with way too much superfluous verbosity and needlessly redundant phrases tend to make the reader confused with respect to what you were talking about, and near the end of the sentence, the meaning tends to get lost because you aren't giving them a chance to breathe and take in whatever it was you planned on saying because your sentences were ridiculously long chunks that weren't capable of being interpreted in a nice, modular fashion.</p>
<p>Do NOT stuff your papers with huge words. It makes you look like a tool. Large, complicated words aren't going make up for an otherwise mediocre paper. You can only hide a dog turd in the flowerbeds for so long. Proper spelling and grammar are pretty essential components, too. Get those down, and you're ahead of the majority.</p>
<p>having something to say and having the tools to say it (grammar, spelling, decent sentence construction...)</p>
<p>I am a published and publishing writer, and I teach writing. All previous posts have been good. I would like to add that writing is a lot like singing: develop your ear! For a writer a good ear requires sensitivity to rhythm, cadence, and fluid syntax. Have something to say and a hook to hang it on.</p>
<p>read it aloud. if it doesn't sound right (not the right rhythm etc.), then change it. but always read it aloud. also, you'll catch more errors this way.</p>
<p>Good writing comes from first, having something to say. It takes a lot to make BS writing sound good (though of course, that's been done too).</p>
<p>After that, I personally end up going the Fitzgerald path -- jot down the general sentences and etc. and then sit there and do revision upon revision based on how it sounds. A lot has to do with flow, as mythmom said. Listen to that ear.</p>
<p>Finally there's the issue on imitating other writers -- I'm somewhat against planned imitation, since most people tend to grow too reliant on imitation alone that they never do find that original voice. However, there are also people who are "influenced" by so-and-so; that's fine. Personally I think I write with a mix of Rand and Doctorow.</p>