Most professors emphasize three criteria on essays: completeness, clarity, and conciseness.
Obviously content is the most important part of an essay, but clarity cannot be divorced from it. Failure to be concise is the least damaging, as long as you got all the content, but still . . .
Remember, as a minister in the Church you will be responsible to articulate the Gospel in a complete, clear and concise manner. Start practicing now.
Checklist for Paper Writing
Content
Structure
Mechanics
Helpful techniques and procedures:
Things to avoid:
Planning your time in answering essay questions is more important than objective-type tests!
Read through the entire examination first.
Follow directions carefully.
Words such as “list,” “describe,” “compare and contrast,” and “outline” require different types of answers.
Don’t write "about” the question but answer it directly and concisely.
Outlining
It is absolutely essential that your ideas can be read and understood: print if your cursive writing is very hard to read; know and use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Each week the Writing Skills Associate has produced a Writing Tip of the Week for students. This archive contains 75 tips from the past four years organized by topic.
Topics include:
These books are on the Writing Consultation Services Reserve Shelf in Leo Dehon Library. This is the top shelf on the left of the Reserves.