Advice to a New Writer

What Is Helpful to Know?

Now that you are working towards the final weeks of your first college-level writing course, think about what you wish you had known in the first few weeks of this class.

Directions

Write two paragraphs in response to the following prompt:

  • What advice would you give to new first year college students about writing, writing assignments, or instructor expectations?

Grading

This is class discussion work for our online course. Please post your response as a comment. These are due by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. during the Week they are assigned, making this one is due 11/15/20. A complete response is worth up to 15 points.

9 thoughts on “Advice to a New Writer

  1. Susan Look

    What I learn in class for a lot of things. I wouldn’t be sure what to tell New Years college students. I wouldn’t know what to tell them because there are many things to learn here. I would say that get ready for the unexpected and to plan out assignments. Have to plan out assignments because each assignments is of course have to be turn in on different due dates. I also say plan out assignments because you don’t want to wait last minute and turn in all your assignments at once’s and not turn in to your professor something that you aren’t proud off, you want to turn in something that you know you will get a very good grade in because you know you put in the time and planing.
    One more advice I would give a new year college student is to not be afraid to ask the professor for help. I learn from experience a few times I would be scare or nervous to ask some professors for help in English because I feel like it would be a dumb question but when I never asked the questions on the things I needed help on, at the end I would get a bad grade on it. Plan your time accordingly because being behind on college work is not the best. It is ok to as your classmates for help because maybe they would be able to help you.

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  2. Abigail Salazar

    My advice for the up coming first year college students is to try to stay focus. I would recommend to make some friends and to communicate with their professors they don’t bite. As well to take their time with their work. To spell check and fix and grammar. I think organization is the best way to go to be on tract is to have a planer to write down important dates. Due dates are important because no one is going to remind you and if you forget to do it or turn it in best chances is that your professors will not give you another shoot because there are due dates for a reason. As well as not to procrastinate, I told told my self I wouldn’t be doing anything last minute and yet here we are. Try to not do anything last minute. There will be long writing assignments and projects to do some professor will be nice enough to give you week to do it, that’s when you act smart and get it done the early. Be aware that there is also a lot of readings to read and to take notes they will help you in the end. As well to use any feed back that is given to you professor are your teachers for a reason.

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  3. Mar Tenesaca

    One piece of advice I would give new first year college students when it comes to writing and writing assignments is to plan your time accordingly. I know students hear the phrase “Do not leave work to the last minute” all the time but I can speak from experience, thinking you will have enough time to work on a long assignment last minute is never the correct path to take. Needless to say, you will be stressed and rushing not being able to present your best piece of work. I would also advice writing down your assignments in an agenda, calendar, or list and putting that list somewhere where you will always see it so you are always reminded of what you have to do and by when. I would also advise that when working on a long assignment, splitting up the work into smaller parts and different days makes the work a lot easier to finish. Going piece by piece also allows you to think about an assignment deeper and helps you put your best work forward since you spent more time and thought into it instead of rushing to get it done in an hour.
    Some advice I would give on instructor expectations is that instructors expect you to do your best in a timely manner. Essentially, doing what any other person expects of a student. What I can say that is different, is that instructors also expect you to go to them if you need help. Like anyone else, an instructor cannot guess when you are having a hard time getting an assignment done if you do not communicate with them and ask them for help. I have not met an instructor here at City Tech who wasn’t willing to help me when I needed help, or would take a long time to answer an email with questions I had. My professors would always answer their emails quickly and would get any doubt I had out of the way.

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  4. Darimari Pujols

    My piece of advise to first year college students is to manage your time efficiently and don’t panic whenever you see so many assignments especially when it comes to having to write essays and paragraphs. I would also say to don’t be afraid to write about your thoughts or any ideas you have in mind. You should feel free to write about any topic you want without anyone judging you. Also, I would advise first year students to write a lot at home and get the hang of it. Writing is extremely important and writing will always be something you do at school. In addition, I would also say for them to try their best to not procrastinate. Procrastination is a major issue and it makes it extremely difficult to finish tasks on time. Whenever you have a writing piece to do or any homework in general, it is best to keep your phone as far away as possible so that you won’t get distracted. Lastly, another piece of advise is don’t be afraid to speak your mind and try your best to stay on track with all your school work so that you get good grades.

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  5. Milly Escobar

    Some advice that I would give new first year college students would be to work time efficiently. The reason I would say this is because in college there are a lot of tasks to do and everything can slowly pile on top of each other. Another thing that I would say ,which fall under the same column, is to take advantage of any open time that they have available because one day you can be relaxing meanwhile the next day you’ll stay up until 2am doing homework, its better to do things ahead of time when needed. Avoiding procrastination will save them a lot of time and stress. I would also recommend them to be confident in their work, somethings that they get asked to do will be hard but all your hard work and dedication definitely will pay off.
    Being a college student at first will be hard but within time you’ll start adapting to the school environment. Another piece of advice would be to stay on track, this is key to passing all your classes. Its nice to keep track of due dates and complete homework to the best of your abilities. I would also suggest to take good notes for all of your classes because these notes could definitely help you in times where you don’t have anyone to run and ask for help. Another thing is I recommend going over all your homework or writing assignments and check for little mistakes, its better to look back and fix it rather than let your grade drop because of it. Last but not least I would say to stay organized and ask questions when needed. Staying organized will help you out and it’ll make everything feel 10 times calmer unlike when everything is all over the place. Asking questions is also useful to, professors are always here to help us out when we need it so it’s better to get our questions answered rather than overthinking.

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  6. Sofia

    My advice that I would give to new first-year college students about writing is that there isn’t going to be a single piece of writing that you do that will be perfect. With that being said, you are never going to be a perfectionist in writing one will always make mistakes, which is when your professor’s feedback comes in and helps you do better and improve in your writing. Furthermore, it is okay to feel like you don’t know where to start writing, but all you got to do is brainstorm ideas before getting into the assignment. Moreover, sometimes you will feel stressed because you don’t know where to begin or what to write, but you should relax and concentrate plus look back at your ideas that you brainstormed or don’t always start from the intro write what comes to mind, and then structure it later.
    I suggest that new first-year college students get a planner to plan out what assignments are due when or give you time to do the assignment, plus not letting everything cramp up and doing things last minute. Also, I suggest that you do various drafts of an assignment than just making one and letting that be your final piece because a writing assignment needs lots of revision, not only writing it once.

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  7. Temia Collymore Sandiford

    My piece of advice to new writers is to never feel afraid to express your thoughts. Also, be creative, revise, and edit when needed. Perfection is not a thing, so be open to feedback. Set the tone and create a voice throughout your writing. These were my hardest points when writing. Its okay to be frustrated and start over when writing. Writing does get overwhelming in college but stay strong and push through.

    When starting assignments, avoid beginning them close to the deadline. Create a planner, and brainstorm the main points of the prompt. If it makes it easier, write the ending/conclusion first. I find that trying to write introductions took up a lot of my time and I procrastinated thinking I couldn’t write without one. Never not give in work, I learned from my mistakes. Even if its not complete, give it in, everything counts!

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  8. Cristina Simeon

    n the first year of college, I would advise new students not to panic, to breathe and get organized with their assignments and projects. Do not get overwhelmed by the amount of homework, do one at a time, the first year is about recognition and making friends for life or the duration of the semester. Teachers were once students, so they will understand you and advise you on the way. I would recommend that new students plan their homework and break times to avoid procrastination and stress. It is normal to feel anxious.
    School is not the same, not even similar to college. I would advise freshman students to read a lot and practice their writing as much as possible, but mostly to learn to synthesize and be specific with their ideas. Writing in college takes a lot of practice and patience so creating lots of drafts before handing in the final assignment is very important. I would have liked to have skills in writing critical and reflective thinking in this first semester. Finally, I would recommend first-year students talk to peers and counselors about their questions and concerns.

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  9. Dayneanda

    The first advice I would give to new first year students of college is to learn about critical thinking skills and start writing assignments on the ideas or outlines they have written from the process of critical thinking. I would also comfort them in telling them that feeling anxiety or fear about a writing assignment is very normal and if they wouldn’t let it go, it would affect them from reaching their goals. The second advice I would give to the students is to write assignments with a different set of eyes and only use the basics of writing skills that they learn in highschool.

    Freewriting is a great skill to have in highschool or college to make sure the mind isn’t blind from writing, that I would advice the students to look into. The third advice to the first year students is to encourage them to research directive verbs such as analyze, investigate, discuss, compare, contrast, summarize etc. They will be seeing a lot of these words and have a different meaning of them from their future instructor. The fourth advice is to let them learn about new methods in writing, this would make them more experience in developing ideas and decreasing the change of having an anxiety.

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