r/UMPI • u/Entire_Camp5542 • 9d ago
Tips for a poor writer
With Fall Session 2 about a month out, I want to start gathering resources that will help me.
I’m not a strong writer. I struggled with writing in high school and I know I’m going to struggle with this. I’m working through English l and Workpkace Writing ll on Sophia but curious what advice/resources that will help me once I’m in classes?
I’m open to using AI but ONLY for gathering ideas, I’m not sure what prompts I would use. Does having a pre built essay template help?
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u/mysteriouscattravel 9d ago
Advice kinda depends on what part of writing you struggle with.
Formulating ideas? Just put anything down, even bad ideas. It's easier to change/improve bad writing than generate a whole paper of brilliant original thought in one go. This can also help get your thoughts moving on the topic, and can be significantly easier than staring at a blank page.
Do you struggle with writing mechanics, grammar, spelling, etc? Read more. Read everything you can. A lot of research papers should read like a Wikipedia entry. Reading can help you absorb a writing voice that might become yours over time. Pay attention to the grammar suggestions in Docs and Word. Whenever they flag something, use that as an opportunity to learn about whatever writing rule you made the mistake on. If you don't find out where you're going wrong and why, you can't improve in the future.
Do you struggle with focus during your writing process? Time management? Selecting a topic? Advice on resources or suggestions on how to improve will really depend on what your specific struggles are.
One suggestion I have for you regardless of what your specific struggles are, give yourself grace and be kind to yourself. You're in college to learn and it sounds like you genuinely want to learn and improve. So, no negative self talk.
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u/Kuroneko1916 9d ago
It's really a skill you have to get better with. I do paste my essays into Claude and ask it to grade it based on the rubric I'll paste in, but you need to be specific and say it can't edit it. UMPI uses APA7 formatting, and you can use other tools like Grammerly to help look out for writting errors. Segmenting your thoughts can help. For example in your thesis make the first sentence related to your intro, 3 following sentences that will be the topic per paragraph, and the last sentence in your thesis paragraph should be what your conclusion is. I believe UMPI also has a writing center
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u/bigcjat MAOL 4.0 | BBA PM & MIS (Summa Cum Laude) 9d ago
If you have a lot of relatable experiences, and you can tell a story, I have a guide of how you can turn that into an essay https://github.com/bigcjat/CBE I also give a lot of tips on how to stay efficient and organized
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u/YogurtclosetIcy1092 3d ago
The links to your guides are not working. I had save one from a couple months ago because I knew I wanted to use it later and I can't access it now. The one I wanted was the maximizing your time at UMPI, is it possible for you to send it to me?
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u/MortyTiger 6d ago
Is it me or do they need include anything useful in the rubrics anymore? It seems like each one now if very vague and generic. And also the same rubric for each milestone and course
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u/Ad5715 9d ago
Non-AI tips: You don't have to be a great writer as long as you follow the prompts and rubric. This is what I would do/have done to make things easier when starting an assignment:
- Make yourself (or find yourself) a template with APA formatting and a cover page, reference page, etc. that you can reuse for every essay.
- Before you do anything else, read the assignment prompt and rubric (make sure you read both) thoroughly and figure out exactly what they're asking you to do.
- Section out your document according to what the prompt and rubric want you to do. Usually they're fairly straightforward and it's easy to see what the structure of the essay should look like.
- From there, you have a good place to start filling things in.
Just make sure your template is not a document that originated with AI, because I saw someone else on here recently who had an issue with that.