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Good writing skills are essential for career success in almost any technical career you might be considering. There are many people with good technical skills; one way to distinguish yourself from the person in the next cubicle is by good writing.

In our classes, we expect proper English, although the degree of emphasis varies from one instructor to another.

Good writing is reader-centered. That is, you begin by identifying your target audience, understanding the background of that audience, and designing your writing product to achieve your desired goal for that audience.

Proper English grammar, structure, style, usage, and spelling are expected in just about everything we write.

Some of your write better than others. If your writing is rough, you should work on it. Otherwise, you may find that is a limiting factor for your eventual career advancement. If your writing is good, you should consider working to make it better yet. It is a competitive world "out there."

The staff of the Ott Writing Center, Monitor Hall 488, 288-5542, stands ready to help you. I strongly encourage you to call to make an appointment. Take with you either one of your homework assignments I have marked up (they will disagree with some of my comments; that is OK, too), or take a draft of an assignment in progress. You might take your project introduction. It is fine with me if you take an assignment from another class, too. What is important is that you work to improve your skills at English writing.

The Writing Center also offers walk-up service at the kiosk on the first floor of Cudahy.

For more immediate advice, Dr. Paula Gillespie (Paula.Gillespie {at} Marquette.edu), the Director of the Writing Center, encourages e-mail questions directly to her. This accomplished two complementary goals:

1. You have easy, non-threatening, asynchronous interface to high-quality advice.
2. She gets a chance to try out on-line tutorial help with people comfortable with the technology before she attempts to put more of the Writing Center activities on-line.

Try it out. Recommended! If you do a good job, perhaps on your next homework, I'll complain about the content, rather than the writing :-)

See also

• Best Practices: English style suggestions
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Marquette Ott Writing Center
• Why are your English standards so high?
• Useful article on clarity in science writing - Right your Writing : How to sharpen your writing and make your manuscripts more engaging. By Bob Grant.
• Five Questions that Improve Student Writing, from Faculty Focus