The Five Major Difficulties of Writing

The Five Major Difficulties of Writing

For students, writing can be a challenge. Often, advice leans heavily on the “write more” or
“write badly first” adages, and while those can be useful pieces of advice, it can be hard to find help for
specific questions. So the Steelman Library Writing Lab has put together a list of the five most
common questions students have, and our advice and answers.

Question One: How do I find a topic/thesis statement?
Our Advice: First, look at the question you're starting with. Whether that’s an assignment's
instructions or, if you're writing for yourself, whatever idea has caught your attention. Your thesis
statement should be the answer. For example: “Do students study better with music?” = “Students
study better with classical music but not with lyrical music.” Your thesis should include a claim that
you support in your essay.

Question Two: How do I proofread?
Our Advice: Close the laptop. Close the notebook. Step away. Give yourself time to forget what you
wrote. When you come back to look at your writing, it will be easier to spot typos. When you come
back, try reading it out loud or using a text-to-speech program. Hearing it can help you spot mistakes.
If you can, have a friend read it to you. They might spot something you missed.

Question Three: How do I cite my sources?

Our Advice: Well, that depends on what style you're writing in. APA, MLA, Chicago. All the styles
have different rules. We recommend Purdue Owl as a trusted resource for citation styles. But whatever
style you use, make sure you're citing all of your sources. Generally, if you found it somewhere and it’s
not common knowledge, it needs to be cited.

Question Four: How do I manage my length?
Our Advice: When students are given a word/page count, it can be overwhelming. We recommend
breaking up that length into shorter sections by main idea. For example, a five-page paper can be
broken up into ten ideas, and then you only have to write half a page each per topic. So if that's half a
page for an intro paragraph and half a page for a conclusion, you only need eight supporting ideas. And
writing half a page on one idea is a lot less daunting than writing five pages on one broad idea.

Question Five: How do I find resources?
Our Advice: Steelman Library has online databases of journals and articles you can search. You can find
the search bar on the home page of our website. Our upstairs bookshelves are organized by subject. It
can be daunting to look at all of the available information and not know where to start. Try using the
internet to search for scholars in your field and look at their work. Or look for universities or
institutions that publish research in your field. Make a list of keywords associated with your thesis and
search for those. And when using websites as sources, remember that the domain extension doesn’t
mean a source is or is not reliable. Many .com’s are great sources, while many .org’s aren’t. Focus on the
information provided to determine reliability.