7 Things I've Learned about Writers by Writing my MA Dissertation

What skilled writers do

My Master’s dissertation in Professional Development for Language Education focuses on helping non-native English writers self-assess their writing.

I’ve written the first 3000 words and here are 7 things I’ve learned from the academic literature on what skilled writers do.

Skilled writers:

  1. Spend time planning what they’re going to write about.
  2. Develop a flexible plan at the pre-writing stage.
  3. Are clear about what their piece is for and who it’s for.
  4. Know how to generate ideas for writing.
  5. Don’t worry about language accuracy and form when writing a first draft.
  6. Keep revising their draft by only focusing on content organisation, clarity, and depth.
  7. Understand that writing is not linear but recursive.

Interesting stuff. 

Edit (12.01.2024): I wrote a longer article about this.

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