Writing Habits to Kick Before Going to College

Writing essays changes a little between high school and college. Get a step ahead of English 101 with these tips.

No doubt your teachers have taught you how to write a proper academic paper that will successfully get you into college. You know MLA style like the back of your hand, you’ve got five-paragraph essays down, and you certainly show an esoteric vocabulary. Oh, no…everything’s going to change in college! That’s okay—your friendly neighborhood Writing major is here to help you make the switch effortlessly so you can write a strong college-level paper, even on your first day. Here are a few things you should know. 

Paragraphs don’t matter

Get out of the five-paragraph essay format asap. The constant repetition of “here are the things I will write about…” *writes about the things* “these were the things I wrote about…” makes it sound like you’re desperately trying to hit a word count—and maybe you are, but your professors don’t want to see that. They want to see that you put effort and original thought into your ideas. Not to mention they just read the paper—you don’t need to recap what you just talked about unless it’s a 20-page dissertation, and those tend to be more geared toward graduate school than undergrad.

You’ll also be covering more complex theses in college, or at least you should be. Your thesis statement, if it’s done right, should be a suitable enough opening without going into how you plan to prove it. And if you’re having issues crafting the perfect thesis statement, head to your school’s writing center and they’ll be able to help you fine tune it. Or find the closest English major—they’re good at making those up.

Related: Writing Center 101: Boost Your Skills With This Campus Resource

Stop that “one” thing

Your teachers are absolutely right: you should avoid personal pronouns in academic writing. It’s a professional paper, and mixing in personal pronouns, especially first or second person (I, we, you), immediately denotes an opinion, which has no place in your work. Additionally, using “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun isn’t widely accepted. However, don’t do the “one” thing. Nobody says things like, “When one is discomforted, one seeks an alleviation.” It’s awkward and disjointing to the reader. What you want to do instead is use a word like “person” or “individual” so it flows more like this: “When a person is discomforted, that person will seek alleviation.” It flows better, and when your professor reads your paper, they won’t think you plagiarized Sherlock Holmes. He actually did talk like that.

Don’t abuse the dictionary

I cognize, I cognize. You crave to substantiate what a sesquipedalian you are. This is academia, and you would execrate to appear anserine. Ergo, you manipulate the synonyms alternative in Word and scrutinize the thesaurus, pending you construct a treatise that personifies one composed by an erudite attorney. However, many professionals surmise this practice marshals a heavy increase in malapropisms, which results in a dissatisfactory assessment. In conclusion, antidisestablishmentarianism. The SATs have established a desire for you to expand your vocabulary, but there’s a time and place to use those fancy words. A 30-page dissertation for your linguistics final? Yeah, probably. A three-page paper on your opinion of “The Allegory of the Cave”? Maybe not. A two-page essay on Peter Pan for your English 100 course? No.

Related: Fun SAT Vocab Prep With the Dictionary of Difficult Words

Please contract

Your teacher probably told you not to use contractions in your papers because it looks unprofessional: use “it is” instead of “it’s,” or “were not” instead of “weren’t.” Sound familiar? That’s not really an issue in college. If you choose not to use contractions, it should be for a good reason, like you’re trying to meet that irksome word count or you genuinely don’t use contractions. (Who are you?!) Also, remember this: if you automatically type contractions because you’re so used to using them and you don’t fix one in the entire paper, that’s going to look way more awkward than the other way around.

Leave space—but not too many

Please, for the love of all things good, only use one space after a sentence. Anyone still putting two spaces, or teaching you to put two spaces, likely learned how to type using a typewriter. (Has anyone here ever even seen a typewriter?) It was widely accepted back in the day, but now it looks a little outdated or like you’re trying to take up dead space to meet a page requirement. If your teacher recommends two spaces, politely let them know that the most common stylebooks—Modern Language Association, Associated Press, Chicago, even the US Government—recommend only one space.

Side note: If you’re in a Psychology class, disregard this tip, because the American Psychological Association stylebook does recommend two spaces.

Related: Top Writing Tips for Every Situation Ever

You should also make sure to check your syllabus for each class, because professors will often have guidelines for headings and which style they want for citations there. And if they don’t have it in the syllabus, be sure to ask before you receive your first writing assignment!

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Kara E. Joyce

Kara E. Joyce is an editor and writer who frequently contributes to CollegeXpress. When she isn’t hunched over editing material, you can find her powerlifting in the gym, pirouetting in a dance studio, or planning her next adventure.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress
Jessica Rinker

Jessica Rinker

Student, Fairhaven High School; CollegeXpress Student Writer

My high school counselor introduced me to CollegeXpress freshman year. It has made such a difference in high school, and I plan to continue relying on it in college. CollegeXpress is my go-to because it addresses each aspect of being a student. There are the articles you’d expect regarding college applications and financial aid, but you will also find advice on things like de-stressing and maintaining relationships while balancing a heavy course load. CollegeXpress will also keep you updated on current scholarships through e-mails each Saturday. (They don’t harass you with any product promotion like so many other sites do.) CollegeXpress is a lot like an older sibling who has already conquered the challenges you are facing. Now, they are reaching out a helpful hand. I say take it.

Tinuola Dada

Tinuola Dada

$2,000 Community Service Scholarship Winner, 2015

I am very excited to be this year's recipient of the Multicultural Student Community Service Scholarship. This scholarship will bring me ever closer to my academic and professional goals. CollegeXpress has been an exceptional resource to me, and I recommend it to all rising seniors as they begin to navigate the college application process.

Maya Ingraham

Maya Ingraham

October 2021 Mini Scholarship Winner, Class of 2022

CollegeXpress has given me more confidence in my college process. With easy-to-access resources and guidance such as the CX Weekly Roundup, I have been able to find the best colleges for me. Most importantly, there’s a surplus of scholarship opportunities for every student to support their education.

Melanie Kajy

Melanie Kajy

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school. I started off using the college search to find more information about the universities I was interested in. Just this tool alone gave me so much information about a particular school. It was my one-stop shop to learn about college. I was able to find information about college tuition, school rank, majors, and so much more that I can't list it all. The college search tool has helped me narrow down which college I want to attend, and it made a stressful process surprisingly not so stressful. I then moved to the scholarship search tool to find scholarships to apply for because I can't afford to pay for tuition myself. The search tool helped me find scholarships that I was eligible for. The tool gave me all the information I could ever need about a particular scholarship that was being offered. The CollegeXpress scholarship search tool is so much better than other tools offered, like the Chegg scholarship search. Thanks to CollegeXpress, I was able to apply to tons of scholarships in a relatively easy way!

Michael

Michael

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress showed me that Western New England University was a great match for me both with curriculum and location. CollegeXpress is an excellent resource both future and current college students.

College Matches
X

Colleges You May Be Interested In

Hillsdale College

Hillsdale, MI

Millikin University

Decatur, IL

Canisius College

Buffalo, NY