7 Words of Advice to my Students on Good Writing
If I could offer only one piece of advice to my students, after having graded thousands of final papers (I counted, I promise), it would be this: “Less is more.”
This maxim remains perennially true, and it's true for us as academics too, as hard as it is for us to hear and heed.
Other writing advice I’d give to my students is this:
Do not underestimate the disinterest of your potential reader. This is advice that the very-beloved editor-in-chief at Eerdmans, Jon Pott, once gave to a room full of scholars and would-be scholars.
Ruthlessly define your terms. Remember that clarity is charity, and that one of the best ways to love your reader is by being as clear as possible with your language.
Show, don’t only tell, and don’t confuse an assertion for an argument. An assertion requires no work; an argument requires a great deal of hard work.
Don’t be too proud to receive feedback. Be like the folks at Pixar: be fearless. As Pete Docter, director of “Up” and “Monsters Inc.”, once said to me, it never pays “to hedge or play it safe. The product suffers and you hijack the creative process.”
Practice makes better. Practice doesn’t automatically make perfect, but it can make you better. And the only way that you’ll become a truly good writer is if you keep *writing*—and if you keep apprenticing yourself to better writers than yourself. Remember also that there’s no such thing as writing. As New Testament scholar Gordon Fee used to say: there’s really only re-writing.
Work hard but hold your work lightly. We want to be liked, to be great, to be respected, to make a difference, and the rest. But at the end of the day, our work is in God’s sovereign hands. And if we truly trust in those hands, we’ll be ok, no matter the outcome.
Pray. Pray as you research. Pray as you write. Pray as you edit and after you write. Pray because you believe that it delights the Holy Spirit to actively participate in your work of writing. Prayer is your way to practice the presence of God in and through your work.
Bonus advice: Ask yourself always how you might genuinely love your reader. Asking that question won't automatically tell you what to write, or ensure high quality writing, or secure a positive outcome for your writing, but you’ll never regret asking that question.
