Amy Mrotek

Senior, Consultant since Fall 2014

Advice for writers 
Let yourself get a little creative! Too often we get so bogged down by an assignment's technicalities (page lengths, citations, formatting, grade percentage, etc.) that our ideas become inadvertently stale. We start to feel the pressures of perfection when writing in any form – from a short story to a business proposal – but we should just get the gears churnin', not simply regurgitate facts. Sit back, make a cup of coffee, breathe, and brainstorm a particular angle of a prompt you find relevant and personally interesting. The words will only come out that much smoother.

How do you get started on a writing assignment?
For myself, novelty is synonymous with productivity. I try to switch up my surroundings, writing in new places on and off campus, listening to different music, working around fresh faces. This sets a space where mentally my ideas begin to spark and I simply feel compelled to start writing. I also find myself beginning in the middle, jumping right into body paragraphs and flushing out my argument organically. In this sense, the material tends to flow bottom-up. I have this initial inspiration toward what I want to say, and I see where it takes me, chiseling down my argument step-by-step, avoiding idea tunnel vision, and orientating something clean and dynamic.