This entire chapter is a “how-to” formula, but simply reading it will not make you a good writer any more than reading a cookbook will make you a gourmet chef. You need to put the advice into practice with a concrete writing project. What do you need to write in the next few weeks or months? Make this the focus of your exercise.

It can be a research proposal, a research report, or an essay for a class. (At the risk of being paranoid, I suggest that you consult with your teacher if you plan to solicit advice from others about a draft of a paper you will turn in for a grade; be sure that your plan will not be construed as a form of plagiarism.) If it is currently late fall, you might even choose as your writing project the yearly update that many include in holiday greeting cards.

How wonderful it would be to send (or receive) a well-written update, as opposed to something that reads like an annotated appointment book.