If you have to write, do yourself — and your readers — a favor: create an outline.
List the points you want to make and assign them a priority. Then start writing in a clear flow, with confidence.
When I was a college freshman, a beloved English teacher named John Finch taught us that method of creating an outline. He then assigned each of us to write a "research paper" on a serious topic. I chose the history of lynching.
After doing my research, writing the paper and handing it in, I was eager to get my graded paper back. But when Prof. Finch handed the papers out to the class, mine was not among them. He summoned me to his office, where he had one question: "How did you write this paper?"
I asked him what he meant.
He said: "Because your writing jumped from one style to another, I went to the library and checked your sources, and I found that you lifted material, verbatim, from Time magazine, without attribution. That is plagiarism, something you can be expelled for."
Imagine my panic. I realized that my high-school experience had not prepared me for an assignment like this one.
After a few deep breaths, I said: "I wasn't trying to cheat. I spent 40 hours on this paper. If I wanted to cheat, I wouldn't have spent all that time and energy."
