You get an essay back from a teacher with a grade written clearly across the top of the paper, but little is written elsewhere to indicate why you received that grade.

There’s no real explanation of what you’ve done well or what you’ve done badly. And so there’s little indication of how you can improve and be a better writer.

It’s not all the teacher’s fault. Many teachers are incredibly overworked with hundreds of students, kids of their own, and sometimes, second jobs to make ends meet.

Can you imagine working all week and then spending your entire weekend grading hundreds of essays while juggling these other responsibilities?

And for many students, it’s not much easier. Going to school is a full-time job for those who want to get the most out of it. Many students also have a part-time job (or two) on the side to support their own families or, if in college, to pay for school.

Those students who are lucky enough to not have these extra responsibilities may have the time and flexibility to track down a teacher after school or during office hours.

When that’s possible, students can find out what they did wrong on their essays and how they can improve to be a better writer.

But if you don’t have this luxury, how can you become a better writer?

While reading a ton of example essays is one option, the clearest way to become a better writer is by simply writing yourself. But that seems too simple, right? I mean, you can type out essays all day long.

But unless you have some indication of what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong, it’s hard to ensure that the next essay you write will be better than the last.

However, I still argue that the best way to improve your writing is by writing. The problem is that many people don’t understand what “writing” is.

Writing is not just typing words. It’s a process. Writing is thinking and researching. Writing is outlining. Writing is formulating a thesis. Writing is, yes, putting the words on paper. But writing is also revision.

Actually, it’s mostly revision.

The only way your first draft will be your best draft is if it is the only draft you write.

The only way your first draft will be your best draft is if it is the only draft you write.
Click To Tweet

To produce the best essay, you need to write and rewrite it until it’s the best it can be. But here we are back at the beginning–how do you improve the second draft if you don’t know what’s wrong with the first?

One way is with an editor. An editor is like your own personal teacher, identifying your mistakes, both big and small, and teaching you how to fix them in your current essay and avoid them in subsequent ones.

Want to become a better writer? Let’s take a look at six ways an editor can help — plus feedback from students who have worked with Kibin editors.

1. Seeing What You Don’t

First and foremost, an editor provides a fresh set of eyes for your writing.

Moreover, an editor has the eyes of a word nerd who understands the micro elements (punctuation, grammar, word choice, sentence structure) and the macro elements (thesis statements, style, essay structure, formatting) of writing.

If you feel a bit lacking in your knowledge of one or more of these areas, an editor can spot your mistakes, draw your attention to them, and show you the correct way forward.

Even if you feel as though you have a strong understanding of each aspect of writing, you’re still going to miss some things along the way. When you stare at something long enough, you become a bit blind to parts of it. An editor will catch the mistakes you missed.

And it’s not all about catching mistakes! Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with your writing, but an editor can make various suggestions on how to improve it.

Maybe you will ignore some of those suggestions, but if even one of them resonates with you, it can turn your good essay into a great one.

Students say…

Thank you again for a prompt and thorough review of my document. I truly appreciate your honesty. Sometimes you just need a second set of eyes on something to make sure you are on the right track. — feedback for Bethany R.

2. Identifying Frequent Errors

An editor is not only awesome at seeing errors and ways to improve writing but also incredible at seeing the patterns in your writing.

Some editors at Kibin have edited millions of words (literally!). With all of that practice, they have become adept at noticing recurring issues in your writing.

A good editor will point out these areas and give them extra attention so that you can learn from them and correct your negative habits.

On the micro level, negative patterns can be found within one essay. An editor will notice grammatical errors that recur and teach you how to correct them. On the macro level, editors can identify frequent errors in structure or style over the span of several essays.

At Kibin, you can request to work with the same editor who worked on your previous essays. This offers a great opportunity to build a rapport with your editor and for your editor to teach you how to improve your essay-writing abilities over the long term.

Students say…

In 2 days, Dan has taught me more than 4 years in HS and a semester in college. He is very patient with my mistakes and takes time to thoroughly explain what I can do to improve!!! BEST editor EVER! — feedback for Dan C.

3. Pointing Out Successes

Editing isn’t all about pointing out the errors that you’ve made in your essay. A great editor will also take note of the things you’re doing well!

Sometimes you don’t even realize how good a word, sentence, paragraph, or essay you’ve written is.

It’s important to have a professional set of eyes who can look at your writing without any bias. That allows an editor to tell you not only where you need to improve but also where you should give yourself a pat on the back.

This is one area where having an editor you don’t know can help.

You never know when a friend or family member will be afraid to tell you when something is wrong. Moreover, sometimes it’s hard to tell when positive feedback is honest and when it’s flattery.

The perfect editor is one who points out both the positives and the negatives in a clear, honest, and constructive way so that you can become a better writer.

Students say…

Your feedback and encouragement are invaluable. I am learning grammar progress in my writing while working with you. You always ‘get me right.'” — feedback for Crystal W.

4. Teaching in an Approachable Way

Getting a friend, family member, or classmate to review your paper is better than nothing. However, there are some ways in which an editor is better.

Asking a friend to look over your paper? Having an editor do it instead is better in some ways.
Click To Tweet

Most importantly, editors have experience on their side. This means two things:

• They have an incredible knowledge base from which to draw.
• They have the ability to provide that clear, honest, and constructive feedback you need to improve your writing.

While your buddies might be able to tell you that something is incorrect, they might not be able to tell you exactly why it’s incorrect.

An editor, on the other hand, is a teacher. An editor works to not only find the areas of your essay that need improvement but also is skilled at explaining why it needs improvement and how you can improve it.

Students say…

I was very pleased when I received the edited paper this morning–it wasn’t so much an editing job as a teaching job. I will use this service a lot! — feedback for Alex L.

Need to polish your paper?

Let our expert editors help.

Yes! Edit my essay.

5. Providing Suggested Edits, Comments, and Feedback

One way that an editor at Kibin teaches you to be a better writer is through comments, feedback, and suggestive edits.

While some editors may just find and fix your mistakes, a Kibin editor will instead highlight your error and suggest a way to improve it. In this way, you will see what you did wrong and how changing it improves your writing.

Furthermore, if any explanation is needed on why it’s wrong and the various ways in which you can improve it, you can expect to find a detailed yet easy-to-understand comment to accompany the suggested edit.

Moreover, it’s important for an editor to comment not only on the micro-level mistakes made in your essay but also on the overall strengths and shortcomings of your essay.

This is provided through feedback at the end in which the editor points out what you’ve done well in your essay and what you can work on in the next one.

So a Kibin editor works to improve your writing ability on three levels:

• Finding errors and suggesting edits
• Explaining those suggested edits
• Giving macro-level feedback on your essay as a whole

Students say…

She has done a tremendous job with giving feedback and suggestions, and I look forward to using her again in the future. Jane provides top-notch quality editing, and I am grateful for her valuable and intuitive thoughts/comments. — feedback for Jane J.

6. Modeling Revision

As we talked about in the beginning of this post, one of the most important aspects of the writing process is revision. Unfortunately, you’re not done writing when you write the last word of your essay.

I know it’s a bit like finishing a 10K and then being told you’re running a marathon, but revision is key.

You must read, analyze, and revise your draft in order to get the most out of your essay. And guess what? That’s exactly what an editor does.

Editors read, analyze, and find ways in which you can revise your essay to make it better. And along the way, they can make you a better writer.

Students say … 

Thank you so much for all your help! I am forever learning this art that you have mastered. — feedback for Susan S. 

The Takeaway: An Editor Can Teach You How to Be a Better Writer

I like to think of Kibin editors as revision coaches.

Their job isn’t to simply improve your essay. Their job is to show you how to improve your writing. They do that by modeling and explaining the revision process. In this way, an editor shows you exactly how to be a better writer in the future.

More specifically, editors help you to identify what you’re doing right and wrong at the micro and macro levels. Editors teach you how to correct the errors not only in one essay, but also in future essays.

In other words, they show you the proper way to revise your writing so that you can do it yourself in the future.

In these ways, an editor can help you to be a better writer.

What is a literary analysis essay?

Well, simply put, a literary analysis essay is an essay that analyzes a short story, article, or some aspect of a novel. Exactly what, though, does this entail? What does it mean to analyze a piece of writing?

When we analyze something, whether it is someone’s actions or a piece of writing, we are trying to determine meaning.

Why does my mother-in-law always bring us half-eaten cartons of ice cream, for example? She could be generous. She could be looking for an excuse to visit. She might have the world’s worst track record for choosing ice cream flavors.

Rather than simply read, remember, and state her actions, however, I am going to assign them a meaning. I am then going to support my interpretation with my own opinions, specific examples of her actions, and perhaps quotes from my mother-in-law and a reliable source like a psychologist who has heard hundreds of mother-in-law stories.

Writing a literary analysis is a lot like this.  You must read, understand, engage with, and interpret the text, and then share those interpretations with your reader.

What makes for a particularly good literary analysis essay?

When writing a literary analysis essay, there are two key elements. First, you must have a strong thesis statement. Second, you must thoroughly support that thesis statement.

What makes for a strong thesis statement? A thesis statement must be specific, clearly stated, and easily supported.

For example, “Flannery O’Connor wrote a lot about pride” is not a specific thesis statement. Flannery O’Connor wrote dozens of stories about any number of proud characters.

This statement is too general.

Ask more pointed questions to help you develop more specific statements. For example, what role did pride have in the development of a certain character or the outcome of a specific O’Connor short story (or two)?

A better thesis statement might be “In ‘Good Country People’ and ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find,’ pride in the main characters leads to loss of dignity and, in some cases, the loss of human life.”

Now that you have a strong thesis statement, you must support your argument.

In a literary analysis essay, you should certainly use your own original thoughts and interpretations of the text. When doing this, cite examples from the text itself.

For example, you might mention how, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother’s pride and need to control others literally led the family into the hands of a sociopath named “The Misfit.”  You might include an excerpt from the text where the grandmother blurts out his identity. Referring to the text and specific examples will make your argument clearer and stronger.

Don’t be afraid to also use secondary sources! These are sources that provide additional literary criticism and commentary on the stories that you are analyzing.

You can use the opinions of experts to back up your own. After all, if renowned literary scholar Harold Bloom agrees with your interpretation of the significance of pride in the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, you must be a genius.

What makes for a particularly bad literary analysis essay?

This sounds obvious, but I have read far too many literary analysis essays in which the writer failed to correctly recall any number of details within the story. Even the slightest error in your recall of facts, such as the exact title of the story or which character provided a quote, will reduce your credibility.

Know your story or novel inside and out.

Relating back to the previous question, always support your point in a balanced manner. An ineffective analysis essay will rely solely on one form of support. You should never rely only on your own thoughts (no matter how clever) or those of an outside source (not even Harold Bloom) to make your argument.

Like walking on a tightrope, balance is the key to an effective essay (or a really nasty mess).
Click To Tweet

What are three simple steps that a writer can take to write a better literary analysis essay?

1) Read your selected texts with a pencil in hand.

Keep a pad of paper handy. Take notes on any symbols, actions, or quotes that strike you while you are reading. Note page numbers.

This information will be useful when you actually go to write the argument itself. It is much easier to scan your notes than it would be to scan the entire novel Moby Dick, for example, when you are looking for quotes and examples to support your argument.

2) Think long and hard about your thesis statement.

Be sure that you can adequately support your argument. Can you think of at least three support points for your thesis statement? If you can, then you probably have a strong working thesis statement.

3) Research other sources.  

Borrowing this list from Purdue OWL, here are some possible venues for finding other sources to support your argument:

• MLA International Bibliography
• Dictionary of Literary Biography
• Discipline-specific sources
• Search engines
• Your instructor or librarian.

What is your biggest writing pet peeve?

I have to admit that mechanical errors are what keep me awake at night.  The two that bother me the most are comma splices and incorrect spellings.

The latter bother me because they can so often be caught with a simple spellcheck and quick proofreading.  Comma splices just torture the perfectionist in me.  I love commas in their proper place, but when people use them like sprinkles, it gives me pause (pun intended).

I think of punctuation and grammar as the frosting on the cake that is your argument.

After spending so much time reading those O’Connor stories, taking notes, developing a thesis statement, and organizing your argument, you would have a really impressive essay (or, in this analogy, a delectable dessert that would make the Cake Boss envious).  Why would you not take the same care with your punctuation (or frosting)?

The cake will be judged on its taste as well as its appearance; similarly, your essay with be judged on both its content and its mechanics. Take equal care with both.

About Natalie H.

When Natalie H. isn’t homeschooling, cooking, or doing mountains of laundry for her family of 11 (including seven kids ranging from age 7 to 21, her husband, herself, a beta fish named Naruto, and a cat named Little Murray Sparklese), she’s busy making better writers out of Kibin users.

Favorite books: East of Eden, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch 22, and all of the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories

Favorite TV shows: Elementary, True Blood, and The Walking Dead

Favorite Band: The Avett Brothers

Favorite Desserts: Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven and Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked frozen yogurt

When I graduated college, I left with a degree in Economics, one course short of a minor in Bio-Chemistry, and absolutely no clue what I wanted to do with my life.

I graduated in 2005 and had been playing poker for about a year.  The poker scene was heating up quickly with the Cinderella story of Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 World Series of Poker main event victory.  The ‘Moneymaker effect’ was, for lack of a better word, in full-effect. Like millions of other people, I was inspired.

I remember my first encounter with the game. I was waiting patiently for my (now ex) girlfriend to get ready. We were headed out the door for something… well, we were supposed to be.  I was flipping through the channels and ESPN was covering a World Series of Poker event.  I was instantly intrigued.

I recall thinking ‘this looks easy, I could do that!’.  In the following weeks I signed up for an online poker account, funded it with a paltry $50 and began teaching myself how to play.

I refined my game during my final year of school and grew that original $50 to about $20,000 before graduation.  Not knowing what I wanted to do with my life after school, I decided to support myself playing poker.  I did this for about a year and a half before utilizing my poker playing experience to land a job trading foreign currencies at a hedge fund in Chicago.

I often list my poker experience on my resume or as professional experience. People unfamiliar with the game fail to recognize why I do this.  So, here are the ten things I learned about poker (in no particular order) and how they apply to starting a startup:

1: Learn to Listen to your Instincts, then Learn to Follow them

Poker is littered with instinctual plays.  There is often no other explanation for doing something other than, ‘it just felt right’.  I’ve often been asked how I ‘knew he was bluffing’ or how I was ‘able to make that play’.  You don’t know these things, not until you’re proven correct at least.  You feel them. Suddenly, you start to feel these things over and over and begin to notice patterns.  Eventually, you start acting on these feelings without questioning why.

Startup Application:  Instincts and ‘feelings’ are always present, it’s recognizing them that’s the hard part.  Whether it’s taking a chance hiring someone you believe will be a good addition to the team, or pushing to get into an incubator program because it feels like it’s the right decision, instincts play a huge part in decision making.  If you can’t learn to listen and follow your instincts, you’re going to have a hard time making decisions under pressure.

2: Decisiveness Under Pressure

If you plan to play poker seriously, you will constantly be forced to make big, quick decisions on the fly.  During any given hand, you must think about your action, the effects of that action, the actions your opponents may take, how that may effect your next actions. What about potential outcomes?  What if the flop is unfavorable, will I throw out a continuation bet?  What if he moves all in, will I call?  With each hand, there are hundreds of questions that race through the mind.  These are simply a few.  The beauty is that these questions, and the answers that follow, must all happen within seconds.

Startup Application: As an entrepreneur, you must make vital decisions on a daily basis. Some of these require fast thinking… after-all, nimbleness is one of your top assets. Playing poker for a long time trained me to be comfortable making quick decisions under pressure.  Its now second nature.

3: Calculated Risks & Risk Management

A good poker player knows how to calculate risks. This is done quickly, mentally, generally under a lot of pressure, and in a very disciplined manner.  Winning percentages and pot odds are some helpful quantitative approaches, while knowledge of your opponent’s tendencies and habits are good qualitative ones. Both are significant and are used to help make big decisions and manage risk at the poker table.  A good poker player knows that you can’t play to win, if you can’t play at all.  Go broke, or bust out early… go home.

Startup Application: Good entrepreneurs know that your startup’s success is heavily dependent on the length of your runway.  Always be mitigating risks whether they be monetary, time, people & relationships, etc.  The longer you can stay in the game, the better chance you have at becoming a success.  Can you potentially get by without raising another round while money is easily accessible?  You should probably raise it, just in case.  Hitting the rail early is no fun.  Nobody wants to be a cheerleader for the game they used to be in.

(continued here…)