I would like to welcome all new and returning students to Gachon University. There have been a great deal of changes with respect to studying English at our school, and one of the major shifts in our curriculum has been a focus on writing. I would like to offer some tips which should help students to be better equipped and slightly more at ease when it comes to preparing for their writing assignments.
  I have noticed many students do not prepare for what it is they are going to write. Often due to busy schedules and an already heavy work load, students will just pour out whatever it is they are required to write about. There are several problems with this approach. The major one being a lack of planning leads most often to mistakes which are normally easily avoidable, and this is not as difficult to remedy as some students might believe.
  When you are faced with a writing assignment, more often than not, there is some choice available, topic wise. Carefully read over these choices and select a topic which you are most familiar with or have some interest in. Try brainstorming the topic on paper by writing down points, closely related vocabulary, and so forth. You will likely not even use all the points you have, but it may help you to reinforce the fact that you do know a great deal about the subject of your assignment, and be more confident for the next stage.
  Organize what you have by eliminating that which is not related closely enough to your topic, and expand upon any remaining ideas that do -– take what you have left and simply write. Do not worry about mistakes at this point. Do however look for any relationships between the overall theme, points you wish to make, and details you could expand upon, and think about how you will order these. Now you should be ready to write out a first draft.
  Now that you have your first draft in hand, it is time to proofread and revise. The biggest and most avoidable of mistakes I notice, and mentioned briefly at the beginning, are now ready to be tackled. Most students seem to misuse articles (a/an/the) – double check these. Also, I find a great number of papers contain just as many errors when it comes to subject/verb agreement and the use of plurals and non-count nouns. The point I am trying to make is by taking a few moments to check, these frequently occurring, small and repeated errors can be corrected on your own and could potentially mean all the difference in achieving a good score.
  Lastly, one final tip for your thoughts is to use the Global Zone for writing clinics and speaking practice. These are available throughout the day, and can be easily worked into even an already busy schedule. These seemingly intimate seminars are a good opportunity for you to improve your English and to relate to your peers both socially and academically. Best of luck!

-Professor Weldon Caverhill