Dear so and so...

              First of all, I'm not the best at writing. However, I have learned a few tricks when it comes to writing. Okay...they're not tricks, rather advice to live by when it comes to college writing. First of all, it's different from high school writing. I mean seriously, college writing is more complex than high school writing. The ACT 5 paragraph essay, teachers have ingrained in your head? I hate to break it to you, but it's not that helpful in college. You know what that means? You're going to fail. Seriously. Fail.
             Hahaha, just kidding! Although The 5 paragraph essays does limit your writing style. Since it's a "structured" format, you can only do so much: Intro, Body Paragraph 1, BP2, BP3, Counter, and Conclusion. Having this will cover the surface of the topic that you are writing on. Consequently you're not getting the most out of your writing. If you break away from this writing style you can delve deeper into your writing. For instance, instead of just one paragraph for your one support, you can have 3 paragraphs and even more! Each paragraph connecting to the next makes it so that readers have a deeper understanding of what you are talking about. Consequently, you discover new ways to write. You will be able to find what is "your" writing style. I have the same problem when it comes to delving deeper. Luckily though college professors will teach you how to stop writing in the ACT format and teach you college writing.
        Another piece of knowledge: be concise and specific. I cannot not express how important this is. When you blatantly state what you are arguing for teachers will love you. I have the tendency to not do this...which makes my writing weaker. State your main idea and support it; don't go on random tangents. Going on random tangents will weaken your argument. Also be specific, don't use "things" "somethings" "it": pinpoint what you are talking about; it will show what you are talking about to readers.
       Lastly, read. Reading is critical to your writing. You may not know this, but when you read the sentence structures your mind takes notes of it. Your brain analyzes the fluency and structure of the sentence. After awhile, your mind has a sense of what good writing is. Not only that, reading will expand your vocabulary. Learning new vocabularies will also strengthen your writing. Learning new vocabularies will make your writing more colorful. It will help you specify your argument too. 

                So these are my advices to you! I may not be the best writer, but I’m pretty sure many will agree with what I said. I hope you take them into consideration before you start on your next paper! Happy writing ;D

-James