Whether your end goal is academia, or not, your future work will certainly involve writing. Mastering compelling and clear writing will not only aid your success, but will be a major way that you leave your mark on the world. Important writing is at times formal – grants and publications – but includes all of your non-verbal words, to include your emails.

Diagnose your writing skills and improve them, continuously. Look for didactic courses, books, and tools to improve your writing, and study. Learn to write as you read, by noticing when writing rocks your world and when not, and determining why. Follow models, by dissecting a good publication for style and outline components. Don’t shy away from learning from quality lay/media writing, as this can help de-stuff-ify and streamline your writing. Find collaborators, whether an advisor, fellow student, or others, who have the time and courage to take your writing apart. Pay close attention to how they improve your writing. Do the same for them.

Develop a warning bell for yourself to indicate when your thinking isn’t clear. It often isn’t the writing that is difficult, but the thinking. Muddled thoughts lead to muddy writing. Do your work to get clarity.

Most importantly, write. Write down every research idea you have in the form of specific aims. Write down summaries of what you read. Write syntheses of bodies of literature. Write class papers. Look for opportunities to be a co-author on publications. Write up the methods of research that you are doing. Practice, diagnose, improve, and then do it all over again, because writing is one of the many skills that responds to practice.

Write.