You now have a rough draft. As you continue to work on your “My Turn” essay, keep in mind the following:

We all know that the essay should be:

a) An original piece

b) 850-900 words

c) Personal in tone

d) About any topic, but not framed as a response to a Newsweek story or another My Turn essay

BUT ALSO:

e) Remember that this is a NATIONAL magazine. Does your topic appeal to a wide audience? If it’s too local, think about how it can be crafted to appeal to more people.

f) Make sure you get us to FEEL something or contemplate something by the end of your essay. Aim for emotional responses.

g) After you free-write the core of you piece, get rid of all the TELLING. Change this to showing using DESCRIPTION. This makes the difference between a basic piece and SUPERIOR piece. Specific DETAILS make any piece come to life. That’s the trick to better writing. Don’t preach, don’t narrate monotonously, and don’t be redundant.

h) Omit redundancies. Combine sentences to avoid repeating yourself. Find the most vivid way to express an idea. Use concise language – get to the point.

i) Review your intro. Don’t blab on in abstract ideas. Cut to the chase – jump in with powerful language and images.