Learn Too Much

My beginning writing students often approach a writing project with scarcity and sketchiness in mind. Their thinking is that just a little will do. In other words, they will learn just enough about a subject to put together something passable. What happens as a result is that their writing often has large gaps in it that leave readers missing the point, wanting more explanation, and unable to follow the discussion. The information is just too scant. The lesson here is that, rather than approaching research from a paucity perspective, it's more effective to approach it from an excess perspective. In other words, learn more than you need to know. You won't be putting everything you've learned into writing, but having an overabundance of knowledge about your subject will fill in the gaps that readers need to make sense of what you're writing. Knowing more than you need to know will allow you to write competently and clearly about your subject. You will be able to discern what information to offer readers and what information to leave out because you have a thorough understanding of your subject matter. Approaching your research in this manner will make your writing richer, more interesting and more readable. And from a reader's perspective, your writing will be vastly more credible. To write well, you can never learn too much.