Asset 5

What other types of writers are there?​

The engineer

Your writing strategy is characterized by much planning and little revision. You take the time to first generate ideas and organize them into a text plan. In no time, lists, schedules and mind maps are swinging everywhere. Post-its are your best friend. Before you start writing, you take a critical look at the plan you have and then, in one go, you put your text on paper. In most cases, you hardly need to change anything on this version.

The sculptor

Your writing strategy is characterized by little planning and lots of revising. You quickly have a first draft written down on paper, which you then revise and polish. You can look at your own text with the eyes of an unknown reader and discover what is still insufficient. You also know what you need to do to fix that. With each version, your ideas become sharper. After several revision rounds, you have a text that is ready to be submitted.

The critical editor

Your writing strategy is characterized by a lot of planning AND a lot of revision. You first think carefully about the content and you make a text plan before you start writing. But during and after writing you often come up with new ideas. That’s why you reread your text several times and revise where necessary. In doing so, you have an internal dialogue: ‘Is this what I want to say? Does it come across clearly to the reader? Am I using the right words and terminology?’ At the end of the process, you sometimes completely rewrite a text if you think that will make it better.

The go-getter

Your writing strategy is characterized by little planning and revision. When you receive an assignment, you immediately start writing. The ideas arise while writing and you manage to put them directly on paper. Sometimes you make a few revisions during writing, but often this is not more than a word or two. You don’t easily change the structure of your entire text. The first version of the text is therefore often the version that you submit.

Copyright © 2022 – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam