Could you be both a bad writer and a good writer at the same time?

Hi FuelsMySong:

I agree with you - I think you can be both good and bad depending on the type of writing required. Short stories and poems are a far cry from the rather rigid format and language of scientific research papers.

If you're looking to improve your marks on your writing assignments, some schools have a writing centre or hold workshops on the subject where you can get constructive criticism on your papers and potentially learn some new skills that will help things along. If those things are not available, it might be a good idea to bite the bullet and go to see your prof(s) and ask for specific information on exactly where things are not going well in your papers and what you can do to improve.

Good luck.

 

I mean, in my experiences it really depends what you're writing. If the topic is something you're passionate about or if the type of writing is something you enjoy, you're much more likely to be good at it. Likewise, if you don't like the topic or style, it's going to be harder to write something good. For me, I like essays and stories, but hate poetry; I can crank out essays all of the time, but a poem takes a lot of effort for sub-par quality.

Another thing to remember, Stephen King had to publish under many, many different fake names because he was seen as a terrible writer in the publishing community. Today, many of his works are highly praised and he has multiple movies focusing on some of his stories. It is very possible for someone to view good work as bad under their own bias.