Avoiding Rewrites

During my school and career, I had been forced to rewrite something because my edits only made them worse. I often get forced to rewrite said essay but I get somewhat annoyed at this. I want to be able write coherently and legibly in the future to avoid this but how do I write clearly enough to avoid having to rewrite an entire paper?

Well, rewriting is one of the most significant steps of any writing proccess, academic or creative. I know it can be frustrating, but it is important.

You don't.

Well, if it's only a matter of legibility, practice your handwriting. Though, I don't think that's the issue.

I find rewrites I do on the same time that I write the original often make things worse, while they get better the longer I wait to edit (yes, this means writing papers significantly before they're due). Perhaps this is your problem?

When I write stuff, I prefer to edit, revise, and rewrite on the fly. I'm just not a huge fan of making rough drafts, mainly because, as I've found, I'll end up having regrets, rewrite it all over again while editing on the fly, and it'll just keep going in an endless cycle. So I try to stop it before it starts.

You can't avoid editing, so get that right out of your head. Editing is as much a part of writing as writing.

As for full-scale rewrites, where you have to do the whole thing over from scratch: Plan ahead. If it's an essay for school, make up a thesis statement and brainstorm some ideas for what point you want to get across. Make topic sentences (mini thesis statements for paragraphs). Let your thesis and topic sentences guide your writing.

If it's a story, you have a bit more flexibility. One thing I find helpful is to have a loose beginning, a loose ending, then fill in everything between with key points that I'd like to happen (mainly cool ideas that I want to include in my story), then flesh out the ideas a bit more. Nothing too fancy or detailed, so I have some leeway when writing, but I also have a guide to follow.

If something isn't working, though, sometimes a rewrite is unavoidable. Just take it on the chin and move on.

Outlines are your friends.