The title is a bit misleading, because it might imply that this article is about "how to write at a college-level". I mean writing as in free writing, such as writing for a blog post or for an editorial. I am currently in college, and I would like to share some of my online writing habits.

All the first draft of my articles is typed directly to the computer. I usually try to write essays on paper, because computer has many distracting components to it. However, I found a nifty application called Q10, which provides a distraction free writing environment. With Q10, I have been able to write prolifically as ideas come into my head. It made writing online articles, especially here at Day Mind XPression, very easy, because I can get focused on writing without being bogged down on periodically checking e-mail or scanning the Twitter feeds. Q10 does not have any other fancy features, such as spell check, but you can easily open your file (Saved as txt) to Microsoft Word or other word processor to proof read.

I love Digg, Stumbleupon, DSL Reports, and other websites for my daily dose of interesting trends and news. However, I began my habit of reading more newspapers and books. Although the Internet can provide useful information, I mentally take this information as leisure and not serious content. Thus, I cannot truly use my knowledge from the Internet to write an original reflection essay, because I mentally treat this information as entertainment and nothing else. I find the editorial section of the newspaper quite interesting to read, and it provides me good topics to discuss at my editorial website, View Focus. Books let me journey deeply into a world of imagination and philosophy. I feel that I actually learn something deep and serious from reading palpable newspapers and books. Internet, although I am somewhat dependent, does not provide the same level of inspiration for my writing, but I think this has something to do with my mental judgment and not the quality of the net's information.

Unfortunately, my spelling and grammar skills are terrible. If I published all of my first draft as final drafts on my website, then the website would be incomprehensible. I largely depend on Microsoft Word to check the basic writing mistakes, but now I do a deep sweep of each of my articles before publishing them online. I also write the first draft on the first day, and proof read the article on the next day. However, my grammar could still be better.

Finally, I try to stick to my own style and flow in my articles. I do not "borrow" writing styles or try to assimilate another article's idea as my own. I stick to the principle of originality in all of my writings, because I personally got sick of all the blog posts that were literally "copy written" from another blog, and thus the dilution a personal touch began to spread like wild fire in the blogging community. I do not want to associate with those types of blogs, and I distance myself by writing from my own voice and ideas.