16c How to write well in an essay

I can give you tips to improve the clarity of your writing, but the best way to become a good writer is to expose yourself to good writing. Often, I have to say, theologians are terrible writers – or, their work is read by us in translation from German or Latin. You aren’t going to learn to write from them. You are, however, going to improve your ability to write by picking up a George Eliot novel, or a Jane Austen, or an Ernest Hemingway. (Find the English or History major in your class and ask them what they are reading!)

And anyhow, as a developing pastor-theologian, you should be cultivating the reading life. A young pastor I know has committed himself to reading for an hour a day – theology mostly, but certainly not only. While his example is outstanding, I am alarmed when I ask theological students in interviews whether they consider themselves a reader or not to find that most say ‘not really’. I am alarmed because these are people who are going to have words as the tools of their trade – shouldn’t they take every opportunity to sharpen them?

So what I am asking here is for a lifestyle choice. Become a reader – not because you will kick it in your theology essays, but because you will be a much better minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ if you are.