We cycle and repeat the various activities of the writing process as often as we write. No one writes a perfect draft because writers write everything they can think of and then fill in the gaps. You can improve as a writer by putting in the work and studying. Grammatical correctness is only a small part of what writing is really about. What you need to know is that there is a huge difference between speaking and writing. When speaking they physically inhabit the communicative situation in three dimensions, while when writing they are confined to the two-dimensional sphere of the flat page (on a sheet of paper or on the web). Writing "is like having your eyes blindfolded and your hands tied behind your back." There are five main questions a reader and writer need to ask themselves. Who is the audience? What is the occasion or situation? What is the message? What is the purpose? What documents or genres are used? After answering these questions, you need to keep track of all the source information. When reading a complex test, to make things less complicated, you should separate facts from opinions, recognize assumptions and biases, and make inferences - a belief about something unknown made on the basis of something known. Critical essay characteristics are an argument, interpretive in nature, organization, support, documented sources, smooth transitions, MLA or APA, and grammar