LEADERSHIP LAB: The Craft of Writing Effectively

Do you worry about the effectiveness of your writing style? As emerging scholars, perfecting the craft of writing is an essential component of developing as graduate students, and yet resources for honing these skills are largely under utilized. Larry McEnerney, Director of the University of Chicago's Writing Program, led this session in an effort to communicate helpful rules, skills, and resources that are available to graduate students interested in further developing their writing style.

[leixun]

*My takeaways:*
1. This course is not about writing rules 3:04
2. Stop thinking about rules and start thinking about readers 3:55
3. The problems that domain experts have in their writing 4:00
4. Domain experts use writing to help themselves with thinking 4:51, if they don't do it this way, they can't think to the level they need
5. The challenge: the way that experts do their writing (to help with their thinking) is different to the way that readers can understand 6:53
6. The consequences 8:10 - 1. readers need to slow down and re-read many times 2. readers can't understand or misunderstand 3. readers give up
7. Readers read things that are valuable to them 11:52
8. Writings need to be clear, organized, persuasive and VALUABLE 13:45
9. Valuable to the readers of a research area (not everybody in the world) 15:20
10. An example of comparing two writings 17:16
11. Writing is not about communicating your ideas, it is about changing readers' ideas 21:24
12. Nothing will be accepted as knowledge or understanding until it has been challenged by people who have the competence to challenge 23:24, this determines the readers of our writing
13. A piece of writing is important, not because it is new and original; It is because it has value to some readers 25:16
14. What does the world of knowledge look like 28:00
15. Every research communities have their own code to communicate VALUE 31:30
16. Why does it take 5-6 years to get a PhD? 34:30 50% of the time is used to know the readers in the field
17. Using these words to show that you are aware of the research communities: widely, accepted, and reported 35:24
18. Flow/transition words can help to make writing preservative and organized: and, but, because, unless, nonetheless, however, although, etc. 36:00
19. Do things under the code of the communities 42:00
20. Another example 44:25
21. The function of a piece of writing is to move a research area forward, not to be preserved for 500 years 46:54
22. Writing is not about to express what is in our head, it is about changing other people's thoughts 48:50
23. The instability words that create tension/challenge: anomaly, inconsistent, but, however, although 54:00
24. Bad writing style: backgroud+thesis 55:07 and a better style: problem+solution 56:18
25. Learn the language code from the target publications 1:01:30
26. Literature review is used to enrich the problem 1:02:50
27. Problem vs background 1:06:47
28. Gap in the knowledge is dangerous 1:08:45
29. Identify the right readers (research communities) is important, but it could be difficult for interdisciplinary research 1:11:57

[phillipmorgankinney]

Notice how the lecture is constructed like how he believes writing should be:
Tells us immediately there's something wrong with how we've been taught, identifies the problem, know the reader (academics) and the problem they face in their field; why they should care.
Great stuff.

[AleshiaHayes]

"You think writing is conveying your ideas to your readers, it's It's changing their ideas." This is brilliant! Thanks so much! This should be required viewing for PhD Students!

[jnl]

“The only reason my stuff was ever read is because someone had to because they were getting paid to.” That is quite an eye-opening statement.

[djstarsign]

“You’re not here to do original work, you’re here to do valuable work.” mic drop

[thosiawa]

I took some notes

* **Step 1:** use your writing to help you think.
* **Step 2:**
* you think writing is communicating your ideas to your readers. It is **not**! Nobody cares what ideas you have.
* use your writing to **change** your readers ideas. Change the way they see the **world**.
* This goes for your expert readers too. They don’t care too.
* If it doesn’t **change** their world view, it’s not valuable.
* If it’s not valuable, the rest is **useless**
* Order of importance
1. Valuable
2. Persuasive
3. Organized
4. Clear
* Value lies **only** in the readers, not in the thing.
* The patterns you use for step 1 and 2 are different.
* Try this:
* **circle** every word in your writing that is creating value to the readers.
* guess what? soon you will have your own list of **invaluable words** to check your own writing against.
* The horrible **irony**: the language we use is of stability and consistency. But your readers are searching for language of instability, inconsistency, and tension.
* Use language to show your readers there’s a cost on them or if the instability is solved, there’s a benefit to them.
* Use transition word to create **tension, instability** to challenge their ideas
i.e. bad: hey readers, I’ve read your stuff and wow..., i know what you think **and here’s** what i think...
i.e. good: hey readers, I’ve read your stuff and wow, i know what you think **but there’s** little thing you’ve got here, it’s wrong...
good tension words: inconsistent, but, however, although
* You can’t be persuasive if you don’t understand your readers **doubt**. If you don’t know what they doubt, how are you going to change their world view? You must know **them** to predicate what they might say.
* Every community has it’s own code. You must know what each one values.
* Identify the people with power in your community. Give them what they want (i.e. build them up) **but** challenge them inside the terms of their code. It’s **not** about your individual voice, it’s about what’s valuable to your readers.
* Structure
* Layout in your first paragraph
* **who** your writing too,
* what you’re going to **argue**
* what **question** you have you will answer
* what’s **urgent** (i.e. people value reading about tension, trouble, bad stuff — instability)
* Problem: what’s a **problem** your readers care about and they want to fix (not your problem).
* Solution:
* **Never** explain stuff. Don’t demonstrate to someone you understand it. Don’t reveal the inside of your head. No one cares!
* Your goal is to move the conversation **forward**. Not to preserve your ideas indefinitely. Nobody will ready your work in a year. It’s **not** about you, it’s about them.

[tahatariq]

No flashy slides, no modern day tools just a man with a chalk and an understanding of his subject. Man these teachers and their lectures makes you think that studying a class on the most boring topic can be really wholesome and interesting. What the hell were my teachers doing in college. Teachers make you like or dislike a subject Period.

[vince]

I'm a new English teacher in high school. I teach reading, writing, and speaking. I appreciate this lecture. I feel like I owe you money for enjoying this lecture for free.

[redmarbledigital]

This guy needs a Patreon account. I feel like I owe him money. There's a shocking amount of useful information in this lecture.

[tobiammer]

Amazing how I went from listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song to watching a one hour lecture about effective writing

[MrDivad]

Key ideas:

1. This video is about academic writing.
2. It's not about the content, it's all about the readers. Always think about your readers while writing.
3. See two models for knowledge at 28:00
4. The value of information lies in the value of the decisions they inform. Not all knowledge is valuable, in fact, most is useless.
5. Students grow up in a system that pays people to read their work, teachers don't care about you influencing their thoughts, they care about what's inside of your head so they can grade you. This sets students up for failure. In a professional environment, people don't care what's inside your head, they only care about how your thinking can influence theirs. People care about writing that challenges and changes their thinking.
6. Create tension while writing. Your goal is to challenge some idea the reader cares about.
7. Farmers have wheat, miners have coal, academics have their writing. Your writing is (likely) not something that will be read throughout future generations, just focus on impact in the here and now, focus on your readers and their thoughts.

[racheldejong]

The main drift: 42:20: Identify people with power in your community and give them what they want. 47:40: The function of your writing is to move the conversation of that community forward. 53:30: Introduce instability into the conversation by using words like anomaly, inconsistent, but, however' in your writing 56:20: Identify a problem of your community (a specific set of readers) and move to a solution. 1:01: Show that the instability imposes a cost on them or conversely, if the instability is solved, offers a benefit to them. Identify any coded language of benefit and cost in your community and use it. 1:06: Think about the world in your process of writing, but you then need to alter the process and rewrite for your reader. 1:06: The more you can alter the process for your reader, the less painful the writing process will be and the more successful you will be. 28:53: The bottom line (in my words) is that your contribution to an ever growing body of knowledge (diagonal graph) will only dissipate in time, but being part of the osmosis of the mainly pale, male, stale community might lead to personal success: stability vs instability model.

[Jman]

"You must know the codes of the communities that you are working in." Powerful.

[eriksellstrom]

Four years of undergrad, two graduate degrees, and this is probably - definitely - one of the most useful and helpful lectures on academic writing I've ever listened to. I wish I had taken this lecture before I did my masters. It would have saved me a world of suffering.

[colleensmith]

I never thought I would find myself watching an entire 1 hour and 20 minute video on academic writing, but this was amazing. It will change the way I write my proposals and papers, and it will change the way I teach technical writing to my undergraduate students.

[ShaikhSports]

Effective writing is an art. Good academic writing has the ability to change the world. It is the moral of this brainstorming session

[rafisalfonsoninlcsw]

As a PhD student struggling to write dissertation because so many mixed messages on the “how-to” UNTIL THIS LECTURE!! so many years in school, i have seen all he says here. Worthy Watching this video if only for this:
“The function of your writing is to move your conversation forward.” At minute 47:00-48:00!!!

[ramelep]

I LOVE THIS MESSAGE:
You think writing is conveying your idea - NO - it's changing THEIR ideas.🙊

[baganatube]

This is the single most important lecture on writing I've ever seen. Not limited to academia, I find it extraordinarily helpful in corporate environment as well, where you always need to persuade people from different organizations to join you for a change or an improvement.

[bobpolo]

The cameraman is the real hero of this lecture