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  • I start with section headers, then subheadings, then fill in the details.
    by HPsquared
  • The assignment was a shared essay? Written together? And then the prof was, oh no a free loader?
    by navane
  • This is great advice. I suck at writing, usually getting started is the hardest part. Appreciate the blazed trail.
    by _superposition_
  • This format probably resonates with somebody. But I learned how to write outlines in school and that has worked for me.
    by thex10
  • Problem with giving advice on writing is that quite often you end up going against your own advice in the very text you give that advice. But the main point stnds, you should indeed know what you want to say. Tell the audience what you are going to say, then say it, and tell them you said it.

    Few observations: 1) it says for noj-fiction, but I think the trunk analogy is even more prescient in fiction. The Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald basically just hammers on this over and over again: know what you want to say and say it. 2) the author does not say it directly, but it is obvious that he learned to write the right way: by reading. You must read to be able to write. Just going througha few writing manuals won’t do, you must go the woods to find trees kemosabe. Fell in love with an author. Read all types of texts. Good writing is good writing.

    by delis-thumbs-7e
  • > "Knowledge has to be packed and unpacked. And in order to do that we increase and decrease the complexity in semantic waves. One key tool for packing is Nominalization, that helps the reader pack the knowledge they’ve received into a concept to be stored in memory. But if you only speak in tightly packed abstract concepts students get lost. And thus you drop down in abstraction and teach through examples, stories, images, that help students digest the contents."

    this is top tier writing. thanks for sharing

    by tuberreact
  • Am I missing something or did the anecdote at the beginning have nothing to do with the rest?
    by maxiepoo
  • > “You should have failed this class. I’m going to make accommodations so that no student can pass next semester the same way you did.”

    > This is what my Ancient History II professor told me when my group and I got our final group project essay handed out.

    What a terrible, hack of a teacher. If you've ever said something like that to a student, quit your job. Those people are the reason academia is such a miserable experience for so many.

    by TaLiTr

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