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How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

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Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#151

Post by mandeepj »

_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

I believe those points can also be applicable for speaking also, especially in interviews where you are expected to give canned responses in a STAR format.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#152

Post by 100011_100001 »

rayiner wrote: post #91

As someone who explains complicated things to people in writing for a living, this is one of the best guides for business and technical communication I’ve ever seen.

How do you resist the urge to describe all possible exceptions? In my writing, I describe something, then find myself spending four times as many paragraphs explaining all the exceptions.

Fake example:

A bicycle has two wheels of equal size.

Some bicycles have two extra smaller wheels on each side to train bicycle riders.

Occasionally you might have one helper wheel on the left or right instead of two, but it's rare.

If a bicycle has two wheels in the back and one in the front it's a tricycle. Not to be confused with training wheels.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#153

Post by carapace »

hammock wrote: post #142
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

>Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary I believe you meant, "1. Cut out unnecessary words." ;)

"Omit needless words."

( Strunk and White, 1918 )

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#154

Post by HeavyStorm »

brian_cunnie wrote: post #122

This is my writing gem: when you send an email, you either want them to know something or do something, so say that in the first sentence: Good: "FYI, our etcd cluster is broken, but we're working to fix it." Bad: "I came in this morning, and while I was going through my emails when I saw a message about one of the nodes in our cluster. So I checked it out, and sure enough it was down, and I went to the console and s…

Always open with an "executive summary". At most two sentences must convey all the information.

Then you can add more details and narrative.

This applies to email, PowerPoint, wiki pages, etc.

It's a hard rule to follow - I'd risk saying that the "better" writer you are, larger the chance you'll drift into details and narrative.

A good mechanism to solve that problem is to add the tl; Dr aka executive summary after you've written all you need.

----

Many years at Big Consulting Inc may have dried up my soul but at least taught me to communicate effectively, I think.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#155

Post by la6472 »

_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

Author needs to practice more ..after 125 slides he/she could not communicate clearly to me that the underlying hypothesis is true.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#156

Post by mlyle »

hammock wrote: post #142
_ddzr wrote: post #71

Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary 2. Stuffy writing is bad writing! It lowers the power of your brain and mine! 3. What words should you never use in writing? Words whose exact meanings you don’t know! Never use a word unless you know EXACTLY what it means 4. If your writing is nonsense, maybe your thoughts are nonsense too! 5. To ke…

>Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary I believe you meant, "1. Cut out unnecessary words." ;)

> > Key takeaways: 1. One of the best ways to improve your writing is to learn how to cut out words that are not necessary

I think it's funny the summarized version is that statement. Because, in the presentation, they progressively cut down that exact statement to arrive at:

"To improve your writing, cut out unnecessary words."

> I believe you meant, "1. Cut out unnecessary words."

I think your version cuts out a little too much. It loses the why and becomes an unexplained imperative.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#157

Post by Flenser »

kwyjibo1230 wrote: post #109
stackbutterflow wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding 1, something I've noticed on HN is the overuse of some adverbs. "Absolutely" comes to mind. "I absolutely agree" could as well be "I agree".

I try to remove common enhancing adverbs when writing emails at work. Removing "very," "definitely," "absolutely," etc. makes professional communication come across more authoritatively and clearly. I still use adverbs to be clear, but they need to communicate something specific that is otherwise hard to articulate.

There's a Chrome Extension for Gmail and Outlook for web that helps you send more confident emails by warning you when you use words which undermine your message.

https://justnotsorry.com

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#158

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

skydhash wrote: post #148
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #66

I found it embarrassing that I actually do not know much material that worth to be written. My gut feeling is that one month of intensive research/work/study can be summarized in a long blog post. But in my post-student life I have, unfortunately, avoided so many of those intensive experience because they are difficult. I even switch job every 2-3 years so that I never get much deep understanding of pretty much anyth…

Every time I wanted to write, I felt that what I'm writing about is either trivial or already done. But whenever someone asked me something, I could speak about it for hours. So now, I'm building personal wikis - one for learning and work, the other for thinking. I jot down whatever I feel somewhat relevant. Aiming for the perfect blog post stunted me, so I love writing in a more raw format and a less structured envi…

If you can speak for hours I believe you already have some understanding of the issue, but when you start writing something you might tend to underestimate some knowledge as "trivial" so that you would not want to write them down, at all. That significantly reduces the length of writing IMHO.

Re: How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]

#159

Post by voiper1 »

heinrichhartman wrote: post #45

Forgive me for bringing up my own material here, but I wrote a piece that is highly relevant in this context only two days ago: Writing for Engineers - https://www.heinrichhartmann.com/posts/writing/ This text is particularly geared towards Software Engineers and focuses more on the psychology of getting started with writing. Lot's of overlap with the content in this post (which has much more depth on the "how to wri…

>Heat the iron before working it >Conversely, if you don’t have the context in your brain right now, you have two options (1) don’t write or (2) start loading the context into your brain.

I haven't heard that idea before - makes a lot of sense, thanks!

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