How Ane Write

Writing is easy. All you lot hit is sit down staring at the blank canvas of newspaper until the drops of blood cast on your forehead.
-- Red Smith

Let's acquire this cleared first. Writing is hard. Whoever says it is slow is lying. There is a lovely volume past times Sophy Burnham called "For Writers Only" which includes countless quotes from writers on the exquisite hurting of the writing life. I highly recommend the book. All the quotations inward this post are taken from that book.

I run across but 1 rule: to live clear.
-- Stendhal

Of course, I am non going to beak nigh how to write neat industrial plant of literature. For that I am unqualified. I volition beak nigh technical/scientific writing, which is a fleck easier in addition to manageable. For technical writing you lot hit non necessarily take to live creative, playful, in addition to poetic. You simply take maintain to communicate your points clearly. (Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.)

We hit non write inward guild to live understood, nosotros write inward guild to understand.
-- C. Day-Lewis

Writing is really of import for our careers every bit researchers. Writing helps us brand feel of our query in addition to findings, thence nosotros should commencement in addition to foremost write for ourselves. Writing is also how nosotros document/communicate our results thence that others tin laissez passer the axe hit goodness in addition to create on them. Consequently, writing is what nosotros are evaluated on every bit academics.

If nosotros had to tell what writing is, nosotros would take maintain to define it essentially every bit an human activity of courage.
--Cynthia Ozick

While writing is really important, it is oft neglected in addition to poorly done.  This is because writing is difficult work; it exposes how weak in addition to unorganized our thoughts actually are. After all those years of writing, I nevertheless experience uneasy nigh writing.

My play tricks to writing

When I was a rookie graduate pupil inward the distributed systems field, I was a huge rapid prototyping.

The to a greater extent than a human being writes, the to a greater extent than he tin laissez passer the axe write.
-- William Hazlitt

My play tricks is non novel. It is essentially freewriting: Lower your expectations in addition to write freely inward bulk, in addition to you lot volition live amazed at what you lot produce.

There are ii steps to this type of writing: Mess upwardly in addition to tidy up. The chief thought is to split drafting (messing up) from revising (tidying up).

Mess up

Beginning to write, you lot discovery what you lot take maintain to write about.
-- Kit Reed

This is the exploration phase. The finish is to jot downward whatsoever useful thought that tin laissez passer the axe Pb to other useful ideas in addition to to hit inward bulk. In this stage don't criticize or bound yourself. Don't worry nigh proficient prose, clarity, style, or ameliorate wording. Don't right the typos. You don't take to capitalize, you lot don't fifty-fifty take to write inward total sentences. Just write in addition to accumulate text. After you lot follow some faux leads in addition to convey unfruitful paths, you lot volition eventually start putting downward some useful ideas, in addition to write to a greater extent than in addition to hit to a greater extent than on summit of those ideas.

It's a messy business. You air current upwardly amongst shoe boxes of fight paper.
-- Cormac McCarthy

In guild to loosen up, you lot take to acquire farther in addition to convince yourself that you lot are writing to throw these away, in addition to non to job them. Of course of educational activity the reality is that unremarkably what you lot write is generally non that bad in addition to after some tidying upwardly you lot achieve an acceptable draft.

Tidy up

Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, fifty-fifty when it breaks your egocentric petty scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.
-- Stephen King

This is the focusing phase. The finish is to take the useless parts in addition to revise the useful parts. Less is to a greater extent than when it comes to writing. In guild to buy the farm on the writing focused, you lot take maintain to take a lot of cruft. Revel inward deleting text (it is similar deleting code :-), you lot should live happy if you lot tin laissez passer the axe explicate what you lot desire inward less words. (If you lot are uncomfortable amongst removing text, endeavor commencement commenting it out or moving it at a split junk-text buffer thence you lot tin laissez passer the axe nevertheless visit adding it dorsum later. Often you lot volition discovery that you lot volition live OK removing that text every bit you lot grow less attached to it.)

A paragraph is the unit of measurement of composition, thence start at the paragraph level. Watch the paragraphs cast every bit you lot acquire related text together. Reorder the paragraphs in addition to take some of them. Check that the period of time of the writing (the high-level educate of thought) is there. While doing this, understand amongst the reader in addition to visit the reader's signal of view. Can the reader follow the flow? Or are at that topographic point places where a reader (a distracted one, or 1 amongst dissimilar ready of assumptions/expectations/background) may diverge. Work out those kinks, or (if you lot nevertheless experience weak/lazy/unsure) write self notes/comments nigh these issues thence you lot tin laissez passer the axe start addressing them inward afterward revisions.

Easy reading is damned difficult writing.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Now that you lot take maintain a zeroth draft, you lot tin laissez passer the axe start reviewing in addition to revising. You are forthwith the editor. Forget you lot wrote the text produced before in addition to imagine that some other guy wrote it. (Shake your caput rigorously, if that industrial plant for you.) Do a harsh review of the writing in addition to seat the issues amongst it. Then acquire over the writing in addition to endeavor to create every bit much every bit you lot can.

I take maintain oft rewritten --often several times-- every intelligence I take maintain e'er published. My pencils outlast their erasers.
-- Vladimir Nabokov

You are almost done. Repeat the revising stride a pair to a greater extent than times until you lot experience satisfied amongst the writing. Do 1 to a greater extent than revision fifty-fifty after then. If this is a query paper, ship it out to your friends/collaborators to review it for you. They may live able to discovery issues that escaped your senses.

Bonus tip: Gear up

Give me half-dozen hours to chop downward a tree in addition to I volition pass the commencement iv sharpening the axe.
-- Abraham Lincoln

You volition (and should) pass an enormous amount of fourth dimension writing during your career, thence identifying the right tools for your writing matters a lot. An outliner helps greatly for this type of writing (drafting in addition to thence revising). I establish that Emacs org-mode is neat for writing in addition to organizing my thoughts. Take fourth dimension to discovery what industrial plant best for you. If you lot experience lazy nigh this, visit this: the physicists had to create telescopes in addition to the Hadron collider every bit their tools, thence they tin laissez passer the axe acquire things done. Tools are actually important, in addition to you should realize that fourth dimension spent mastering/customizing a tool is non fourth dimension wasted.

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
-- Samuel Beckett

Since writing is also a tool, the advice on honing your tools also applies to writing. The best agency to acquire ameliorate at writing is past times writing a lot. Write daily. By writing a lot of bad prose, you lot volition eventually larn how to write ameliorate in addition to acquire to a greater extent than comfortable amongst writing. Take every chance to write. Maintain a blog. Read a lot. All the while, live mindful of your writing. Always visit how you lot tin laissez passer the axe improve it further.

How hit I write a query paper?

Writing a query newspaper requires to a greater extent than discussion: How hit you lot write inward parallel amongst your research? How hit you lot accumulate plenty text to acquire started? How hit you lot structure/organize your newspaper into appropriate sections. But these volition take maintain to come upwardly at a afterward post. (UPDATE: See How to write your query newspaper post.)

The best purpose nigh writing is stopping.
-- Colin Walters

Related posts

Writing advice
How to write your query paper 
How I read a query paper
My advice to my graduate students
My advice to my undergraduate students

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