Writing (part a)
John R. Woodward
1
Aim
1. This lecture is not an overview of grammar and punctuation.
2. It is just some ideas to get you thinking about writing.
3. You may even start to ENJOY writing 
4. Writing styles change – we have moved on from the Victorians.
2
Communication
1. Writing is about communication.
2. It is about telling someone something they do not know about, about
something you do know.
3. It is difficult because you need to assume what the other person already
knows and does not know (how do you know that???) – so it is a delicate
balancing act.
4. Communication (at the level we are talking about) is a uniquely human
activity.
5. Writing and speaking are different, but there are similarities.
3
Know your audience
1. What do you expect them to know?
2. For technical writing, you could think of 3 levels of audience
3. 1/ non-technical, 2/ undergraduate (technically literate), 3/ an expert.
4. A mistake with writing is assuming the audience know too much.
5. How often have you read something – and thought this was too easy to
understand. Or a seminar which was too easy to understand.
4
Slang, Idioms, Colloquialisms.
1. Is slang acceptable?
2. “as the crow flies” means the direct route – but would this mean much to a
person from Kazakhstan.
3. “Actions speak louder than words” – means actually do it rather than just say it,
or demonstration is better than explaining it.
5
Preparation – prepare for a deadline
1. Deadlines are good: they make us do stuff.
2. We are late by nature: set early and intermediate deadlines.
3. Most of writing is about preparation.
4. clarity. being concise. (think headlines, think sound bites, think tweets)
5. More documents are online – think about keyword search.
6. Writing is about organizing your thoughts. Buzan Mind Maps, Post it notes.
plan your writing with powerpoint (bullet points – not full English sentences)
6
Organizing thoughts
1. A change of medium e.g. verbal to paper, or post it notes to text, can often
trigger a fresh perspective.
2. A change of medium is an opportunity to reorganize (like moving house).
3. Typing at the keyboard is easy (purely mechanical)
4. Writing is about organising your thoughts (being creative)
5. Have you ever lost all your work, but I rewriting it a second time is much
easier
6. You have had time to organise your thoughts during the first writing.
7
Planning
We plan for
holidays,
retirement,
code,
We also need to plan our writing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Ps_(military_adage)
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
8
Dragon’s Den – Elevator Pitch
You have 2 minutes to pitch an idea to The Dragons.
You have to convince them that your business idea it worth investing in!
You need to say
1.
what your business does
2.
what the other players in the market are doing (the context)
3.
why you need the money
4.
what is in it for them
The businessman thinks about the business from the investors side
9
Formula – what is the structure
1. Is there a formula for what you are writing
2. Will you stick with that formula, or will you challenge it?
3. Examples
News reports, sports reports, scientific reports, James Bond films, action films,
whodunit (murder mystery), …, pop songs (3 verses, about 3 minutes),
autobiography (e.g. challenge Frank Skinner interleave growing up with being
famous). Haunting movies (Chinese/western), Chinese essays.
10
3 distinct stages to writing (avoids procrastination)
Psychologically breaking something into stages makes it less daunting (chunking).
1/ get your thoughts down on paper! Just write – do not try and give structure, do
not spell check, do not be critical, just write down all your thoughts on the topic.
Save this as essayTHOUGHTS.txt
2/ now organize what you have. Give it some structure. Does it have a beginning,
middle, and end (if that is what is needed). Do not add new material, you are just
reorganizing what is already there. Save as essaySTRUCTURED.txt
3/ check grammar, spell check, “dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s ”
Edward de Bono – 6 hats approach. You can only do one thing at a time well. 11
Easily Confused Words – check them…..
•Imaging, imagery, imagining
•Uninterested, disinterested.
Software, Program, Algorithm, Code
Bi-monthly – twice a month, or every two months
(even if you know I would avoid)
12
Critical Thinking
1. “Critical Thinking” (or common sense) is the ability to think clearly about a
topic.
2. The Great Wall of China is the only manmade object that can be seen from
outer space with the naked eye. What about the M25?
3. Eat your sprouts – there are starving children in Africa. WHAT?
4. Wiki entry – Julius Cesar uses dwarfs to construct tall building because it
amuses him when they topple over.
5. Clause1 (conjunction because, so, and) clasue2
13
Tenses
What does “I am walking” mean
1/ I am doing this now. It is my current action. e.g. I am talking now.
2/ I will do this in the future – e.g. I am going to Spain next week.
3/ it is a temporary action e.g. I am walking to university as my car is at the
garage (but I may not be walking at this instant in time)
If you are “telling a story”, keep the tense consistent.
14
Feedback – is like market research
Listen to your audience.
Pick people whose experience you trust and respect.
Comedians test jokes on a small audience first (usually in the daytime in small
theatres at a fraction of the cost of a full show). (Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre)
Pretty Woman (movie) is tested on an audience first. In fact the original had a sad
ending, the audience did not like it so they changed the ending to a happy one.
Grant writing – phds – grammar, RAs techical detail, profs – management and
money
15
Communication Errors/Mistranslations
In the military, “Roger” when talking over a noisy two-way radio
Alpha, Bravo
“hikoshimasu” means “move house” house in Japanese – but it does not!
“Omoshroii”. – fun/amusing or interesting.
“Hiroii” – wide or spacious.
Optimization – are you really optimizing – or improving.
Search algorithm = metaheuristic or “text search” or internet search
“it might rain” – what does that mean – what is the speaker trying to say.
16
Editing
1. Be prepared to throw away sentences – or even whole paragraphs.
2. You not want to delete something because of all your hard work.
3. But aim to write double and delete about half. This is part of the process.
4. We are happy to refactor computer code – so why not the same with text.
5. Is the sentence/paragraph relevant?
6. During the writing process, you may have found a better way to explain/argue
something – so the old explanation is obsolete.
17
Presentation
1. Does the article look pleasing to the eye? E.g. CV
2. Is it easy to navigate?
3. Does every reader need to read every sentence in order?
4. Will you use tables, text, graphs, bullet points, pie charts.
18
JOHN R. WOODWARD
19