LEADERSHIP LAB: The Craft of Writing Effectively

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

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

As a PhD student I have never watched a video more valuable than this one. God Bless Larry Mcernerney. This man is saving careers and lives.

"You think writing is conveying your ideas to your readers, it's not..... It's changing their ideas." This is brilliant! Thanks so much! This should be required viewing for PhD Students!

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

“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.

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.

Beyond the schools, there is no other one who was paid to care about you and your writing. They don't "have to" read. They just read because it's valuable for them.
What a precious statement for us to think, before any time we write.

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

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.

"Writing is not about communicating your ideas, it is about changing readers' ideas", you can also do this by entering their dreams at a deep level, i saw it in a movie!

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.

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.

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

23:51 This hit hard. I now understand to some extent why academic writing is so terse. The goal of academic writing isn't to make the world understand your work, rather the goal is to contribute your findings to the body of accepted knowledge in your field. For your work to be accepted as a worthwhile contribution, it has to be challenged, tested, and trusted by the academic community. And the academic community consists of experts who read and think in terms of expert vocabulary and niche registers. If your writing does not contain the right terms, they might not even believe you have the level of knowledge required to write a paper on that topic. This might lead to a lack of recognition or outright rejection.

The cameraman is the real hero of this lecture

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

I am 23 minutes in and this is quite likely the best thing I've seen since joining YT so many years ago. I am watching it in little spurts because, unfortunately, my brain stops absorbing information after a few minutes. I don't want to miss a single word or let even the most minor concept go passed my brain without understanding.

If I were a teacher I feel like this would be a fantastic thing to encourage students to watch (and rewatch) before writing any paper, particularly before writing a paper on a topic they aren’t so jazzed about being tasked with covering. It’s cross-curricular gold.

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.