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I have just watched a min-blowing hour of a course on (academic) writing given by a uni prof from the University of Chicago.<br />
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It is really awesome, golden principles that applies to everything, including entrepreneurship.<br />
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Here is the YT vid, but I have taken notes, which you can find below. They are pretty raw, so I absolutely recommend watching the video.<br />
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</div><i><span style="font-size: 10px"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM</a></span></i><br />
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<b><u>Notes start here</u></b><br />
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A journalist writes to explain something after he has done the thinking. An expert writes to think about what he is writing. Writing appears as a thinking process. This type of writing is the highest writing level ever.<br />
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People write and think differently. When a writer writes something, it will collapse with the thinking process of his readers, because both are different.<br />
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Good writing is writing that fits thinking processes.<br />
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When people read something that wasn’t made to fit with their thinking patterns, they slow down, then don’t understand then get angry, then stop reading.<br />
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Writing must be: <b>Clear, organized, persuasive, but above all else, writing should be valuable. </b><br />
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Your writing should change people’s lives. If it doesn’t they wont read it. When people read something, it is to find value in it. If there is none, they won’t read it.<br />
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As such, writing is not about the writer wondering if his ideas have values. Writing is about what <b>the readers think is valuable. <br />
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The main thing you must focus on when writing something, is the readers. Is it valuable to readers? </b><br />
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Now, let’s say you write a paper and someone tells you what you wrote is neither clear nor important. What would you?<br />
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You would explain why it is important.<br />
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<b>Don’t do that.</b><br />
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Teachers ask students to explain because it is teachers’ job to make sure that students have understood the knowledge. As such, students are trained to show teachers the inside of their mind so that teachers can make sure that students indeed, understood. In the real word, <b>nobody cares about what is inside your head. <br />
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As such, you NEVER WANT TO EXPLAIN SOMEONE WHY YOUR WORK IS IMPORTANT. IT GOTTA BE OBVIOUS WHY IT IS IMPORTANT. <br />
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You think writing is conveying your ideas? It’s not. <br />
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<u>It’s changing the ideas of your reader. </u><br />
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Nobody cares what ideas you have.</b><br />
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What matters is that you write knowledge, and you don’t get to decide what knowledge is. Other people do. So the purpose of writing, is to write for other people.<br />
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Each community has a code made of a set of word that communicate value. You must know these words if you hope to write valuable information for this community.<br />
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If you don’t know your readers, you are very unlikely to create value and to be persuasive. Persuasion depends on what they doubt. If you don’t know that, you can’t convince them.<br />
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You can’t go to a community of scientists and tell them “hey, there is something I’d like to add to what you have done” because they’ll answer “we don’t care”. However, if you go and say “what you have done is amazing, I have read everything congratulations, all is great. But, there is one thing though, that I am not sure is correct”…then you’ll have their attention. Because suddenly, what you are saying has value to them.<br />
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The idea of writing, is to identify the people with power in the community, and to give them what they want.<br />
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<b>Your writing should help a group of people to understand better something they want to understand well. </b>
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</blockquote>This was a fantastic share. Thank you, <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/78083/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="78083" data-username="@mon_fi">@mon_fi</a> ! Excellent stuff. (When you have a 1.5 hour video of a college class that has racked up almost 2 million views, you know that's got to be a pretty impressive class.)<br />
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It's interesting how many of the principles he explores also apply to copywriting, even though he's coming from the angle of "writing an academic paper that will get published."<br />
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It's universal. Provide value. Think about what the <i>reader</i> wants to read.<br />
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I liked his point about how if you're just stacking up knowledge, knowledge, and more knowledge, no one cares. Instead, it's more accurate to realize there's a <i>conversation</i> taking place in a <i>community</i>, which is moving forward through <i>time</i>. And at any given time, there are things that the community cares about, and other things they don't. So give them the things they care about.<br />
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I also couldn't help but notice that he pointed out that you have to begin with a PROBLEM (tension / instability) and then point out the cost of not solving the problem or the reward if you do solve it.<br />
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Heh heh... <i>everything</i> is a sale, guys.<br />
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Even if you're a PhD in academia writing papers on obscure topics for academic journals, you still have to <i>sell the journal editor on publishing you</i>.<br />
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And what do you know? The same starting point that works for EVERY sale (problem/pain) also applies here. Gotta love it.</div>
