PhD Seminar
Hints on Writing (D)
Rule 1: Edit
Rule 2: Edit
Rule 3: Edit
Jeff Offutt
http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~offutt/
Editing is Hard!
“There are no good writers:
Only good editors”
– Chris Offutt
General Comments
• If you make a mistake, it should be on something you don’t
know
– In the 21st century, spelling mistakes are a sign of disrespect – like
saying your time is more important than your readers’
• Don’t forget to leave a few hours for the last minute edits
– Read the entire paper through once without making major
changes
• The “green line” in MS Word is only correct about 75% of
the time
– It helps knowledgeable users
– It can be deadly for people still learning English
– It makes more mistakes on complex sentences
© Jeff Offutt
3
First Drafts
• When writing your first draft :
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–
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Focus on structure and content
Don’t worry about spelling
Don’t worry about formatting
Don’t worry about grammar
• Get the organization right early
– Like software, late changes to the “design” are very messy
• Word processors interfere with creative and organizational
thinking
– We cannot ignore spelling, formatting grammar …
– Cognitive psychologists have found that first drafts are better
when written with pencil or a simple text editor
– I am a better writer with vim / latex than with Word
© Jeff Offutt
4
Outlining
• Writing outlines really does work
– But it’s not fun
• Compromise strategy :
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Outline the major sections
Write ugly first drafts of sections
Reverse engineer the outlines …
Redo the outlines
© Jeff Offutt
5
Reverse Engineering Outlines
• For each section :
– Write one-phrase summary of each subsection or
paragraph
– Many problems will be obvious
– Reorder, delete, insert as necessary
• Repeat for each subsection
• Repeat for each paragraph
This technique has greatly improved my writing –
and I’ve gotten faster!
© Jeff Offutt
6
Personal Process
Improvement
• Start a list of personal “oops”
• Get your list from various sources
– Mistakes you find
– Comments from your readers
– Mistakes you see in others that look “familiar”
• After writing, look for each “oops” in turn
• Over time some items will fall off the list, others
will creep on
© Jeff Offutt
7
Get Help
• Never let your professor or reviewers be the first
to read your paper
– Classmates
– Fellow faculty
– Children
• The first time I sent a paper in without a second
reader was in 1999 … 11 years after I graduated
It was rejected …
© Jeff Offutt
8
Summary
• Good writing is hard work
– But it does not require the intellectual abilities that you
needed to get this far in your studies
• Good writing requires skills
– Anyone can learn most writing skills
• Good writing requires practice
– I am a native English speaker and I have been writing
professionally for more than 25 years
– I am still learning
Never stop learning
© Jeff Offutt
9