Some thoughts on making writing more efficient

Please add anything you would advice people to do.

1) First drafts should be messy and sloppy. Don't get hung up on word choice and grammar when you're just trying to get your ideas out. Separate out "content and idea generation" (first draft) from "content editing" later drafts. Note though that some readers don't agree with me on this. Some bosses and advisors will want everything they read to be cleanly edited, spell checked, grammar checked, etc. If you're not sure what to do, ask, and explain the state of your draft when you share it, since people have very different ideas of what a draft should be.

2) You can start with a stream of consciousness, or your can start with an outline. I tend to mix and match depending on how I'm thinking at the time and on the topic.

3) Put next actions and to do items in the mansuscript itself, then they'll never be separated from it.

4) Change your Word normal template to include file name, page number and any other info you'd want to have handy in a print version in the header. Also change Word defaults for the font, spacing, and margins you prefer (or need most often) so you don't have to do that in every document.

5) Don't confuse writng with formatting. If underlinnig, bolding, and sections help you organize your thought, great! But don't get sucked into time-wasting format tweaking. You'll likely have format imposed on you by a boss, a publisher or journal, or some other entity. This is one piece of advive from Latex advocates that I really like. Notice that this also means you don't need Word to write a draft document. You can use any text editor, so putting off writing "Because I don't have Word on my computer" is no excuse.

6) On that point, any tool that helps you write should be used. Take notes by hand on paper if that helps. Draw diagrams and figures. If you're doing that in Word, though, don't get sucked into spending time perfectly formatting the figures until your final editing.

7) They say "A picture is worth 1,000 words," but so is a table. For summarizing research, comparing ideas or theories, or anything that has a handfull of dimensions that are being systematically compared, a table is VERY helpful tool.

Causal thinking and writing

Every time I teach a class or get to read and edit others writing I add to my mental list of tips and recommendations for good writing. This semester I'm focused on causal thinking and writing. In other words, encouraging students to support their claims of relationships between variables. I tell them that their best support comes from citing research that finds the relationship. If that's not available, you need to spell out your hypothesized mechanism REALLY clearly, and cite closely relevant research. I still find that students like write "but what if" proposals. By that I mean they suggest a possible relationship between two variables, but leave it at that. They don't make the mechanism clear. I need to work on ways and examples to motivate this.

My head is spinning...but how much?!

I was watching an episode of "Who the !*#@ did I Marry?" (a new Netflix find). A friend of the woman who had been duped by a con man ex-husband said that the experience made her friend friend change from someone who was always taken care of to someone who takes care of business herself.  "She did a complete 360!"

Let's think this one through...if you're driving a car and you do a 360-degree turn, where do you end up? Going back in the same direction of course. If you make a 180-degree turn, you're going in the complete opposite direction.

Geometrically speaking, it's a change in direction, so if your life was heading toward disaster and you made a "complete 180" you'd be moving away from disaster. If you made a "complete 360" you'd just still be heading toward disaster (and be a little dizzy).

I think this one may be hard for people for a couple of reasons.

1) Analogies that use physical referents (e.g., directions and degrees) for things like life choices are inherently ambiguous. Life trajectories aren't defined on a geometric plane, so what does 360-degrees mean anyway?

2) 360 sounds better than 180, so maybe people like to use the larger number to suggest more change (180 or half a turn) sounds like half-a-change. Of course if you make 360-degree turn you're heading back in the same direction you were before...which I've always taken to mean (by analogy) back to the same lifestyle, bad choices, etc.

3) Since turning 180 means your going back "from whence you came," maybe people think that sounds like regression, or going back to old habits.

Givn the ambiguity, maybe doing a "45 degree turn" is a better phrase...one's life on a totally new (perpendicular) track! Think it will catch on? :)

First offense

I decided I need to start documenting the use of "I could care less" to mean "I don't care" or more correctly "I could NOT care less."

See, if you could care less then there is a lower level of caring you could have. So whatever you're talking about isn't at the bottom of your list. There's something below it (actually or potentially). To steal a phrase..."I don't think that phrase means what you think it means."

I know that sounds INCONCEIVABLE! to some if you but it's true. Sure language evolves and meanings of words change. Semantics is ultimately more important (and more interesting) than syntax, but there's still a role for correct grammar, spelling, and pronunciation. If for no other reason than to not look like an idiot, particularly if you're in the writing business. In statistics and methodology we say that students need to learn fundamentals and the "right way" to do things so they can make intelligent trade offs when needed. Same principle apples here.

So why document this? I'm just fed up. For every violation of this (seemingly) simple turn of phrase, I want there to be documentation for posterity. Consider it constructive feedback. If one person reads this and then consciously corrects their urge to drop the "not" or "n't", I'll feel like I've helped the world :)

And our first offender is...

Ryan & Oestreich (1998) Driving Fear Out of the Workplace, 2nd edition (no less!), Jossey-Bass.

Page 138: "An 'I could care less' approach to the work"

I almost feel bad singling out these authors because I LOVE their book. Don't worry Kathleen and Daniel, there will be others :)

I'm on a mission...join me!