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CS 404Writing Workshop I

Smallish Blogs

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Stephen King

…On the submissions for his “On Writing” contest, where fans were invited to send in writing samples:

“Not many of them were good, but that didn’t surprise me either. What did surprise me – a little – was how many could have been good if the people who wrote them had tried just a little harder, or had brushed up their skills a bit…”

Design

“A basic structural design underlies every kind of writing … In most cases, planning must be a deliberate prelude to writing. The first principle of composition, therefore, is to foresee or determine the shape of what is to come and pursue that shape.”

-- Strunk and White

Design is not just for software or engineering products!!

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Design

“Design informs even the simplest structure, whether of brick and steel or of prose. You raise a pup tent from one sort of vision, a cathedral from another. This does not mean that you must sit with a blueprint always in front of you, merely that you had best anticipate what you are getting into.”

-- Strunk and White

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Following the Rules

“It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules.”

--William Strunk, Jr.

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Clear, Brief, Bold

“William Strunk loved the clear, the brief, the bold… His original Rule 11 was ‘Make definite assertions.’ That was Will all over. He scorned the vague, the tame, the colorless, the irresolute. He felt it was worse to be irresolute than to be wrong.”

-- E.B. White

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Boldness

“I remember the day in class when he leaned far forward, in his characteristic pose—the pose of a man about to impart a secret—and croaked, ‘If you don’t know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!’ This comical piece of advice struck me as sound at the time, and I still respect it. Why compound ignorance with inaudibility? Why run and hide?”

-- E.B. White

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Concise

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

-- Strunk and White

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Brevity and Strength

“When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.”

-- Strunk and White

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Labor

“Writing is, for most, laborious and slow.”-- Strunk and White

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Do not overstate

“When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise. Overstatement is one of the common faults.”

-- Strunk and White

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Myth 1: Only writers with problems need feedback

Reality: Good writers seek feedback. Think about all the readers a professional writer consults before publishing: colleagues, reviewers, editors, and proofreaders.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 2: Good writers write quickly and effortlessly

Reality: Good writers prewrite, draft, revise, edit and sweat over their writing. When Ernest Hemingway was asked why he rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms 39 times, he explained that he was just, “getting the words right.” That’s what writers do.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 3: Good writers know exactly what they want to say before they start writing

Reality: Good writers learn by writing and are always open to having their minds changed.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 4: Readers want black and white explanations

Reality: Readers trust writers who recognize the complexity of an issue.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 5: Simple language seems dumb

Reality: Overly ornate language or wordy sentences muddy your argument and make readers suspect you’re hiding your lack of ideas behind fancy words. Use concise, simple language.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 6: Longer is better

Reality: Stop when you’re done. Readers appreciate not having their time wasted.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 7: Using I is always bad

Reality: No universal rule exists on using “I.” Different audiences and different disciplines have different expectations. If your audience thinks using “I” is appropriate, you can use it.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 8: The 5-paragraph essay format works for every assignment

Reality: Function dictates form. What you want the paper to accomplish will determine the number of paragraphs, the length and placement of your thesis, and so on.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 9: Changing your writing style for your audience is selling out

Reality: Gear your writing toward your audience to get your point across. You would explain the Green Bay Packer’s defensive scheme differently to a group of tourists from China than you would to a group of high school football coaches—not because you’re compromising your intellect, but because you want to communicate effectively.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Myth 10: Geniuses don’t need to follow rules

Reality: The goal of writing is to communicate. The rules of grammar and punctuation are a set of shared expectations between writer and reader that help your reader understand you.

Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Smallish Blog Posts

• The written comments must explore the topic, but more importantly they must explore your thoughts and your feelings

• Never simply regurgitate what the author said

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Smallish Posts – Tips for Success

• Before turning in your paragraph—edit it!– Have someone else read it– Don't write it the day it's due– Come back to it and re-read it sometime after you

originally wrote it

• Engage your brain and digest the material instead of rushing through it– Spend some time thinking about the issues,

underlying ideas, and tangential areas of analysis– Find a tangent or element that grabs you and explore

that for one well-written paragraph

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Smallish Posts – Specifics

• “In this article…”– There are even more wasteful alternatives

• Don't just summarize an article– Reconvincing the reader of another author’s point

• Don’t simply respond to the article– Purely technical responses are not ideal

• Length– Too long… Too short…

• General Authority talks– Not looking for a simple confirming testimony– What are your thoughts, feelings, experiences?

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Smallish Posts – Specifics

• Complaining about the readings– “The [readings | teacher | class] suck” is not

the type of insight we are looking for in your paragraph

– Discussions via email on such topics are very welcome!

• Autobiographical– “I really liked the article…”

• Don’t assume that your audience has read the article

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Smallish Posts – Specifics

• Using controversial points as evidence, each of which needs defense

• Not a stream of consciousness paragraph– All sentences work together to make a unified

point

• Avoid posing rhetorical questions– Not a substitute for evidence or reason

• The lemming defense– Everyone knows, everyone thinks…

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Smallish Posts – Specifics

• Don’t repeat yourself or add fluff– Large scale: Two sentences that are

restatements of each other (Hebrew chiasmus)

– Small Scale: Multiple synonyms in one sentence (“it destroyed and demolished…”)

• Loose pointers– “A wise man once said…” (which wise man?!)

• General restraint and respect– Persuade with honey, not vinegar

Smallish Posts - Specifics

• Question words for noun phrases– "A home run is when …"– Figure out the actual noun hiding behind the

question word

• Existential statements– There exists an X, such that …– "There is a lot of discussion these days …"– Find the direct way to say it

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Smallish Posts - Specifics

• Indeterminate association – "has"

• "The introduction of a new tool to a research lab has high overhead …"

• UML – "Has-A"– Only tells you that there's some association

• Look for the more accurate words that actually describe the association– "is fitted with," "is accompanied by," "is

encircled within," "is equipped with," etc.

Smallish Posts - Specifics

• Future words– "A programmer will write roughly the same

number of lines of code in a given amount of time, regardless of the programming language that is being used."

– Default to omnipresent future• Unless you can give a time or date for when

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Smallish Posts - Specifics

• Goofy common grammatical mistakes– It's "its" not "it's"

• "it's" = "it is"

• "its" = "belong to it“

– Using apostrophe as plural…• Pumpkin’s for sale!!• I don’t want to loose the game…