rules for writing

Tags: writing https://youtu.be/aFwVf5a3pZM

• don’t really exist except for spelling
• large chunks of rules aren’t errors
• languges is not rule following, it’s controlling the process of the readers
• language as a technique to control the reader’s reading process
• sentence stress and importance
• how to create value for the readers?
• creating value for the reading process -> how?
• “tells what the paper will be about” -> this is not a source of value, because they should be reading the entire article
• writing is not about something
• do you describe something when writing a paper? Do professional papers describe? No, they argue
• what the paper will argue -> state what the arguments is
• tells us what question the paper will answer -> this is the best one -> best way “tells you what question you have”
• leave space for the reader!!! The reader is not passive, don’t simply have the writer talk about the world
• example: use “tools” vs “ideas” -> the word “tools” implies value, tells you that you can use it. Describe is fine, but describe what the reader might believe!! Describe the readers, not the world.
• your job is not to reveal your head, your job is to change their heads
• outside the academy, open with what the reader needs and how they think, if you open with what you’re talking, they might not see the value
• use words like “crisis” and “seize” and create a sense of urgency, to entertain
• entertaining draws people’s attention, it’s how it changes what we read
• people are drawn to conflict, tension, and trouble
• stop demonstrating and look at why the readers are reading it
• from the first sentence, start by writing about how they think
• readers do not trust you by default
• the subject needs to align with the reader’s focus
• concision is shortening between word and understandings, not just sentences
• focus and stress positions of the sentence -> everything is processed in terms of the focus
• subject focus: “studies of the book of Amos” vs “book of Amos” vs “we”
• underline the subjects and see what the readers care about, always put what the readers care about in the subject of the sentence