Tips for Better Writing/Thinking

The following is an excerpt taken from an actual dialogue between myself and a former student, or maybe I was just talking to myself, I can’t remember:

Student: “Dr. Burnham, aren’t you a psychologist?”

Me: “Why yes I am.”

Student: “Then, like, you know how am I thinking right?”  [Note the use of American-English]

Me: “No.”

Student: “Like, why how come?”

Me: “Because my neurons are not connected to your neurons. Dumbass.”

It’s a sad truth (I’m not trying to make you feel bad or make fun of anyone); most students assume that professors know exactly what students are thinking about and/or talking about, and that professors know exactly what a student means when they write something. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! To be honest, I have no idea what I’m thinking about most of the time (no comments please) let alone what students are thinking about. I have anywhere from 100 to 150 students at any time, several research assistants and TA’s, several research projects and possibly writing several manuscripts; hence, I (and your other professors) don’t have time to think for you. Don’t assume that I am and don’t assume that I know what you are talking about simply because words came from mouth or were written down. I’ll use a quote to sum up:

“Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.”

(I love Steven Segal movies: Hysterical.)

Where am I going with this? I’ll tell you: One of my biggest pet peeves is when a student turns in an essay/paper with no explanation of what s/he is writing about. Also, it is frustrating when students try to explain themselves by using the American-English phrase: “...Know what I mean?” Trust me, I don’t; but I would like you to explain yourself so I can understand. Very often, a student will simply list a term/concept in response to a question, assume that listing a term/concept is sufficient and/or correct, and assume that I know what they are thinking about and/or referring too and that his/her minimal effort in answering the question will be greeted with praise from me. HAH! Don’t ever think that.

Allow me to use a hypothetical example: Say I ask the following question in class:

“How does cognitive habituation to odors preclude a person from smelling a particular odor; and what are some potential reasons for cognitive habituation?”

I get the following as a reason: “Cognitive Emotional Factors.”

What is wrong with this? Well, what do you mean by “cognitive-emotional factors”? How do “cognitive-emotional factors” explain cognitive habituation? Based on this answer, I have no idea what you mean. There are lots of “cognitive-emotional factors” that affect human behavior and thinking; so how do they relate to cognitive habituation. See what I mean? The term alone does not tell me what you are thinking about when you listed that term for the answer. Hence, I have no idea what you are talking about. Clarity, elaboration and explanation are critical.

Here’s another example:

I ask a student to describe classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

I get this answer: “They’re different.”

Thanks Dumbass, I could have figured that one out myself simply by looking at the names. True, they are different, but how? Telling me that they are different is not telling me anything. You (yes you) have tot take the time to explain to me how they are different. I (yes I) do not have the time, nor the desire, to try and figure out what you were thinking.

Here’s the point: Very often (this may have happened to you), a student turns in a paper/essay that list some key concepts, but as a whole it is written poorly. Most professors, me included, will not take the time to try and figure out what someone is saying if it is unclear. There are two main reasons for our not doing this: (1) We don’t have time, and (2) If you didn’t put in time and effort to make us understand, we are not going to take the time to understand. Thus, when you turn something in that I have to read, it should be clear, have a logical flow to it and be grammatically correct. I’m not saying that your essay needs to be immediately publishable in the New York Times, but it should be easy for me to understand without requiring clarification. Students often loose points because lack of clarity precludes me from grading part of an essay; and if it cannot be graded, it is a zero.

But there is hope and I want to develop your writing skills. Not just for college, but for life. You are going to be writing constantly throughout your life, whether it is a holiday card to your Aunt Edna or a Pulitzer-winning book on anarchism: You will be a writer forever and you need to be able to write clearly. The path to becoming a great writer is not short and it takes years of practice. What you should hope to achieve in college is to begin to refine your writing abilities. I say ‘begin to refine’, because no writer is perfect and there is always room to improve. (Note: If you think that you have perfect writing than you must be god, because god—supposedly—is the only perfect being in existence. I don’t think our Jesuits would appreciate such a claim.)

So, here’s the first tip to better writing (and also to better oral question answering):

Always feel that it is necessary to explain yourself. When you write something or try to explain something to me in class you should think of yourself as a lawyer (I like to think of DA Jack McCoy, because he rules) trying to argue your case. When an attorney (prosecutor or defense) has a point to make, whether it is correct or incorrect, they need to defend and explain it. A defense attorney is not going to walk in front of a jury and just say that his/her client is innocent; they need to explain why the client is innocent. And, just like an attorney explaining their case, so too must you explain your point in writing or in discussion.

So how do you effectively explain yourself? Here’s the second tip:

Plan ahead. This goes without saying. Don’t be a student that thinks that they can sit and just write a Pulitzer-winning essay. Before you begin writing, plan out what to say. Use/create an outline, jot down a few notes, jot down a few thoughts or key ideas, do something, but just plan ahead. This is probably the best advice that I will give you for becoming a better writer. You must carefully plan out what you are going to write in order to (a) include what is needed and (b) effectively explain yourself. Indeed, careful planning is effective all of the time. For example: If you are going to take a trip to Rome (Italy--I would not recommend Rome, New York), you wouldn’t just on the first available airplane, fly to Rome without having first booked a hotel, and then just mingle around Rome, you would probably have a pretty lousy vacation! You’d probably start planning months (or even years) ahead. The same is true for Jack McCoy: When he is prosecuting a murderer, he carefully plans what witnesses to call and when in order to make a more effective case against the defendant. Thus, careful planning is essential.

This is easily done for term papers and or theses, which you will be working on for a full semester or two; so what about essays on tests. I say, do the same thing! Plan ahead. Instead of writing a full outline, jot down a few notes and key concepts to cover in the essay. Before you begin writing, put these notes/concepts into some logical order, then write about each one in turn. As you begin writing, cross out the notes and concepts so that you know that you covered them.

But when planning ahead what should you write about? When you are organizing your thoughts for planning ahead, think about what you need to say and what you want to say. That is, don’t put down just what the professor want’s to hear, write about how you feel with regards to the topic that you are writing about. Hence, critically analyze your writing. Why do I say that you shouldn’t just write what your professor wants to hear? Professors want to make sure that you understand the material and can apply it. This means that you should be thinking about some personal points that you would like to make in regards to what you are writing about. Indeed, what often separates excellent papers/essays from good papers/essays is a student including their own critical analysis and own interpretation. In the end, planning ahead will save you a lot of time later on when you must revise.

This brings me to the third tip:

Constantly revise and edit your writing. Like I said above, you cannot write something and then turn it in. Seek advice and criticism from your peers, classmates, friends, relatives and professors. Revising is essential. Logical errors/fallacies, lack of supporting evidence, grammatical errors, spelling errors, formatting errors, and other errors will destroy a paper. Remember, professors (including young professors) have written a ton of material: We know good writing and bad writing when we see it. How did we become good at writing and/or identifying good writing from bad writing? By revising, editing and re-revising. By making sure your arguments make logical sense, that you have enough supporting evidence for your arguments, that you spelling is correct and that your grammar is correct you will have a better, more readable paper.

Here are my tips to how revising and your actual writing process should proceed:

First: Just start writing! Once you have planned out what you are going to say, just start writing. Don’t try to write the perfect opening sentence, you’ll just waste time. Also, you can always revise what you wrote. Remember, writing something, even if it initially sucks, is better than writing nothing.

Second: Write in small increments that are easily revisable. While you are writing stop every few sentences (or maybe every sentence for a short essay) and re-read what you wrote. I usually wait until I have half of a paragraph written (~5 sentences). Ask yourself: “If I was an idiot, could I understand this.” Or: “Could an idiot understand this.” If you do not think that an idiot can understand what you have written, it’s a good bet that I cannot understand it either (no comments please). What I mean is, does what you just wrote make any sense? Does it tie into what you have already written? Will it tie into what you plan to write? Thus, stop writing, read what you wrote and figure out exactly what you just wrote means. I can guarantee it will need a little work. If what you just wrote does not fit in with what you already wrote and/or what you plan to write then you should begin to revise immediately before going on. Once you are satisfied, move on and write another small increment, then revise again.

 

Keep doing this until you have covered all of the points that you need to cover and all of the points that you want to cover. Work slow and in small increments. Believe me, if you do this and can fix any small problems with your writing along the way, there will be few to no big problems later on when you have finished writing.

Third: Once you have finished writing go back and read it through once or twice. The reason that I suggest doing this is it allows you to see if what you wrote as a whole makes sense. If so, then focus on the grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc (the technical stuff). If what you wrote does not make sense as a whole then you must identify why and locate where the logic of your argument breaks down. Most likely, you did not form an adequate link between two of your increments along the way. Start there.

I cannot tell you how to identify what is illogical and where it is illogical: Only you can figure that out. The best advice is to read it through and critically think whether each piece makes sense. When you locate a section that does not make sense and/or does not make a connection to other parts of your writing then you have located the illogical area. When you have, identify why it is illogical and revise.

At that point, if you are satisfied, then you are done! If you are ever unsatisfied, don’t ever turn in a paper. Professors can sense when a student is unsatisfied with their work and it can have an effect on your grade. (Call it out ability to smell fear, like a bear.) The point is that you should be proud of what you wrote and want others to read it. You should only be proud of what you wrote and should want others to read it only when you are certain that the other person can understand it. Enough said.

But, revising is easy for term papers, theses and manuscripts that you may spend months and/or years working on. What about when writing essays, short answers and other things that you may only have one shot at and a short time to complete? Well, do the same thing! Instead of writing in increments of half to whole paragraphs, write in increments of 1 to 2 sentences: The same script for writing applies.

Finally: Always ask yourself: “Does this help my argument?” When revising, make sure that each word, sentence, phrase and paragraph helps your argument and its inclusion is necessary to get your point across. Thus, make sure that each piece of your writing counts. Some people believe that the more you write for a paper, the better it is. I tend to disagree. Some of the best scholarly papers that I have read and that I have written were no longer than 3000 words. If you don’t think that something needs to be included, it probably does not need to be included. Take it out and/or revise. Trim out anything that is unnecessary and that may hinder your argument.

One final thing: I know that a lot of professors put an emphasis on spelling and grammar, and I have mentioned them here. Don’t get too flustered over spelling when you write. Spelling and grammar can be fixed in revising. What you need to focus on when writing is whether what you are trying to say makes sense to you and whether you think that it will make any sense to others. Trust me, professors are much more lenient (or may not even care) about small spelling and grammatical mistakes than s/he will be about logical fallacies and arguments that make no sense. Remember, it is your job to convince us of your point, not our job to try to understand that you are trying to say.

Above all: Ask for our help and our advice. That is how we got to where we are today.