Month: June 2013

This book describes writing. Unlike an usual writing book, this book describe how to write a lot. The point is not writing well, but a lot. All students and professor need to write, and many struggle to write journal article, book, and grant proposal. If you can write always more than you are needed, it is O.K. If you find the difficulty to write sometimes, you can pick up the idea from this book. This is not exactly review of this book, I will summarize writing techniques which are what I learned from this book and my experience.

1. Write regularly.

This is important. Writing is hard, so every time, we have excuse to run away. But to write productively, we need to write regularly. The “regular” depends on the study or subject. As for physics, we need to get the result to write a paper, sometimes we can not write the paper. But I strongly agree that we need to write regularly. Only I can do is do experiment and analysis a lot, and try to the results regularly. Let’s do it!!

2. Watch your enthusiasm.

Like reading books, you are most excited to write the next, when we finish the manuscript. So, why don’t we start the next, right after when we finish the manuscript.

3. Count number of words you write.

Steven King said “Start from 1000 words a day.” This is for fiction writers, but we can use the same idea. The physics paper, especially for letters, is not so long, compared to psychology, economics. However, if we know, how many words we can write daily. That makes you easy to plan.

4. Posses the topics what you really want to write.

As for physics, when we could get clear and strong evidences, we can write easily. Because we know clearly what we are going to write. If we posses what really want to write, we can write.

5. Learn how to manege.

If we write a lot or longer. We need to manage schedule. When is due, how long we need to write or want. Practice to finish the manuscript by deadline. We have different strategy, for 100 words, 500 words, 2000 words, 10000 words, and so on. You need to have strategy for each.

6. Writing is hard.

Among the language skill, like listening, speaking, writing, and reading, I believe that writing is the hardest. That is why I practice writing. When I drunk, I can listen, speak and reading, but I can not write. Just I want to remind “writing is hard”. That’s why we need to keep writing.

This books is for every writers. The one of most productive writer in the world “Steven King” talks about writing. I am not writer for living but I have to write the papers, the proposal for experiment, the proposal for grant. So I am strongly interested in how to write a lot and better. I could find useful suggestions from this book. Let me summarize these here.

1. Simplicity.

This is similar with presentation skill. But for writing, we should be careful every sentences. Is there any way to write more simply? Do we need this adverb?  Sometimes, we attempt to write more because we have deadline or quota. However, the simplicity comes first. Clear sentences and clear structure gives us grant or approval for publication? Haha. Do not write redundant sentences.

2. Vocabulary.

I am not a native English speaker, so that I do not have strong vocabulary. However, the truth is “The bread of writing, is vocabulary”. We need to build the vocabulary which can use for better description. However, we should keep in mind.  “It ain’t how much you got, honey, it’s how you use it”.

3. Read a lot, write a lot.

There is no way to be a good writer, “Read a lot, write a lot”. There is no shortcut.  Everyone think we can read. However, that is not true. Great writers are always great readers. So how we read the book is also important for writers.

4. Do not use adverb.

This is useful suggestion. We can usually omit adverb. Sometime, the sentence becomes much stronger when we omit the adverb. So that, we should be careful. Why do we need to use the adverb? Is this really necessary?

5. Take it seriously.

He says, “If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close the book and do something else. Wash the car, maybe” He is strict but tells the truth. If we are going to be a writer, we have to take our writing seriously. Do not compromise your writing.

6. Rewrite.

“When you write a story, you are telling yourself the story, when you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” We rewrite our writing so many times, to get better description. I believe the process of rewrite is important for better writing. Based on the advice from co-author, referee, editor, rethink your writing again and again. Write a lot, rewrite a lot.

Making presentation is one of the most important skill. But, like a writing skill, there may be basic rule though, there is no specific goal to achieve. That makes us difficult to build the better presentation skill. This book is the one of suggestion. I could learn a lot. I will summarize what I learned from this book.

1. Simplicity 

Chose only 1 topic, what do you want the audience to understand the most? Chose only 1 topic. What is the message you are going to present? Keep in your mind. Practically, this book suggests you that you had better chose 1 message for each slides.

2. Clarity

If you do not have clear understanding of your topic. Who can understand clearly? Clear understanding of your topic also makes your presentation clear. You should be most familiar with your topic in the room.

3. Draw pictures by your hand.

You are told to make presentation in 1 week. How do you start preparation? Do you open the laptop and Power point, start making slides? This book suggests you to draw the pictures by your hand on notebook first. What kind of figures are you going to use? what is the message of your presentation? What is the story of your presentation? You should try this technique. I actually am not good at drawing, but it is fun and beneficial, I have really enjoyed doing this. Also, this technique can be used for writing.

4. Save the time for the everybody.

I have not noticed before reading this book. On the presentation,  you are using everyone’s time. Take advantage of it. For example, you have 10 mins for your presentation, and 100 audiences. You might think you are using your 10 mins. However, that is of course not true. You are using also audience’s time which is 100*10 mins = 1000 mins. Why don’t you imagine the benefit of this situation? If you use this time effectively, you will get a lot. If you use this time poorly, you will get almost nothing, sometimes even minus. Let’s practice for better presentation for you and your audience.

5. Practice makes perfect only when you practice effectively.

There is no goal to perfect presentation, we have always improvements. Like music, writing, sports. But there are ideas you can try to improve. Why don’t you try 1 idea for each presentation, see what happened? If possible, you can increase the chance to make presentation. Let’s practice effectively, present effectively every time.

It is an old joke. A man hurrying along a New York street asks a passing musician, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The man said “Practice man, practice.” 

Let’s do it effectively, I like this old joke though.