Notes from Guest Lecturer Jack Driscoll on 10/29/01
|
|
OUTLINE
|
Within the segments delineated by the thesis rules, you should outline within each section. |
|
"
I Write while
I'm cooking" |
Many writers write away from the keyboard, processing the subject matter, so that when they start to type, it comes out. There are surprises that occur while writing |
|
ONE
SENTENCE SUMMARY |
The one-sentence summary is hard; most headlines in a newspaper are written by copy editors 15 - 20 times writing a one-sentence summary to your thesis can seem hard, but it can add focus Faulkner wrote 4-5 words on an index card to keep in front of himself while he was writing to keep focused. Try to write 20-30 ideas for a one-sentence line that captures the essence of what the thesis is about. |
|
WRITE
FAST
|
freely write, without worrying about punctuation, etc. You'll have a mess, which you should put aside for a while |
|
GET
STARTED
WITHOUT GETTING STARTED |
Forget about the introduction, start with the next section. Then write the introduction later. Another technique -- write without your notes, then go back and integrate |
|
REVISE
|
Revising is the most important part of the work details should illuminate the project "seeing again" |
|
READ
IT
OUT LOUD |
If it doesn't sound good to you, rewrite it. Figure out a composite of who will be reading your thesis to use as an audience. The types of people who you give demos to will be reading your thesis, as will people in your field. |
|
Structural
approaches: |
Newspapers often use an inverted pyramid structure, the important stuff is up front. The WSJ used to require that Page 1 stories are written in the same way: 3 examples, the 4th Paragraph is a summary of the story. |
|
Narrative
approach:
|
"It is summer in maine 2005, Aggie is standing by a tree......" showing how the invention would be used |
|
|
Finally, from the Handbook of Technical Writing CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TECHNICAL WRITING
|