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The Craft of Writing Effectively

The Craft of Writing Effectively

You need to be 100% sure about what you wrote.

Intro

  • It’s not about rules — it’s about readers.
  • The challenge lies in expressing deeply complex ideas in a way others can understand.
  • The true difficulty: translating complexity into clarity.

Problem

  • Without writing, most people cannot think at the expert level their field requires.
  • The reader’s path to giving up: slow down → confused → frustrated → quit.
  • The real issue: writers think one way, readers read another.
  • The smarter your writing feels to you, the harder it is for others to follow.

Solution

  • Your writing must be persuasive and valuable.
  • The key question: Does this particular community of readers find it valuable?
  • Explanation ≠ Effective communication.
  • Writing is not about transmitting your ideas — it’s about changing someone’s mind.
  • In professional writing, nothing is accepted as knowledge or understanding until it has been challenged by someone competent to challenge it.
  • You only explain once value has been created and persuasion has begun.
  • Take journal articles in your field, print them out, and circle every word that creates value for readers.
  • Every community has its own codes — you must learn the ones that matter to yours. Some codes are widely shared, some are unique. You need to know both.
  • Write down each of those “value words” to build your own invaluable word list.
  • Persuasion depends on knowing what your readers doubt. If you don’t know what they doubt, how can you overcome it?

How to Attract Readers

  • “I’ve read all your work. But you’re wrong.” ❌ — Sounds like an attack; provokes reviewers or peers.
  • “I’d like to add my voice to the conversation.” ❌ — Others may not care about your voice at all.
  • ✔️ Respect + Challenge + Value: “Your research is outstanding and has significantly advanced this field. However, I noticed a small issue that may merit a different interpretation or explanation.”

True Writing Training Is Not About the Mind — It’s About Understanding the Reader

  • Writing isn’t just about what’s in your head — it’s about knowing who your readers are, what they believe, and what they doubt.
  • The core of successful writing: anticipating where readers will question you and providing reasons they can accept.
  • The essence of academic writing isn’t self-expression, but structured persuasion — transforming readers’ understanding. It’s not about saying, “Let me add my opinion,” but rather, “There’s a key flaw in this idea, and here’s a better alternative.”

Knowledge Construction

  • The relationship between knowledge and the knower has become commodified. Knowledge no longer “belongs” to you — it’s like wheat to a farmer or coal to a miner: you are the producer, others are the consumers. Its value lies not in ownership, but in circulation.
  • The traditional “Martini Glass Model” of writing (Background → Thesis → Proof → Conclusion) is inefficient. It overemphasizes stability and coherence.
  • Excellent writing begins with a problem — it deliberately creates instability. A compelling paper immediately presents a problem that matters to readers or an instability in the field, then moves to your argument.
  • Good writers create tension — use contradiction, red flags, or signal words like however, but, although, inconsistent, anomaly. The structure of your paper should amplify instability, not flatten it.
  • Problems have two key traits:
    1. The situation must be unstable, containing inconsistency or tension.
    2. The language must express costs and benefits — show readers what the instability costs them, or what they could gain if it’s solved. → That’s rhetoric.
  • Gap vs. Error: The “gap” model assumes knowledge is finite and puzzle-like. But knowledge is infinite — once you fill one gap, countless others remain. Gaps are often too weak to be persuasive. The best writing identifies errors in the field or misunderstood concepts, giving readers a real, high-stakes problem to care about.

Five Golden Rules of Writing

  1. Introduction: Begin with a problem that matters to readers.
  2. Argument: Should solve a concrete problem within a specific community.
  3. Literature Review: Create tension and complexity — build the problem.
  4. Academic Question: Constructed from instability, inconsistency, or misunderstanding.
  5. Purpose: Guide readers into a shared space of concern.

Larry McEnerney 📧 Email: LMCE@uchicago.edu