Yuan's Blog

The Craft of Writing Effectively

the craft of writing fffectively

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

Intro | 引言

  • Not About Rules — It’s About Readers
  • The challenge lies in expressing deeply complex ideas in a way that others can understand
  • The True Difficulty: Translating Complexity

Problem | 问题

  • Without writing, most people cannot think at the expert level required.
  • The Reader’s Path to Giving Up: Slow down → Confused → Frustrated → Quit
  • The Real Problem: Writers Think One Way, Readers Read Another
  • The smarter your writing feels to you, the less others can follow.

Solution | 解决方案

  • your writing needs to be persuasive and valuable.
  • The question is whether this particular community of readers values it
  • Explanation ≠ Effective Communication
  • explaining is
  • It is not that writing is communicating your ideas to your readers.
  • Professional Writing = Changing Minds
  • the rule says nothing will be accepted as knowledge or understanding until it has been challenged by someone competent to challenge it.
  • you only explain inside of value having been generated，and persuasion having begun.
  • taking articles in your field, print ’em out so you have a hard copy.Go through and circle every word in the writing that is creating value to the readers.
  • Every community has its own codes.
  • You must know the codes of the communities you’re working in and they are particular to communities.
  • Some codes are shared among a bunch of communities, some aren’t. You’ve got to know, we gotta know.
  • you’ll be writing down each of those words and you’ll be creating an invaluable word list
  • persuasion depends on what they doubt.If you don’t know what they doubt,how on earth you’re gonna overcome those doubts?

How to Attract Readers | 如何吸引阅读者

  • “I’ve read all your stuff. But you’re wrong.” ❌ [听起来像攻击，容易激怒评审或同行；]
  • “I’d like to add my voice to the conversation.” ❌ [别人可能根本不在乎你的声音；]
  • ✔️尊重+挑战+价值:您的研究非常出色，对本领域有重大推进。但有一个细节，我注意到可能存在问题，我想提出一个替代的解释/观点

真正的写作训练不是训练头脑，而是训练了解读者

  • 写作不是只靠脑子里装的知识完成的，它更需要你了解：读者是谁、他们相信什么、他们怀疑什么。
  • 写作成功的核心：你能否预判读者会在哪质疑你，并提供他们愿意接受的反驳理由。
  • 学术语言的本质功能不是“自我表达”，而是结构化地改变对方认知。不是说“我来加一句我的想法”，而是说：“你们的想法在这里有一个关键点是错的，我来提供替代。”

Knowledge Construction | 知识的构造

  • 知识与知识者的关系已经商品化。你与自己知识的关系，不再是“知识属于我”，而是像农民对待小麦、矿工对待煤炭：你是生产者，别人是消费者，知识的价值不在“拥有”，而在“流通”。

  • 传统的写作结构（Martini Glass Model）是低效的。→ 许多人使用的是开头“背景介绍 ➝ 提出论点 ➝ 证明论点 ➝ 回到结论”的结构，这种方式过于强调稳定性与连贯性。

  • 优秀写作应从“问题”出发，制造不稳定感。→ 真正吸引人的论文应在一开始就指出一个“读者在意的问题”或“领域中的不稳定”，然后才是提出你的解决方案（论点）。

  • They create tensions. Contradiction，Red flags.：However, but, although, inconsistent, anomaly.

  • 文稿结构应增强不稳定性，而非平稳叙述

  • problems have two chief characteristics：One is the situation has to be unstable.inconsistency and tension.

  • There’s a second point, the language that costs and benefits。show them that the instability imposes a cost on them.Or conversely, that the instability, if it’s solved, offers a benefit to them. Follow it. Rhetoric.这就是修辞学

  • Gap vs. Error：Gap 模型的问题：建立在“知识是有限的、拼图式的”假设上。现实是：知识是无限的，你补上一个 gap，还有无数个 gap。所以 gap 通常 不够强，缺乏说服力。最好的写作：通过发现“重要领域的错误”或“被误解的概念”，为读者建立一个真实且有风险的问题。

Five Golden Rules | 写作五大原则

  1. 引言结构：从读者关心的“问题”入手
  2. 论点来源：是“解决一个具体社区的问题”
  3. 文献综述：构建张力和复杂性，产生问题
  4. 学术问题：基于不稳定、不一致、误解等问题构建
  5. 写作目的：引导读者进入一个共同关注的问题空间
  • Larry McEnerney, my email is LMCE@uchicago.