Writing Workshop 1 - Dr. Knutson CS 404 Fall 2012

1. CS 404
Writing Workshop I
Smallish Blogs
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3. Stephen King
…On the submissions for his “On Writing”
contest, where fans were invited to send in
writing samples:
“Not many of them were good, but that didn’t
surprise me either. What did surprise me – a
little – was how many could have been good if
the people who wrote them had tried just a little
harder, or had brushed up their skills a bit…”
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4. Design
“A basic structural design underlies every kind of
writing … In most cases, planning must be a
deliberate prelude to writing. The first principle of
composition, therefore, is to foresee or
determine the shape of what is to come and
pursue that shape.”
-- Strunk and White
Design is not just for software or engineering
products!!
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5. Design
“Design informs even the simplest
structure, whether of brick and steel or of
prose. You raise a pup tent from one sort
of vision, a cathedral from another. This
does not mean that you must sit with a
blueprint always in front of you, merely
that you had best anticipate what you are
getting into.”
-- Strunk and White
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6. Following the Rules
“It is an old observation that the best
writers sometimes disregard the rules of
rhetoric. When they do so, however, the
reader will usually find in the sentence
some compensating merit, attained at the
cost of the violation. Unless he is certain
of doing as well, he will probably do best
to follow the rules.”
--William Strunk, Jr.
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7. Clear, Brief, Bold
“William Strunk loved the clear, the
brief, the bold… His original Rule 11
was ‘Make definite assertions.’ That
was Will all over. He scorned the
vague, the tame, the colorless, the
irresolute. He felt it was worse to be
irresolute than to be wrong.”
-- E.B. White
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8. Boldness
“I remember the day in class when he leaned far
forward, in his characteristic pose—the pose of a
man about to impart a secret—and croaked, ‘If
you don’t know how to pronounce a word, say it
loud!’ This comical piece of advice struck me as
sound at the time, and I still respect it. Why
compound ignorance with inaudibility? Why run
and hide?”
-- E.B. White
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9. Concise
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should
contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no
unnecessary sentences, for the same reason
that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines
and a machine no unnecessary parts. This
requires not that the writer make all sentences
short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in
outline, but that every word tell.”
-- Strunk and White
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10. Brevity and Strength
“When a sentence is made stronger, it
usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a
by-product of vigor.”
-- Strunk and White
10/27

11. Labor
“Writing is, for most, laborious and slow.”
-- Strunk and White
11/27

12. Do not overstate
“When you overstate, readers will be
instantly on guard and everything that has
preceded your overstatement as well as
everything that follows it will be suspect in
their minds because they have lost
confidence in your judgment or your poise.
Overstatement is one of the common
faults.”
-- Strunk and White
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13. Myth 1: Only writers with problems
need feedback
Reality: Good writers seek feedback.
Think about all the readers a professional
writer consults before publishing:
colleagues, reviewers, editors, and
proofreaders.
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Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

14. Myth 2: Good writers write quickly
and effortlessly
Reality: Good writers prewrite, draft,
revise, edit and sweat over their writing.
When Ernest Hemingway was asked why
he rewrote the last page of A Farewell to
Arms 39 times, he explained that he was
just, “getting the words right.” That’s what
writers do.
14/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

15. Myth 3: Good writers know exactly what they
want to say before they start writing
Reality: Good writers learn by writing and
are always open to having their minds
changed.
15/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

16. Myth 4: Readers want black and
white explanations
Reality: Readers trust writers who
recognize the complexity of an issue.
16/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

17. Myth 5: Simple language seems
dumb
Reality: Overly ornate language or wordy
sentences muddy your argument and
make readers suspect you’re hiding your
lack of ideas behind fancy words. Use
concise, simple language.
17/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

18. Myth 6: Longer is better
Reality: Stop when you’re done. Readers
appreciate not having their time wasted.
18/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

19. Myth 7: Using I is always bad
Reality: No universal rule exists on using
“I.” Different audiences and different
disciplines have different expectations. If
your audience thinks using “I” is
appropriate, you can use it.
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Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

20. Myth 8: The 5-paragraph essay
format works for every assignment
Reality: Function dictates form. What you
want the paper to accomplish will
determine the number of paragraphs, the
length and placement of your thesis, and
so on.
20/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

21. Myth 9: Changing your writing style
for your audience is selling out
Reality: Gear your writing toward your
audience to get your point across. You
would explain the Green Bay Packer’s
defensive scheme differently to a group of
tourists from China than you would to a
group of high school football coaches—
not because you’re compromising your
intellect, but because you want to
communicate effectively.
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Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

22. Myth 10: Geniuses don’t need to
follow rules
Reality: The goal of writing is to
communicate. The rules of grammar and
punctuation are a set of shared
expectations between writer and reader
that help your reader understand you.
22/27
Courtesy of The Undergraduate Writing Center, The University of Texas at Austin

23. Smallish Blog Posts
• The written comments must explore the
topic, but more importantly they must
explore your thoughts and your feelings
• Never simply regurgitate what the author
said
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24. Smallish Posts – Tips for Success
• Before turning in your paragraph—edit it!
– Have someone else read it
– Don't write it the day it's due
– Come back to it and re-read it sometime after you
originally wrote it
• Engage your brain and digest the material
instead of rushing through it
– Spend some time thinking about the issues,
underlying ideas, and tangential areas of analysis
– Find a tangent or element that grabs you and explore
that for one well-written paragraph
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25. Smallish Posts – Specifics
• “In this article…”
– There are even more wasteful alternatives
• Don't just summarize an article
– Reconvincing the reader of another author’s point
• Don’t simply respond to the article
– Purely technical responses are not ideal
• Length
– Too long… Too short…
• General Authority talks
– Not looking for a simple confirming testimony
– What are your thoughts, feelings, experiences?
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26. Smallish Posts – Specifics
• Complaining about the readings
– “The [readings | teacher | class] suck” is not
the type of insight we are looking for in your
paragraph
– Discussions via email on such topics are very
welcome!
• Autobiographical
– “I really liked the article…”
• Don’t assume that your audience has read
the article
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27. Smallish Posts – Specifics
• Using controversial points as evidence,
each of which needs defense
• Not a stream of consciousness paragraph
– All sentences work together to make a unified
point
• Avoid posing rhetorical questions
– Not a substitute for evidence or reason
• The lemming defense
– Everyone knows, everyone thinks…
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28. Smallish Posts – Specifics
• Don’t repeat yourself or add fluff
– Large scale: Two sentences that are
restatements of each other (Hebrew
chiasmus)
– Small Scale: Multiple synonyms in one
sentence (“it destroyed and demolished…”)
• Loose pointers
– “A wise man once said…” (which wise man?!)
• General restraint and respect
– Persuade with honey, not vinegar
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29. Smallish Posts - Specifics
• Question words for noun phrases
– "A home run is when …"
– Figure out the actual noun hiding behind the
question word
• Existential statements
– There exists an X, such that …
– "There is a lot of discussion these days …"
– Find the direct way to say it
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30. Smallish Posts - Specifics
• Indeterminate association – "has"
• "The introduction of a new tool to a
research lab has high overhead …"
• UML – "Has-A"
– Only tells you that there's some association
• Look for the more accurate words that
actually describe the association
– "is fitted with," "is accompanied by," "is
encircled within," "is equipped with," etc.

31. Smallish Posts - Specifics
• Future words
– "A programmer will write roughly the same
number of lines of code in a given amount of
time, regardless of the programming language
that is being used."
– Default to omnipresent future
• Unless you can give a time or date for when
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32. Smallish Posts - Specifics
• Goofy common grammatical mistakes
– It's "its" not "it's"
• "it's" = "it is"
• "its" = "belong to it“
– Using apostrophe as plural…
• Pumpkin’s for sale!!
• I don’t want to loose the game…