LEADERSHIP LAB: Writing Beyond the Academy 1.23.15

UChicago Social Sciences · 1.7M views · 2015-02-18 · 1:16:55

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Overview

Larry McEnerney of the University of Chicago Writing Program argues that good writing is defined by what readers value, not by rules or the writer's own ideas. He explains why academic habits fail outside academia and how to write so readers find the work valuable.

On Hacker News

HN treats it as the definitive writing lecture and recommends it repeatedly, with several commenters saying it changed how they write.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2020–2025

Topics

Literature & writing craft Education & learning Productivity & self-improvement

What people said

thundergolfer · 2022-10 · Strong recommendation
Last year wrote a technical writing advice checklist for engineers called How to ask for help in Slack : [LINK] . I was at Canva, a fast growing company adding 500 engineers a year, and the tenured engineers were getting hit with a lot of questions and help requests. I thought about this list a lot, and believe that maintaining adherence to all 10 checklist items will dramatically improve your technical communication in chat apps. For advice on writing long form communications, my absolute favorite resource is LEADERSHIP LAB: Writing Beyond the Academy [1]. This lecture will cleanse you of all the bad writing ideas you picked up in 12+ years of schooling, and show you actually how to think about professional writing. I've watched it about 4-5 times. 1. [VIDEO]
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gnuvince · 2022-02 · Strong recommendation
It's an article about writing, which means I will plug this lecture again: [VIDEO] Short version: good writing is not about rules, it's about the function of the text, the readers, and what they value.
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gnuvince · 2022-01 · Strong recommendation
My favorite writing lecture is this one: [VIDEO] The number one piece of advice: your writing can be clear and structured, but if it's not valuable it's useless and people will stop reading. If you want to write well, figure out who your readers are, figure out what they value, and give it to them.
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Sources

Video by UChicago Social Sciences, played through YouTube.

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Data and selection notes

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