To write better, chart better

Originally published on chartlytics.com/blog

As a university professor, part of my job includes helping students improve their writing. I have worked with undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. The writing assignments and feedback vary between students. For example, at the bachelor’s level students turn in papers that require grammar edits, APA citation formatting, and content feedback.

Graduate and doctoral students also receive similar feedback but start to receive higher level constructive criticism due to the scope of their work. Grad students learn to write literature reviews and doctoral students write manuscripts that they will submit to journals and other scholarly outlets.

Whether the students find themselves in a course where they must turn in a 1-page reading reaction, an 8-page research thesis, or a 20-page draft, all students must master technical writing. And the challenge to refining writing follows four broad areas: 1. mechanics, 2. writing style, 3. content knowledge, and 4. production.

Writing elements

Mechanics. For technical writing, mechanics range from using quotation marks and oxford commas to applying APA or MLA citation systems. Everything must follow the given system 100% of time. For example:

Kubina, R. M., Kostewicz, D. E., & Datchuk, S. M. (2010). Graph and Table Use in Special Education: A Review and Analysis of the Communication of Data. Evaluation & Research in Education, 23, 105-119.

Spacing, where periods go, and use of italics just need learned. Students figure out the system and with practice become proficient. Most of the time errors occur because students don’t know the system well, become confused, or do not double-check their work (e.g., using a period instead of a comma). The good news? Students can easily look up the rules and master mechanics.

Writing style. Writing style refers to how writers express themselves in text. Developing a sound writing style takes good instruction, lots of practice, and continual revisions and further refinement. At the university, I often hear fellow professors lament that their students appear to have never learned to write well or suffer from serious writing flaws.

While high school teachers, middle school teachers, and even grade school teachers receive blame for not teaching writing, the college student needs immediate help. Many books and blogs on writing offer advice. An excellent blog post serving up useful tips on writing offers 10 tips:

1.  Practice concision and avoid repetitive sentences and drawn out explanations.
2.  Write shorter sentences to improve comprehension and readability.
3.  Avoid or revise passive voice constructed sentences.
4.  Remove all instances of weasel words like “generally” and “most.”
5.  Steer clear of jargon and instead write clearly and directly.
6.  Always use citations when mentioning statistics.
7.  Consider using pronouns to create a relationship with the reader.
8.  Lead with key insights, do not hide them.
9.  Use examples to enhance clarity.
10.  Let the reader know where you plan to go with your writing.

Content knowledge. I teach in a special education program. Both my MA and Ph.D. came from a special education program. Additionally, I worked as a professional for a number of years with students with disabilities. Through my 30 years in the field I have acquired specialized content knowledge regarding special education (e.g., teaching reading, practicing to fluency, making data-based decisions on visual displays). Every field will require content knowledge of the specialized field.

Students enter a field and learn about the discipline they have chosen to pursue. To successfully write a paper, the student must do research and acquire specialized knowledge. Attempting to write without first acquiring knowledge will result in frustration and a lack of substance. Writers cannot fake their way through technical content.

Production. Simply put, to write effectively a writer must put in the time. Period. The fantasy about sitting down at the beach, a Starbucks, or some other pleasant place to occasionally write just doesn’t cut it. Writing requires devoted time, focus, revision, more writing, and more revision.

While this blog post has focused on technical writing, to get an idea of what professional writers in the narrative genre do, check out the daily word counts:

Figure 1. Daily word counts of famous writers.

Stephen King wrote many popular books (would love to hear your favorite). One book that greatly influenced the blogpost author: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

King describes his legendary work habits and the importance of goal setting. King set a goal of 2,000 words per day and suggested a book should take around three months to write (~180,000 words). Approaching writing like a job takes discipline but returns tremendous rewards. Having text to edit, to shape, and to share with others means the focus rests on the printed words. Without production, no words, no editing, no shaping, and no sharing.

In my experience I have found many students struggle with production. The job of a professor entails nurturing emerging writers. Yet without words on the page no amount of nurturing will help. The most successful strategy I have discovered to help students write more involves having them count words written per day and monitoring their production on a chart.

Self Charting

Many books and blogs claim to have techniques guaranteed to fix “writers block.” But many of the supposed strategies tend to fall on the side of gimmicks. The truth of the matter for production means sitting at a desk, table, or favorite workspace and writing. The most tangible output of writing appears in the number of words written.

Word count/chart method. Counting words written requires a few simple steps.

1.  Start a timer.
2.  Begin writing.
3.  Stop writing when the timer ends.
4.  Count the number of net new words written.
5.  Use track changes for edits and new words written.
6.  Record the number of minutes for the writing session and the number of words written.
7.  At the end of the day, total the time spent writing and the number of words written.
8.  Take the total words for the day and chart them on a Standard Celeration Chart.
9.  Enter in a daily writing goal and check progress against the goal.
10.  If the data show daily word counts do not meet the goal, try different interventions.
11.  Continuing monitoring daily word counts and also examine in terms of weekly and monthly word counts.
12.  Celebrate success!

In the chart below I share my daily word counts in a monthly view. I enter my data into Chartlytics and have the option of toggling between daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Figure 2. A monthly Standard Celeration Chart showing monthly word counts.

The chart has the summative count of the words I have written each month. The yellow band represents my monthly word count (2,000 to 4,000 words). The chart shows for the last few years I have more months of hitting my aim than not. I have also learned that different types of writing produce different daily word counts. For example, when sitting down to first generate text my count ranges from 200 to 300 words per 25 minutes (my typical writing block before I stand up and walk around). But when I edit, those counts drop to 50 to 100 words per 25 minute. Also, my average daily total count falls between 150 and 450 words per day.

Counting words per day and monitoring daily word count in a monthly view provides insight into my writing habits as well as a sense of accomplishment. Writing steadily each day has aided me in my yearly count of peer-reviewed publications. Figure 3 shows the number of articles published each year before I became a faculty member and my progress as I moved from assistant, to associate, to professor. I have a goal of publishing 3 to 4 articles per year.

 Figure 3. A yearly Standard Celeration Chart showing peer-reviewed publications.

Conclusion

Once, when I was a doctoral student in my first writing class, my professor asked what we thought of writing. A fellow student famously answered, “Writing ain’t easy!” That stuck with me. Yet through time I have improved my writing. I learned and mastered mechanics through practice and feedback. My writing style improved when I adopted E-prime. My content knowledge developed with time and study. And my production has steady increased and stabilized at a range that allows me to remain a productive and contributing member of my field.

Ernest Hemingway said, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." I learned an alternative strategy to bleeding: counting daily words written, charting the total, and inspecting the data on a Standard Celeration Chart.

Originally published on chartlytics.com/blog