How to Learn to Write Ralph Johnson

Writing is Important Papers Thesis Proposals Class notes

How to be Good at Anything Practice Get feedback Get coaching Watch others Reflect Experiment Read books

Writing is Hard Different writing styles Don’t know audience Hard to get feedback Ideas are difficult and unformed

How to Learn to Write Make a schedule that ensures you will constantly practice writing Make sure you get feedback Study good examples of writing Read what others have to say about writing Experiment and have fun!

Practice writing Make a schedule that ensures you will constantly practice writing –Work 2 hours per day on writing your thesis –Have a blog, and spend 5 hours a week on it –Have a journal, and spend an hour a day with it Always have a “current writing project” Every so often, evaluate your schedule

Feedback From target audience –Network –Make a mailing list of interested people From colleagues –Trade papers with students –Never submit a paper that has not been reviewed by your friends From a coach

Study Good Examples Study the literature and collect best papers Look at all the papers in a conference/journal for five years Join a reading group Give feedback on other’s papers –Review papers for friends –Review papers for people working in same area –Review papers for conferences and journals

Read about Writing Style: Towards Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams Bugs in Writing: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose by Lyn Dupre Writing Good Software Engineering Research Papers by Mary Shaw icse03.pdf icse03.pdf

How to Learn to Write Make a schedule that ensures you will constantly practice writing Make sure you get feedback Study good examples of writing Read what others have to say about writing Experiment and have fun!