Other than that, you can skim or skip around as much as you want
Feel very free to add comments/âsuggestions, including regarding which resources/âtips seem particularly useful to you, which seem not useful, and what other things it might be worth adding
What this doc focuses on
How to communicate more clearly, engagingly, concisely, memorably, etc.
Especially but not only in writing
Especially but not only for researchers
Maybe also how to achieve those goals more efficiently (e.g., become a faster writer or get faster at preparing presentations)
Some things this doc doesnât focus on are listed in the following footnote.
Purpose & epistemic status
There are probably literally thousands of existing resources (and collections of resources) covering the topics covered here, and Iâve engaged with a very small fraction of them. So in some ways it feels silly to make my own one.
But I donât know of a resource or collection that covers everything Iâd want covered. And writing/âcommunication is an important skill, I think Iâm pretty good at it, and I very often give feedback on peopleâs writing. So I thought this doc might be useful for me, for people I give feedback to, and for other people. Also, this doc will itself link to all relevant things that I know of, think are potentially useful, and remembered to add.
Hauke Hillebrandt says: â[This is a] Great book to improve your writing. Very good especially for studentsâ
The Scientistâs Guide to Writing
Someone who I think is good at clearly, concisely, and seemingly quickly writing research ideas said: that reading this and The Sense of Style helped them
This was also the basis for a presentation which I found useful and often refer people to the slides from (WritingTips_UE [donât share further].pptx), but which I didnât ask for permission to share
You should usually include an actual tl;dr/âsummary/âkey takeaways section right near the startâeven in most cases where you feel itâs unimportant or inappropriate
(At least when writing for e.g. EAs. Sometimes when writing for mass audiences, youâll better engage people by deliberately not making it clear what youâre writing about or what youâll ultimately claim.)
Usually donât just have a section with that sort of name but where you actually just say âThis post will cover x, y, and zâ
I donât just want to know you say something about x, y, z; I want to know the core of what you actually say!
Thereâs a good chance youâwhoever you areâthink âThe key takeaways are too complex to be explained briefly before someone has actually read my introduction, how I explain the terms, etc.â Youâre probably wrong.
I kept thinking this for ~8 months, till finally the many many times I was advised to add summaries got to me and I started really trying to do that, at which point I realised it really was typically possible.
Have you actually spent 5 minutes, by the clock, really trying to summarise the key takeaways in a way that will make sense to a reader who hasnât read the whole thing?
(There are some exceptions, e.g. for extremely short posts)
(Though people do sometimes use examples even when theyâre not worth the extra words they cost; hopefully a reviewer can point out if youâve done that)
Often try to be really clear about what youâre not claiming, whatâs not in-scope, what debates you donât settle, etc.
E.g., if youâre just writing that one particular type of AI existential risk seems extremely unlikely, thereâs a decent chance some readers will take away the message that all AI existential risk is extremely unlikely and/âor will think that you think that (while perhaps also thinking youâre wrong and stupid for thinking that)
So consider explicitly saying near the start and near the end that youâre not talking about x, y, z
You should often/âusually ask someone to review your work
I donât always do this, because:
I write a lot
Some things I write arenât especially important and are taking me away from my main work such that I should just get it out the door fast or not bother writing it at all
Relatively clear writing is probably one of my strong points
But I do often ask at least one person to review something before I post it, and I do this for most/âall things Iâve written that I think are relatively important
Many of your sentences should probably be split into multiple sentences; at the least, some of them should probably be broken up with a semicolon
Much of what youâve said can probably be cut, moved into footnotes, or moved into an appendix
Generally try to keep the order in which the same items are mentioned consistent
As per Teaching Graduate Students How to Write Clearly: âAdd structure through consistent constructions. First example: When you state in the abstract that you will discuss topics A, B, and C, retain this order throughout the entire paper. Second example: When you start a paragraph with the statement âOur first hypothesis was confirmedâŚâ, the reader expects a future paragraph to start with âOur second hypothesis was [not] confirmedâŚâ In general, academic writing is clear when it delivers information in accordance with what the readers expect. Do not set up false expectations.â
Save the longest part of the sentence/âphrase for the end
E.g., âghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the nightâ
E.g., âlife, liberty and the pursuit of happinessâ
Why? Because you donât want to hold a big heavy phrase in memory while you are reading the rest of the sentence.
This advice is given in The Sense of Style
And my description is adapted from someoneâs notes on the book (though unfortunately that notes post itself doesnât seem very clear or useful)
[something about (sub)sections and/âor signposting]
[something about introducing and motivating your work, indicating its purpose or target audience, and/âor indicating directions for further work]
I previously collected some Readings and notes on how to write/âcommunicate well. Iâll copy the whole thing below (as it stands atm, and without the footnotes or comments; see the doc for the complete version).
Preamble
How to use this doc
I strongly suggest reading everything in bold
Other than that, you can skim or skip around as much as you want
Feel very free to add comments/âsuggestions, including regarding which resources/âtips seem particularly useful to you, which seem not useful, and what other things it might be worth adding
What this doc focuses on
How to communicate more clearly, engagingly, concisely, memorably, etc.
Especially but not only in writing
Especially but not only for researchers
Maybe also how to achieve those goals more efficiently (e.g., become a faster writer or get faster at preparing presentations)
Some things this doc doesnât focus on are listed in the following footnote.
Purpose & epistemic status
There are probably literally thousands of existing resources (and collections of resources) covering the topics covered here, and Iâve engaged with a very small fraction of them. So in some ways it feels silly to make my own one.
But I donât know of a resource or collection that covers everything Iâd want covered. And writing/âcommunication is an important skill, I think Iâm pretty good at it, and I very often give feedback on peopleâs writing. So I thought this doc might be useful for me, for people I give feedback to, and for other people. Also, this doc will itself link to all relevant things that I know of, think are potentially useful, and remembered to add.
Readings and notes
Books on writing
On Writing Well
Aaron Gertler says: âOn Writing Well is much better than The Sense of Style if you just want writing advice.â
I havenât read this myself
The Sense of Style, by Pinker, 2019
I found this useful
I ranked this 22nd of of ~50 âEA-relevantâ books Iâve read based on its perceived usefulness to me specifically
See that link for a few more thoughts on the book
âThey Say /â I Sayâ: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing
I havenât read this myself
Hauke Hillebrandt says: â[This is a] Great book to improve your writing. Very good especially for studentsâ
The Scientistâs Guide to Writing
Someone who I think is good at clearly, concisely, and seemingly quickly writing research ideas said: that reading this and The Sense of Style helped them
I havenât read this myself
Other resourcesâmisc
Reasoning Transparency
See also How To Write Quickly While Maintaining Epistemic Rigor
Teaching Graduate Students How to Write Clearly
This was also the basis for a presentation which I found useful and often refer people to the slides from (WritingTips_UE [donât share further].pptx), but which I didnât ask for permission to share
EA Creatives and Communicators Slack
Writing in the Sciences
Hauke Hillebrandt says: â[This is a] Great course to improve your writing. Found this more useful than Pinker[âs The Sense of Style]â
3 suggestions about jargon in EA
Notesâmisc
Tips/âsuggestions I often find myself giving:
You should usually include an actual tl;dr/âsummary/âkey takeaways section right near the startâeven in most cases where you feel itâs unimportant or inappropriate
(At least when writing for e.g. EAs. Sometimes when writing for mass audiences, youâll better engage people by deliberately not making it clear what youâre writing about or what youâll ultimately claim.)
See Reasoning Transparency
Usually donât skip this section
Usually donât just have a section with that sort of name but where you actually just say âThis post will cover x, y, and zâ
I donât just want to know you say something about x, y, z; I want to know the core of what you actually say!
Thereâs a good chance youâwhoever you areâthink âThe key takeaways are too complex to be explained briefly before someone has actually read my introduction, how I explain the terms, etc.â Youâre probably wrong.
I kept thinking this for ~8 months, till finally the many many times I was advised to add summaries got to me and I started really trying to do that, at which point I realised it really was typically possible.
Have you actually spent 5 minutes, by the clock, really trying to summarise the key takeaways in a way that will make sense to a reader who hasnât read the whole thing?
(There are some exceptions, e.g. for extremely short posts)
Beware the curse of knowledge
Youâre probably using jargon a bit too often, should more often provide a brief explanation, and/âor should more often provide a hyperlink
One reason this is probably happening is the curse of knowledge
(Which is a bit of jargon I hyperlinked above because most readers probably arenât familiar with it)
Youâre probably also often using jargon a bit incorrectly, when simpler language or different jargon would be more appropriate
See also 3 suggestions about jargon in EA
Youâre probably saying things like âthisâ, âtheyâ, and âheâ too often
You know what youâre referring to, but your reader may have forgotten, or there may be multiple candidates such that itâs ambiguous
This is partly due to the curse of knowledge
You should probably more often use examples
Youâre probably being less clear than you think, and examples can help
In any case, providing concrete examples is an effective way to elucidate abstract concepts
Apparently research backs this up
It also just seems obviously true
See point 2 in Teaching Graduate Students How to Write Clearly
(Though people do sometimes use examples even when theyâre not worth the extra words they cost; hopefully a reviewer can point out if youâve done that)
Often try to be really clear about what youâre not claiming, whatâs not in-scope, what debates you donât settle, etc.
E.g., if youâre just writing that one particular type of AI existential risk seems extremely unlikely, thereâs a decent chance some readers will take away the message that all AI existential risk is extremely unlikely and/âor will think that you think that (while perhaps also thinking youâre wrong and stupid for thinking that)
So consider explicitly saying near the start and near the end that youâre not talking about x, y, z
You should often/âusually ask someone to review your work
I donât always do this, because:
I write a lot
Some things I write arenât especially important and are taking me away from my main work such that I should just get it out the door fast or not bother writing it at all
Relatively clear writing is probably one of my strong points
But I do often ask at least one person to review something before I post it, and I do this for most/âall things Iâve written that I think are relatively important
Many of your sentences should probably be split into multiple sentences; at the least, some of them should probably be broken up with a semicolon
Much of what youâve said can probably be cut, moved into footnotes, or moved into an appendix
Generally try to keep the order in which the same items are mentioned consistent
As per Teaching Graduate Students How to Write Clearly: âAdd structure through consistent constructions. First example: When you state in the abstract that you will discuss topics A, B, and C, retain this order throughout the entire paper. Second example: When you start a paragraph with the statement âOur first hypothesis was confirmedâŚâ, the reader expects a future paragraph to start with âOur second hypothesis was [not] confirmedâŚâ In general, academic writing is clear when it delivers information in accordance with what the readers expect. Do not set up false expectations.â
Save the longest part of the sentence/âphrase for the end
E.g., âghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the nightâ
E.g., âlife, liberty and the pursuit of happinessâ
Why? Because you donât want to hold a big heavy phrase in memory while you are reading the rest of the sentence.
This advice is given in The Sense of Style
And my description is adapted from someoneâs notes on the book (though unfortunately that notes post itself doesnât seem very clear or useful)
[something about (sub)sections and/âor signposting]
[something about introducing and motivating your work, indicating its purpose or target audience, and/âor indicating directions for further work]