How to Start and Complete a Writing Project

In my last post, I discussed the importance of writing and how it makes you smarter. But it's one thing to understand why you should be writing and a whole other matter to actually do it. If you've ever had trouble finishing (or starting!) a writing project, try these nine steps.

1. Start with what interests you

Did you recently create a new feature? Hear about something cool you want to learn more about and share? Take time to research the topic, why it matters, and how it compares to similar features, products, or ideas.

2. Read similar content

If you're going to write a blog, see what you like about other blogs. The same goes for  documentation. Pay attention to what you like and don't like, and most importantly, why.

3. Write your draft

Don't worry about perfection! This is the time to get your ideas down. Part of what causes us to dread the blank page is fear of doing it wrong. There is no "wrong" in the draft stage. Just start writing.

4. Organize your content

Now that you've got your ideas down, look at the flow of the information. Are you starting with something that will hook the reader's interest or with something irrelevant or too detailed? Does the body of the document go off on tangents or add unrelated points in the middle of a paragraph? Are you summarizing at the end and giving further resources the reader can link to, or does it just trail off?

5. Edit

Go through each sentence and ask whether it adds value to the reader. Cut unnecessary words, phrases, and sentences. Make sure each sentence makes grammatical sense, and if you're unsure about a word or how to use commas correctly, look it up.

6. Take a break, and then read it again

Time away helps your brain reset so you can spot those gaps I mentioned in my last post.

7. Get it reviewed

This is the most important step. Send your draft to people who can give you feedback on the subject matter, the writing, or both. Wait for all the feedback to come in, and then (politely!) ask for clarification on unclear feedback. If you get conflicting feedback from different reviewers, you might need to make a judgment call about which makes the most sense. Be courteous and grateful, never defensive, with your reviewers. They are your most important resource, so treat them well.

8. Do a final edit

Incorporate the feedback, take a break, and then read it one more time. If you make anything other than the slightest tweaks at this point, get it reviewed again.

9. Publish and promote

Congratulations! You did it! Now it's time to make sure people read it. If you wrote a blog post, promote it on social media. Add appropriate keywords and hashtags.

If you updated documentation in response to customer feedback, let them know you fixed it and thank them for helping you improve the docs. In all cases, be sure to let your reviewers know it's published and thank them. People who are acknowledged are more likely to keep giving you feedback.

Time to jump in! You can print this list and start ticking off the steps, or you could add each step on your calendar. I like using the Self journal for planning and tracking goals. Whichever system you use, just start.

Do you have any tips or tricks for finishing a writing project? Please share them in the comments.

Writing Makes You Smarter

Recently, I was talking with our CEO, Tyler Jewell, about the importance of writing. Good writing has some obvious benefits, such as ensuring people understand your points in an email and building your personal brand. Tyler attributes much of his success to his habit of writing regularly. But then he said something I hadn't considered before: "Writing makes you smarter."

Tyler is a prolific blogger. He finds that setting aside time to focus solely on the topic you're going to write about helps bring clarity to complex topics and causes you to think about them in ways you haven't before. And when you can speak and write articulately about complex matters, others think you are smarter. But can the writing process itself make you smarter? I was intrigued by this idea, so I took the obvious next step: I decided to write about it.

Writing increases engagement in learning

When I'm not writing regularly, I am more distracted and disorganized, and I'm less motivated to learn new things. In the Psychology Today article How Writing Makes You Happier, Smarter, and More Persuasive, Gregory Ciotti writes:

There’s a certain discipline required to create interesting written work that demands the individual be receptive and focused on finding new sources of information, inspiration, and insight. I’ve read books, listened to podcasts/radio, and watched videos I may have normally put off in order to learn something interesting that I might write about later.

Even if you don't love writing, you've probably noticed that researching a problem piques your interest in learning. If you're trying to figure out which car to buy, suddenly you start noticing all the cars on the road, you ask your friends what they like about theirs, and you start reading reviews on websites you might never have visited otherwise. You become engrossed by the topic and start absorbing information about it everywhere, which causes your brain to kick into high gear and exposes you to new information. The research phase of writing not only makes you more informed, it's also a great way to exercise your brain and make it work more efficiently in all areas of your life.

You too, engineers

While many engineers love to write, many others are terrified to sit down to a blank page that needs to be filled with words instead of code. But writing actually has a lot in common with coding, and it’s critical for your engineering career. Mike Borozdin, VP of Engineering at Ethos Lending who previously worked at DocuSign and Microsoft, said this to Business Insider:

I would advise folks in software to do one thing, and that's write. You need to know how to express yourself. Once you create a successful piece of software, you're probably going to be writing English as much as you're going to be writing Java or Objective C.

When you're designing a feature, writing about it helps you see where there are gaps in your understanding and priorities. Do you know why you're creating this feature and what business problem it solves? Can you succinctly explain its purpose and how it works? By organizing your assumptions and conclusions in a document that you share with other stakeholders, you can be sure that you're coding it right the first time and that everyone is working from the same understanding. In other words, you'll work smarter, not harder.

Once your feature is released, writing becomes even more important. According to Borozdin, whenever his software went viral, he ended up writing probably 10 times more documentation and answers to questions than he wrote code. Writing not only leads to success; it's required once you achieve it.

Feedback is key

It's important to know the basic rules of punctuation and grammar and to take time to structure your writing so that it flows in a logical way. (Although flawless grammar and punctuation are not always critical for conveying meaning, typos can affect how people interpret the emotion of your emails, and at worst they can lead to costly or even fatal mistakes.) Your writing should be easy to understand and not violate the hiccup rule: if you have to stop mid-sentence and re-read the sentence, it has caused you a mental "hiccup" and should be rewritten.

But have you ever carefully reviewed what you wrote (the answer to this should always be "yes") and were surprised when someone spotted a typo you completely missed? When you read your own writing, your brain fills in the gaps, making it hard to spot your mistakes. So no matter how exceptional a writer you are, get your work reviewed. Even professional editors hire editors, because they know it's the only way to improve their writing.

When you receive the feedback, put yourself in an open, non-defensive state of mind, read the feedback carefully and thoroughly, and ask questions if you don't fully understand it. You want to take in the feedback and learn from it, not just mindlessly make the corrections people give you. Over time, you'll hear those comments in your head as you're writing new content, and your writing will get better and better. This will cause people to perceive you as more intelligent than people who make frequent errors. And even though research shows there's no correlation between poor spelling and intelligence, striving for clear and accurate communication is just plain smart.

The bottom line

In summary, a regular writing practice stimulates your brain, makes you more informed, helps you work more efficiently, and helps others see you for the smart person you truly are. So pick a topic and go!

In my next blog post, I'll outline the fundamental steps for starting and completing a writing project. In the meantime, check out my previous posts for tips on grammar, punctuation, and the joys of writing.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns provide a way to refer to a group as a single unit. In fact, “group” is an excellent example of a collective noun; when you refer to a group, you are referring to all members of that group at once as a single unit. Other collective nouns you'll run into frequently are: team, data, network, family, and company.

Because the collective noun is being treated as a single unit, use singular verbs with it. For example, you write:

“The group is going to the event”

not:

“The group are going to the event”

Similarly, you write:

“The network of servers is offline”

not:

“The network of servers are offline”.  

When you follow a collective noun (“network”) with a prepositional phrase that defines what’s in the collective noun (“of servers”), it can be tricky to remember to use the singular verb (“is offline” instead of “are offline”). The reason is that your ear may cling to the last word it heard (“servers”) and think “servers is down” sounds wrong. But “servers” is the object of the prepositional phrase, NOT the subject of the sentence, and it's the subject of the sentence that the verb has to agree with.

If you see a prepositional phrase, take a look at what the sentence would look like without it, and you’ll have an easier time figuring out whether to use the singular or plural. For example, try this:

“The network of servers is down.”

Hmm, shouldn’t it be “servers are down”? Let’s remove the prepositional phrase:

“The network [of servers] is down” -> “The network is down.”

Could I say “The network are down?” Nope! The subject is “network”, not “servers” (“servers” is the object of the preposition), and the verb must agree with the subject, so it should be “The network is down.” So “The network of servers is down” is correct.

Of course, English is crazy, so there’s an exception: if you are putting the emphasis on the individuals in a group, you can use the plural verb. For example:

“After the event, the Tech Content team were trying to find their cars.”

This is the equivalent of saying:

“After the event, the members of the Tech Content team were trying to find their cars.”

In this case, it makes sense to use the plural verb, because using the singular verb would make it sound like the cars are owned by the Tech Content team, not by the individuals on the team:

“After the event, the Tech Content team was trying to find its cars.”

However, I recommend you avoid this awkwardness entirely and refer to the individuals explicitly as I did with “members” in the second example.  

Removing the prepositional phrase to help you determine whether to use the singular or plural verb is similar to a trick you can use when you’re trying to figure out whether to use the subject or object version of a pronoun, such as “and I” or “and me”.

For example:

Sam and I went to the market.

He gave the feedback to Sam and me.

The first sentence is pretty easy. Get rid of “Sam and”, and you’ll quickly see that “I went to the market” is correct, not “Me went to the market.” So you know it’s “Sam and I went to the market.”

But shouldn’t it also be “Sam and I” in the second sentence? If you pull out “Sam and” again, you can try it both ways:

He gave the feedback to me. (Correct)

He gave the feedback to I. (Incorrect)

Why? Because a prepositional phrase takes an object, not a subject, so you must use the object form “me”. Therefore, “He gave the feedback to me” is the correct sentence, and if you add back in “Sam and”, you get “He gave the feedback to Sam and me.”

These little mental tricks of pulling out extra information from the sentence to get down to the core components of subject, verb, and object can be very useful for figuring out whether to use the singular vs. plural of a verb and the subject vs. object of a noun.

What other tricks do you use to help with tricky sentences? Add your tips in the comments below!