Today was the final day of my independent study, and it was very productive! I finished writing up my analysis of study drugs and posted it on medium. The post can be found here.
One choice I made was to write the study drug writeup in a slightly more formal register. I'm dealing with statistics, so it's important to use precise language to avoid miscommunication. This style of writing naturally entails slightly more formal language. However, I don't think it impeded the comprehensibility of my article too much, especially because I have lots of clear charts amongst the text. I think the article may have ended up being more confusing if I tried too hard to maintain the informal register I've used for the other articles, because I may have had to say some ambiguous things about the data that I analyzed. I also wrote my final article today! This article can be found here. Its title is "An Overlooked Superpower: How to Explain Complex Concepts," and I discuss many of the things I've discovered throughout these three weeks. I summarize my discoveries in 5 tips: 1. Convince your audience that they're capable of understanding your topic. 2. Build a strong foundation before moving up. 3. Include drawings for technical concepts. 4. Build a narrative, if appropriate. 5. Use easily understandable language. To explore each of these tips, I dove into different ways to apply each of these tips in writing and the effects that these tips are meant to have on the readers. I also included a bit of indirect analysis of my own writing, such as my use of narrative to clarify the mechanics of cryptocurrency in my first article. I also make the point that learning to explain things clearly is one of the most powerful things anyone can learn to do. A clear explanation basically results in putting part of the structure of your brain inside another person's brain. When you think about it, this is a magnificent thing to be able to do! At this point, I have 5 articles and around 20,000 thoughtful words posted on Medium. I've gotten invited to publish two of my articles, and I've learned a ton about a variety of technical concepts. I feel that I've grown significantly as a writer during this 3 week period. I've even noticed that I've had a noticeably easier time explaining technical concepts to people in person. All of the articles that I've written can be found here. Overall, I think this has been a valuable and successful independent study!
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Jeremy MahoneyImpromptu teacher, lover of learning, and admirer of the universe ArchivesCategories |