LEADERSHIP LAB: The Craft of Writing Effectively 

Amazing how I went from listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song to watching a one hour lecture about effective writing

*My takeaways:* 1. This course is not about writing rules 3:04 2. Stop thinking about rules and start thinking about readers 3:55 3. The problems that domain experts have in their writing 4:00 4. Domain experts use writing to help themselves with thinking 4:51, if they don't do it this way, they can't think to the level they need 5. The challenge: the way that experts do their writing (to help with their thinking) is different to the way that readers can understand 6:53 6. The consequences 8:10 - 1. readers need to slow down and re-read many times 2. readers can't understand or misunderstand 3. readers give up 7. Readers read things that are valuable to them 11:52 8. Writings need to be clear, organized, persuasive and VALUABLE 13:45 9. Valuable to the readers of a research area (not everybody in the world) 15:20 10. An example of comparing two writings 17:16 11. Writing is not about communicating your ideas, it is about changing readers' ideas 21:24 12. Nothing will be accepted as knowledge or understanding until it has been challenged by people who have the competence to challenge 23:24, this determines the readers of our writing 13. A piece of writing is important, not because it is new and original; It is because it has value to some readers 25:16 14. What does the world of knowledge look like 28:00 15. Every research communities have their own code to communicate VALUE 31:30 16. Why does it take 5-6 years to get a PhD? 34:30 50% of the time is used to know the readers in the field 17. Using these words to show that you are aware of the research communities: widely, accepted, and reported 35:24 18. Flow/transition words can help to make writing preservative and organized: and, but, because, unless, nonetheless, however, although, etc. 36:00 19. Do things under the code of the communities 42:00 20. Another example 44:25 21. The function of a piece of writing is to move a research area forward, not to be preserved for 500 years 46:54 22. Writing is not about to express what is in our head, it is about changing other people's thoughts 48:50 23. The instability words that create tension/challenge: anomaly, inconsistent, but, however, although 54:00 24. Bad writing style: backgroud+thesis 55:07 and a better style: problem+solution 56:18 25. Learn the language code from the target publications 1:01:30 26. Literature review is used to enrich the problem 1:02:50 27. Problem vs background 1:06:47 28. Gap in the knowledge is dangerous 1:08:45 29. Identify the right readers (research communities) is important, but it could be difficult for interdisciplinary research 1:11:57

As a PhD student I have never watched a video more valuable than this one. God Bless Larry Mcernerney. This man is saving careers and lives.

"You think writing is conveying your ideas to your readers, it's not..... It's changing their ideas." This is brilliant! Thanks so much! This should be required viewing for PhD Students!

“You’re not here to do original work, you’re here to do valuable work.” mic drop

I'm a new English teacher in high school. I teach reading, writing, and speaking. I appreciate this lecture. I feel like I owe you money for enjoying this lecture for free.

Beyond the schools, there is no other one who was paid to care about you and your writing. They don't "have to" read. They just read because it's valuable for them. What a precious statement for us to think, before any time we write.

Notice how the lecture is constructed like how he believes writing should be: Tells us immediately there's something wrong with how we've been taught, identifies the problem, know the reader (academics) and the problem they face in their field; why they should care. Great stuff.

This guy needs a Patreon account. I feel like I owe him money. There's a shocking amount of useful information in this lecture.

"Writing is not about communicating your ideas, it is about changing readers' ideas", you can also do this by entering their dreams at a deep level, i saw it in a movie!

The main drift: 42:20: Identify people with power in your community and give them what they want. 47:40: The function of your writing is to move the conversation of that community forward. 53:30: Introduce instability into the conversation by using words like anomaly, inconsistent, but, however' in your writing 56:20: Identify a problem of your community (a specific set of readers) and move to a solution. 1:01: Show that the instability imposes a cost on them or conversely, if the instability is solved, offers a benefit to them. Identify any coded language of benefit and cost in your community and use it. 1:06: Think about the world in your process of writing, but you then need to alter the process and rewrite for your reader. 1:06: The more you can alter the process for your reader, the less painful the writing process will be and the more successful you will be. 28:53: The bottom line (in my words) is that your contribution to an ever growing body of knowledge (diagonal graph) will only dissipate in time, but being part of the osmosis of the mainly pale, male, stale community might lead to personal success: stability vs instability model.

I took some notes * **Step 1:** use your writing to help you think. * **Step 2:** * you think writing is communicating your ideas to your readers. It is **not**! Nobody cares what ideas you have. * use your writing to **change** your readers ideas. Change the way they see the **world**. * This goes for your expert readers too. They don’t care too. * If it doesn’t **change** their world view, it’s not valuable. * If it’s not valuable, the rest is **useless** * Order of importance 1. Valuable 2. Persuasive 3. Organized 4. Clear * Value lies **only** in the readers, not in the thing. * The patterns you use for step 1 and 2 are different. * Try this: * **circle** every word in your writing that is creating value to the readers. * guess what? soon you will have your own list of **invaluable words** to check your own writing against. * The horrible **irony**: the language we use is of stability and consistency. But your readers are searching for language of instability, inconsistency, and tension. * Use language to show your readers there’s a cost on them or if the instability is solved, there’s a benefit to them. * Use transition word to create **tension, instability** to challenge their ideas i.e. bad: hey readers, I’ve read your stuff and wow..., i know what you think **and here’s** what i think... i.e. good: hey readers, I’ve read your stuff and wow, i know what you think **but there’s** little thing you’ve got here, it’s wrong... good tension words: inconsistent, but, however, although * You can’t be persuasive if you don’t understand your readers **doubt**. If you don’t know what they doubt, how are you going to change their world view? You must know **them** to predicate what they might say. * Every community has it’s own code. You must know what each one values. * Identify the people with power in your community. Give them what they want (i.e. build them up) **but** challenge them inside the terms of their code. It’s **not** about your individual voice, it’s about what’s valuable to your readers. * Structure * Layout in your first paragraph * **who** your writing too, * what you’re going to **argue** * what **question** you have you will answer * what’s **urgent** (i.e. people value reading about tension, trouble, bad stuff - instability) * Problem: what’s a **problem** your readers care about and they want to fix (not your problem). * Solution: * **Never** explain stuff. Don’t demonstrate to someone you understand it. Don’t reveal the inside of your head. No one cares! * Your goal is to move the conversation **forward**. Not to preserve your ideas indefinitely. Nobody will ready your work in a year. It’s **not** about you, it’s about them.

“The only reason my stuff was ever read is because someone had to because they were getting paid to.” That is quite an eye-opening statement.

The cameraman is the real hero of this lecture

Effective writing is an art. Good academic writing has the ability to change the world. It is the moral of this brainstorming session

23:51 This hit hard. I now understand to some extent why academic writing is so terse. The goal of academic writing isn't to make the world understand your work, rather the goal is to contribute your findings to the body of accepted knowledge in your field. For your work to be accepted as a worthwhile contribution, it has to be challenged, tested, and trusted by the academic community. And the academic community consists of experts who read and think in terms of expert vocabulary and niche registers. If your writing does not contain the right terms, they might not even believe you have the level of knowledge required to write a paper on that topic. This might lead to a lack of recognition or outright rejection.

"You must know the codes of the communities that you are working in." Powerful.

No flashy slides, no modern day tools just a man with a chalk and an understanding of his subject. Man these teachers and their lectures makes you think that studying a class on the most boring topic can be really wholesome and interesting. What the hell were my teachers doing in college. Teachers make you like or dislike a subject Period.

I am an Advocate (barrister, lawyer) and I am deeply grateful for this valuable on-line class. I have never come across anything like this class, and I shall be applying it from this day forward. Even court papers can surely be more interesting lol.

This is the single most important lecture on writing I've ever seen. Not limited to academia, I find it extraordinarily helpful in corporate environment as well, where you always need to persuade people from different organizations to join you for a change or an improvement.

Key ideas: 1. This video is about academic writing. 2. It's not about the content, it's all about the readers. Always think about your readers while writing. 3. See two models for knowledge at 28:00 4. The value of information lies in the value of the decisions they inform. Not all knowledge is valuable, in fact, most is useless. 5. Students grow up in a system that pays people to read their work, teachers don't care about you influencing their thoughts, they care about what's inside of your head so they can grade you. This sets students up for failure. In a professional environment, people don't care what's inside your head, they only care about how your thinking can influence theirs. People care about writing that challenges and changes their thinking. 6. Create tension while writing. Your goal is to challenge some idea the reader cares about. 7. Farmers have wheat, miners have coal, academics have their writing. Your writing is (likely) not something that will be read throughout future generations, just focus on impact in the here and now, focus on your readers and their thoughts.

I LOVE THIS MESSAGE: You think writing is conveying your idea - NO - it's changing THEIR ideas.🙊

I am 23 minutes in and this is quite likely the best thing I've seen since joining YT so many years ago. I am watching it in little spurts because, unfortunately, my brain stops absorbing information after a few minutes. I don't want to miss a single word or let even the most minor concept go passed my brain without understanding.

I am crying, I have listened to it over 10 times over the past 3 years now, still find it so valuable. I seriously own this guy a lot... Such a great lecture. I recommend to every of my friends.

The way he slams the chalk down and walks away is the most badass academic equivalence to a mic drop

This goes so far beyond writing... this is like a lesson on life

My most writings were used for expressing my thoughts and when I post them, they didn't get much response. Now I understand a piece of writing should serve to the audience and chanllenge their ideas. I'll work on that. Thanks for this class!

If I were a teacher I feel like this would be a fantastic thing to encourage students to watch (and rewatch) before writing any paper, particularly before writing a paper on a topic they aren’t so jazzed about being tasked with covering. It’s cross-curricular gold.

Four years of undergrad, two graduate degrees, and this is probably - definitely - one of the most useful and helpful lectures on academic writing I've ever listened to. I wish I had taken this lecture before I did my masters. It would have saved me a world of suffering.

If I had this teacher in college, my life would be completely different.

20 pages into writing my first article but after watching this, I'm start from scratch with no regret. Thanks a lot professor Larry and UChicago. Looking forward to watching more of your lectures.

I’m a PhD student of neuroscience. It’s overwhelming how he clarifies the function and structure of writing, and even more, process of academic progress (and how we should contribute to it). His talking itself is as educational as the content as the way he gave “tension” and caught the audience was impressive. I believe this is applicable to any field of science. Such a valuable 1 hour watching.

I expected a boring lecture. This was actually intriguing and fun to watch

I never thought I would find myself watching an entire 1 hour and 20 minute video on academic writing, but this was amazing. It will change the way I write my proposals and papers, and it will change the way I teach technical writing to my undergraduate students.

Not just write, this guy can speak!! Never been so invested in a 1 hour lecture.

What an amazing piece of content this is. You talk about value and you provide it. I´m from Argentina, and now in my 40´s I realized I love writing, I have love for sharing what I consider valuable, what I do not have is an specific background in communication or writing besides dedication at reading, particularly about human decision processes and behavior. So I have read dozens of books, watched hours of talks, and I´d like to share this with other people, but then I discovered I do not know how to do it in the proper manner , or more relevant way. This is pure gold, because I realized some times I just try to convince people about myself, and how valuable is the information I have to share with them, instead of trying to solve a problem they have. Thanks again, and sorry for any mistake in writing.

RU-vid University all the way.

I forgot how amazing the LRS/ Chicago Writing team is. I took the class under Frank Kinahan and Joe Williams, and Larry. Still exciting. Still revelatory. Still so simple. Not simple - elegant.

Also, take a journalism/newswriting course. You'll learn the virtues of: Writing with brevity. How to convey real-life and current affairs in an informative-narrative structure. How to fact-check. How to self-edit. How to investigate beyond just the use of the internet. Having your writing formally edited with the idea being to prove your news article is fit to print and worthy of mass consumption ;) It's good stuff.

This lecture has saved me from so much future heartbreak and misunderstanding. We always think it is about pursuing the "big idea," but it is really about the process and the process of discovery. I am truly thankful. Thank you.

Wow, I am blown away. Dr. Larry McEnerney's video clearly showed what mistake I am making in my thinking and writing process. An exceptional contribution - "What value is there for the reader community? why should they care to read?" that's a life lesson applicable to any work. Thank you.

I am in the middle of my thesis writing & so grateful to have watched this video, now I am 100% clear about what my next moves are. Thank you so much!

As a PhD student struggling to write dissertation because so many mixed messages on the “how-to” UNTIL THIS LECTURE!! so many years in school, i have seen all he says here. Worthy Watching this video if only for this: “The function of your writing is to move your conversation forward.” At minute 47:00-48:00!!!

he delivered this lecture in a way that was valuable to the audience

20 pages into writing my first article but after watching this,I am start from scratch with no regret. Thanks a lot professor Larry and uchicago. looking forward to watching more of your lectures. worlds can't describe how incredble of a professor this man is and his and bestowes teaching unto us. i hope many more people, particularly students,will find this gem. my sincerest gratitude to all authorities who deci

Moving into a PhD this video was randomly suggested at the perfect time. I'm actually amazed at how much of this I already include in my writing, particularly the community and value aspects. However, Larry explains things in ways I've never considered before, while adding so much more. His passion is something I hope we can all learn from. Go well with your writing folks. Kia kaha!

This is high level education. Can't believe I ran into this.

I rarely see a video here, at youtube, that, after it is finished, I say "that was not a waste of time". Watching this video was time well spent.

Words can't describe how incredible of a professor this man is and his bestowed teaching unto us. I hope many more people, particularly students, will find this gem. My sincerest gratitude to all authorities who decided to post this lecture on public media. 🙏💗

“Identify the people with power in your community and give what they want" This is the purpose of this writing lesson.

The most useful 80 min spent on youtube

I cried when I was watching this video. Don't know why. Maybe it's because after so long of searching how to write good scientific papers, this one finally opened my eyes. It doesn't mean the time spent on the other teachings are wasted, only this "clicked" ;) Thanks a lot!

The great thing is this lesson helps with presentations as well. The professor has a great sense of humor as well which is always nice.

Came here for writing advice and left with more than that. Thank you so much for sharing this video. I had no idea how complex and interesting writing could be!

“The thinking that you’re doing is at such a level of complexity that you have to use writing to help yourself do your thinking”

I did not attend college for various reasons but I’m glad these classes are shown on RU-vid, it’s essential in life to learn how to write properly.

Fantastic! I wish I had Larry's course while I was in grad school. I'm at the end of my academic career and had fairly good publishing success, but I learned it by trial and too many errors. Pay heed if you are starting your journey.

"Identify the people with power in your community, and give them what they want." I'm getting a lightbulb moment now, about how to approach my church leaders about a new program I want to start. I have to link my new ideas not to the activities involved, but to the image and core values that the leaders have of themselves, their roles, and the organization as a whole, and how much it will help them fulfill those positives.

This video is about so much more than only effective writing. It is about making information valuable to society.

I was beginning to have serious doubts about my blog writing, why it wasn’t hitting the right cord with the reader, and then I accidentally stumbled on this video from a RU-vid recommendation list. Reminds me of the saying, “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” These days, the technology is working its magic, the teacher came to life when I exactly needed it even though this is a video published four years ago. It’s surreal!

"There's a rule of Western academia that says nothing will be accepted as knowledge or understanding until it has been challenged by someone competent to challenge it." Word!

Writers everywhere need more work like Larry's to be recorded and shared; there are too few accessible, comprehensible resources teaching these principles, and that's to the detriment of all disciplines.

This single lecture contains more insight and wisdom than all those I attended during 5 years of graduate school combined.

"New and important isnt the goal - the writing has to be valuable" - one of the best lectures seen ever

It's been literally nine years and I am thrilled to listen this lecture. It is incredible, thank you.

My notes on this: What happens when your writing does not match with the audience's rules of reading? 1- Slow down 2- Misunderstand 3- Aggravated 4- Stop reading In order of importance: 1- Valuable 2- Persuasive 3- Organized 4- Clear Value is to the readers in a specific audience, not the objective value but the subjective value. There are differences between readers. And those differences are valuable. Explaining is not revealing the inside of your head, which is to demonstrate to the reader you understand the ideas you are discussing. You think writing is conveying your ideas. It is not. It is changing their ideas. Replace "Why do you think that?" with "Why should I think that?" Important/valuable and new/original are not the same. We are not hear to write new/original. Knowledge is the current conversation over time among the faculties in universities, etc. Identify words in articles that add value to the reader. Half of the time is spent learning in the field and the other half is learning the community in the field. How else will you overcome the community's doubts? Transition words are crucial. Think of using 'and' instead of 'but' due to persuasive value. The key is to advance the community by saying 'I read everything in the field AND I have something to say...' Identify people with power and give them what they want. The function of your writing is to move the conversation forward. It will not be used in 500yrs. You are not Aristotle. You participate by changing the feelings of others. Use transitions to demonstrate instability and inconsistency and tension. Show the instability imposes cost on the reader or the solution of the instability brings a benefit to the reader. There are many opportunities to change your thinking process when writing to benefit your readers.

I never comment on videos but I have to say that you are an incredibly compelling speaker.

Larry McEnerney: Please give us more! I cannot explain the value I received from watching this.

This man is iconic. Is there ANY online material that goes beyond these RU-vid lectures? I’m officially addicted to Larry.

I enjoyed this lecture a lot, partly because I learned stuff, partly because it confirmed some things I already knew, but mostly because it provides a wider contexts as to why we do what we do, the drivers behind and the impacts. Of course it helps that he has a very engaging teching style and seem to give you the honest thruth about how things are rather than simply following a scripted curriculum.

Valuable lesson to respect your target audience, describe a problem that your audience is interested in, and convey the value of your solution to the problem and how it advances the audience's world view in a useful way.

Key concepts (that I've also found in other fields like marketing or entrepreneurship): Understand your audience Speak their language Find their problem Give them a solution Keep them engaged

Oh I just love this lecturer and the way he teaches! I derived tons of benefit from this! Many thanks all the way from Brazil!

this video focused on writing in a clear, organized, and valuable manner for readers. McEnerney's insights into words that create tension, such as "anomaly," "inconsistent," and "however," were indeed interesting. Thanks a lot.

I wanna be in his class every day, I learned a lot.

I woke up from a really long sleep and this had played just about all the way through, good to know my subconscious knows how to write effectively now.

So many take aways from this wonderful lecture. Everything about this session was an enlightment and added to a newer perspective. Thank you.

This is probably one of the most important lecture i would ever watch in my life

Imagine how much further along we'd all be had we been taught how to write correctly.

This lecture changed my perspective on everything I had ever written. This is gold. Should be compulsory in engineering and technology.

What I absolutely LOVE about this fellows class....is his KNOWLEDGE and THOUGHT ABOUT field of knowing....of the outer realm....writers need to consider. Like a Sociological assessment of the environment your pitching to or aiming for. Just fantastic.

I paused this video at the end so I could clap and then hit Play and the rest of the class started applauding Professor McEnerney! 👏Thank you for posting this lecture, it's very helpful. Larry McEnerney reminds me of one of those professors they make movies about because he changes the lives of his students for the better. I know he just changed mine. 🙂 My conclusion after listening to this lecture: It behooves writers to look for and find problems for their readers in their given field and then write about that in the way that Professor McEnerney explains because that's what has VALUE for their readers. ETA: One thing to consider is that this lecture is from 2014, before the Plandemic was rolled out and about to roll over us, but now it's 2022 and I just learned elsewhere that the type of journalism that was getting published back in 2014, and probably before, is called Solution Oriented Journalism or Propaganda Journalism and it's funded by Bill Gates.

The thing I like about Prof. McLenerney is that he points to real facts rather than ideal ones which are mostly seen in the books, or usual writing courses.

This lecture spontaneously popped up in my queue literally as I’m 34k words deep in writing my first book. I have always been very conscious of the fact that I use my writing to help me think and I have ALWAYS believed that this was incorrect. I was taught to use outlining as a framework and to think first write later. This lecture was extremely validating for me. Wow I really appreciate this.

Wow, I really impressed by this lecture! This session is not about rules, it's pretty cool. It's about how to write clear, organized and valuable for readers. Also it was interesting that McEnerney presented some words that influence on people: for example, words, thar create tension: anomaly, inconsistent, however, etc. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Oh my God, I want to keep you in my Conner, I cannot stop listening to you, it's so refreshing to listen to you, I've been skipping writing course video, till I run to yours. You making a lot of sense. Lord I'm grateful I found this. Ah! For a first time I have to listen to the entire video with out headache

I am impressed by the energy of this professor... That makes me want to watch the entire series.

This talk is mindblowing. Before it gives you the reason why you're not effective at writing, then it gets into the methods to make it so. You need to know when to break the rules.

I have taught rhetoric and composition (argument writing) and critical thinking at the college level for 15 years. This is a GOLDMINE of education, and a whole journey if you take it seriously. McEnerny rules.

I came here so I could improve my RU-vid channel, but I think I'm actually gonna have to apply this to my PhD.

This is EXACTLY what is taught in copywriting and sales. Amazing how closely related or even DIRECTLY RELATED these concepts are and how the seem to Rule the Game REGARDLESS where they are used.

I didn't see other people commenting on a very relevant point. The ideas are great, and he tries to make a point for all of them, but what really makes the best case for him, is that the lecture is actually structured according to what he was teaching. That's something where many other professors miss the mark.

The most important aspects of the Internet's best lectures about writing!

Dr. Flanders is out here saving careers

This is one of the most VALUABLE videos on RU-vid by far!!!!! It is so good, I would classify it as a conspiracy theory video because they do not teach you this anywhere. This is occult information!!!!!

I'm not a PhD student, but this was very interesting and enlightening into a world I may never dip my toes into. I do love perspective and insight.

I love this professor, he's such a good story teller!

I don't know why this was suggested on my home page but This changed my view on writing completely! what a great lesson, an hour and a half well spent.

I'm an artist trying to make it into the art market and my algorithm brought me this video. Kind of scary how useful it was. Now i know how to write e-mails for galleries, my artist CV and even a movie script I've been working on for a grant. Thank you for this video!

I applied this course to my sales jobs. It's changed my life..