This article was originally published on my blog, where I often write about personal growth, remote work, learning to code, and women in tech.
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I'm in that small minority of people with a Computer Science degree and an English minor 😊, so I appreciate that you're making this point on dev.to. I want to add that writing prose is a lot like writing code in that the more good prose you read, the better prose you'll write. Most of how we communicate is based on convention, so it's important to understand what those conventions are and how to effectively use them.
I'd encourage people who find it challenging to write clear prose to take note of when they read someone else's writing which they find confusing. Is it because of the grammar? The word choices? The punctuation? All the above (and more)? When you have to pause to understand what you just read, identify what caused the lack of clarity, and consider how to make it clearer. This kind of thought process can help make you more aware of your own choices when writing.
And don't forget that proofreading is your (best) friend! 😁
Very cool background!
I think the analogy between writing code and prose is spot on and not something that I considered before. Not just in the exposure sense that you describe, but also how you can more effectively approach the two: starting with the barebones and iterating/clustering/cleaning up.
I also agree that in assessing other people's work, we can learn a lot about our own pitfalls. Sometimes, it's hard to notice our own habits until we see them in another environment.
Thank you for the thoughtful insight!
A small thought : Whats your opinion about adding TLDR section at certain interval?
Hmm, I think a TL;DR can work in certain situations. My posts are getting too long, so it's not a a bad thought. Have you seen an example where it's worked really well?
Yeah . Like a lot. I will stick it here when i get to see another one. The thing is you can reduce bounce rate by adding TL;DR
That's a great point! Maybe even a "Save to Pocket" button next to it would be smart, so it's like "here are the takeaways now, if you want to read it later".
I'm a military woman, My name is Aviva Gagudu I am 38 years old and am a single woman, I am from New York City, USA but currently deployed to Syria for a peacekeeping mission an under covered mission.
What does that supposed to do with the topic here?
This is great stuff. I'll use it to reflect on and refine my own process, which has some similar features.
I made a conscious decision to consider myself as a writer in the last couple of years. As well as my blog and writing here at dev, I also started writing poetry again, and performing it.
Flow begets flow - if I'm in flow with my day job writing code, then it's more likely articles will be flowing too.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks Daragh! I like the conscious decision of considering yourself a writer. It's all just an evolution and reminds me of an article I wrote about "becoming a developer": blog.stephsmith.io/when-do-you-bec....
And I agree - being in a productive mindspace throughout the day definitely enables more clarity with writing or any task, really.
Thanks for reading!
that's an inspiring article, thanks 👏
I used to have many notes in Notion constantly feeling different ideas with new cites from different sources, on desktop and mobile. But at some point I just gave up to actually start making articles out of them.
Thanks Lex! It definitely can be overwhelming and I often find that I'm taking too many notes and then drowning in them. Trying to find the right balance. 🙂
Great post! It's very often when I think I know a topic, but writing about it makes me realize that there are a lot of moments I didn't think of and writing highlights those dark corners.
Indeed writing is thinking, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks Eugene! And I completely agree. I only revisited writing in the past year or so and can confidently say that it helped me think with a great deal of more clarity.
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This is a great article. Very thoughtful, with tons of actionable ideas. Thank you for taking the time to put your ideas out here.
Thanks for the kind words, Brittan!
Just published my first post today.
Now with your suggestion in mind, I hope to write more and better.
Thanks for the tips!
Congrats on your first post! Thanks for reading - I hope you'll find the suggestions helpful moving forward.