
Design: the key to writing and advising a one-draft thesis (2002) [pdf] - Tomte
https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/cs257/archive/john-carlis/one-draft.pdf
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csours
This really strikes me as the sort of advice where one may say: It worked for
me, and if it doesn't work for you it's your fault.

Very broadly speaking, there are two kinds of writers: those who just start
writing and go where the writing takes you, and those who develop an outline
first. In the case of the first set, it is vital to do a heavy editing pass or
re-write iteration.

I don't think anyone tackles a thesis without some kind of outline, but I also
doubt the universality of this advice. Some people need to explore their ideas
before structuring them.

All that being said, this is full of good advice, such as:

"When you write for them (the audience), you put forth effort to make your
product good: neat, complete, proffed (sic), unified, cogent, etc. That is,
you craft and polish a well designed product for them to read. However, if you
[yourself] are the audience such effort is a waste."

~~~
PakG1
Is it a waste? I find my confidence and satisfaction levels in my
understanding increase after I craft and polish a well-designed product for
reading. It confirms that my logic isn't garbage.

~~~
jedimastert
I kind of see good writing as a form of artisan-ry. Sure, any old chair will
do, but an artisan-crafted chair can be truly comfortable instead of just
helping you not-stand.

The purpose of writing is to communicate. If "communicating your idea" is
_all_ you wanted to do, you could just release an outline or slide deck. Good
writing makes your communication more effective, while also being more
enjoyable (read: ergonomic, tailor-made, whatever your goal is) for the
reader.

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lukebuehler
I’m writing a master thesis in the humanities right now after having worked
many years as a software engineer.

After some false starts, I have come up with a system of designing my thesis
very closely to what the author is describing here. I call sketching “free
writing,” and while I often design down to the topic sentence, I don’t do this
for every single paragraph. But other than that my method is uncannily similar
to what is described here.

I also tend to think of paragraphs as “functions.” What are the parameters?
I.e, what does the reader need to know for this paragraph to make sense, and
how do I trigger those concepts. And secondly, what is the output? I.e., what
is the _one_ thing I want the reader to take from this paragraph? (...well
some of my paragraphs return tuples, but that’s not ideal)

