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OK, before you start writing let's take a moment to talk about writing strategies. And there are two tips

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that I want to give you in this lecture.

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And the first step is to start with an outline.

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So why do you need to start with an outline?

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Now suppose, just as an analogy, that you wanted to build a house.

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Let's say that you're both the architect and the construction worker who builds the house.

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Then one thing he could do is take some bricks and start building the house right away. But what will

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likely happen if you do that

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is that later you realize that "oh" the way you started doesn't really make sense.

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And things that you thought would connect in the end don't really connect and you end up with a lot

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of mess that you need to correct later. And therefore the way how people start with building a house

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is not by putting bricks on top of each other but by drawing a blueprint.

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Right?

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And it seems like an extra step but this step actually makes sure that in the end everything works out

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and that you save yourself from having to correct all the mistakes you made on the way. And the same

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logic applies to writing. When people start writing text right away then often what happens is that they

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later realize that the way they started doesn't make sense or things don't really fit together in the

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way they thought they would fit together... and they end up wasting a lot of time correcting the mistakes

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they made in the beginning.

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Therefore, it makes more sense to start with an outline in which you write down in simple bullet

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points what points you want to make in your text and in what order.

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And I will walk you through the process of creating that outline and then turning that outline into

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a text in the remainder of this course.

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But before we do that there is one more tip I want to give to you, which is to write first and added later.

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So what do I mean by that and why is it important?

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Well, one of the things that cost people a lot of time is that they get stuck in a "writer's block" where

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they just stare at the screen and they don't know what to write.

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And very often the reason why they get into this writer's block is because they try to achieve too many

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things at the same time.

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They set the bar so high that they literally paralyze themselves.

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So here's a way to think about it: if you set the bar for yourself too high,

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so if you try to be too perfectionistic from the very beginning, you will end up just staring at your

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screen not knowing what to do.

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Whereas if you allow yourself to just write down whatever comes to your mind without really being that

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critical about it then at the first step you may not end up with a great result but at least it's

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a result that you can achieve in one step.

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And then what you can do is you can edit it to make it a little bit better. And then edit it again and

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again and again until you suddenly look at your paper and think "hey this is actually a great paper". And

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honestly pretty much every great writer that I've met writes in this way.

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And I know that it can be difficult to accept when your first version isn't that great but I can tell

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you from experience that I've written some papers where people said in the end "this is really well written"

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but you would be amazed to see how crappy the first version looked.

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So don't worry if your first ideas and your first writing aren't that great.

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Just trust the process: write and edit, write and edit... until you have a great paper.

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Okay.

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So the key lessons of this lecture are: 1. Start with an outline before you write actual text.

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2. Don't be too harsh on yourself at the beginning.

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Write an edit and edit an edit and trust that through repeated editing you will get towards a great

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paper.

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All right.

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That's it with this lecture and I see you in the next one.