00:00this is a beautiful book it's totally
00:03transformed my approach to writing and
00:05to some extent learning and by the end
00:07of this video I hope to have persuaded
00:09you that it can do the same for you too
00:11I want you to see the book and I want to
00:13show you why I like it so much why I
00:15think it's so effective how it could
00:17transform your learning and also I'm
00:19going to tell you who William zinser was
00:22because he was a very interesting
00:25chap this is William ziner and for about
00:2770 years he was a professional writer WR
00:30he worked at the New York Herald Tribune
00:32he wrote for the New Yorker and he was
00:34editor of the Yale magazine but it was
00:38as a teacher that he really found his
00:40reach and Renown he taught a really
00:43popular and very highly regarded
00:45non-fiction writing course at Yale
00:47University and one of his books called
00:49onw writing well and you can guess what
00:51that was about has sold over one and a
00:52half million copies I have a copy and
00:54I'm going to share it with you later
00:56because now we're going to focus on this
00:58is a book about why you should write how
01:00you should write and what will happen if
01:02you use writing as a tool to learn and I
01:05think the most important thing to say
01:06first is that it's not purely aimed at
01:09people who want to learn to write
01:11although it does work for that it's
01:12aimed at people that want to learn
01:13anything even maths or physics now I
01:16battled my way through a Physics degree
01:17and I would have scoffed at the idea of
01:19using writing as a way of learning say
01:21Maxwell's equations but I don't
01:26anymore ziner says we can use writing to
01:29find out what we know and what we don't
01:31know are there holes in your knowledge
01:33or in your reasoning writing will expose
01:36them and by pure force of thought help
01:39you understand them but I have a problem
01:41and I don't know maybe you do too I hate
01:44writing it's painful for me squeezing
01:47thoughts out of my head and trying to
01:49put them on paper or fite them on a
01:50screen it's slow it's frustrating and it
01:54never really reads as well as I would
01:56have hoped but you can take comfort from
01:58the knowledge that ziner didn't like
01:59like writing either I don't like to
02:01write but I take great pleasure in
02:03having written in having finally made an
02:05arrangement that has a certain
02:07inevitability like the solution to a
02:09mathematical problem perhaps in no other
02:11line of work is delayed gratification so
02:14delayed the book is divided into two
02:17parts the first part is ziner telling us
02:19why he's writing the book in the first
02:21place how he got the idea uh what he
02:23hopes to achieve and how he aims to do
02:25that writing is a tool that enables
02:27people in every discipline to wrestle
02:29with acts and ideas it compels Us by the
02:32repeated effort of language to go after
02:34those thoughts and to organize them and
02:36present them clearly it forces us to
02:39keep asking am I saying what I want to
02:41say very often the answer is no and then
02:45part two is a curated collection put
02:47together by ziner of what he considers
02:49to be really good writing and he
02:51includes passages and then explains why
02:54that writing is so good and that's done
02:56in different disciplines so it's done
02:58for art music science and maths but what
03:02does ziner have to say about part two
03:05all the writers represented in part two
03:07wrote clearly because the act of writing
03:09and rewriting made them think clearly
03:12organize their ideas told them what they
03:15knew and what they still needed to know
03:17and push them to new areas of knowledge
03:20it can do the same for you now I have
03:22seen criticisms of the book in other
03:23reviews that I've read where people say
03:25it's not a how-to guide and it doesn't
03:27give concrete examples on what you need
03:30to do but that is really the intention
03:33and in fact on page 75 ziner himself
03:35says if it's also about writing to learn
03:38and it is I've left that mostly implicit
03:41not wanting to numb you with repetition
03:43of the same obvious Point what I find
03:44really interesting is that zin's
03:46intuition was really spoton he suggested
03:49that two types of writing are useful
03:52explanatory writing where you explain
03:54what you know and then exploratory
03:55writing which more sort of a free form
03:58writing where you write anything
03:59anything you like about a topic how it
04:01relates to you what you understand what
04:02you don't understand how it relates to
04:04stuff that you already know about that
04:07subject and it turns out that what
04:09zinser is suggesting encompasses some of
04:11the best known learning techniques that
04:13have been discovered using scientific
04:14research and they are can I remember uh
04:17retrieval practice space practice
04:19elaborative interrogation interleaving
04:22now I promise to show you one of zin's
04:24other books so here it is just take a
04:27look at this if you want to learn to
04:29write or you want to improve your
04:30writing this book is an excellent choice
04:33it's packed full of wisdom and advice
04:36this is what ziner has to say about
04:38ending a piece of writing when you're
04:41ready to stop stop if you've presented
04:43all the facts and made the point you
04:45want to make look for the nearest exit
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