Write Effectively From Home: Webinar Recap

TL;DR: Dr. Katy Huff, Assistant Professor of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, spoke to the Graduate SWE Community on Wednesday, May 20th through a webinar over how to write effectively while working at home. This blog is a summary of the discussion hosted by Dr. Huff.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Huff completed her B.S. degree in Physics at the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. She was a postdoctoral fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California-Berkeley simultaneously. Her current research focuses on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles. Dr. Huff currently serves as an active member of the American Nuclear Society and the vice-chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division. ​

The Graduate SWE Community is very excited to have welcomed Dr. Katy Huff to speak to our group on how to write effectively at home. Dr. Huff speaks to us from the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she works as Assistant Professor. Dr. Huff’s technical achievements obviously speak for themselves, and GradSWE is appreciative of Dr. Huff’s experience with technical and professional writing within the Journal of Open Source Software and other platforms that advocate for open scientific computing. 

*No financial gains were received for linking external products to this blog.*

Dr. Huff introduced the following writing tips to our group throughout the seminar: 

1. Block off specific parts of your day to write a little bit. Writing at the same time each day provides additional benefit in creating consistent writing habits. Don’t forget to give yourself a reward for achieving some writing! For more in-depth tips, check out How To Write A Lot by Paul Silvia and Getting Things Done by David Allen.
2. Create a checklist manifesto. Use the checklist to keep track of your consistency. Dr. Huff uses a bullet journal in order to identify what she needs to complete in order to check off an item. She also recommends Habitica, Todoist, or Trello as resources to help break writing tasks down into digestible pieces. 
3. Consider the Pomodoro Technique for immersing yourself in your writing. This technique calls for a 25-min immersion, followed by a 5-min break. 
4. Create a Citation/Reference plan. At a minimum, copy citations from a credible source like Google Scholar or PubMed or maintain a semi-infinite .bib file or all papers related to your writing. Dr. Huff recommends utilizing a reference management platform such as Mendeley, Endnote, or Refworks because these platforms can be shared with collaborators. 
5. Automate your writing. Dr. Huff recommends utilizing Github for templates of letters of recommendation, grant proposals, faculty research statements, standard operating procedures, and more. 
6. Write a page before editing that page. Dr. Huff wisely states that it is “easier to edit a page with words on it than one without words on it.” Focus on writing the text, and don’t stress on formatting figures and data within text. Review your writing the next day.
7. Ensure your scientific writing is clear! Read your work out loud or have Google Docs or Microsoft Word read your paper out loud. Dr. Huff recommends writing clearly enough so that a 5-year old could understand your work. The magic behind this often lies within transition sentences in order to connect ideas. 
8. Strengthen your writing by avoiding ‘weasel words’ or words that are not objective enough for scientific writing. Write with brevity and utilize an active voice to ensure clarity. 
9. Backup your files! Dr. Huff jokes that a good strategy is maintaining pure hope that you won’t lose your files, but more strategic practices include emailing yourself the latest draft or saving versions of each draft.
10.  Always read. Dr. Huff states that this is the real secret to writing well at home. She recommends utilizing Google Scholar notifications to send alerts of recent publications and theses in your field. Ask your advisor to read past grant proposals. Dr. Huff also emphasizes reading non-scientific writing and suggests reading philosophical, biographical, and non-fiction material as well as recent news stories through multiple news outlets (e.g. New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc).

The Graduate SWE Community thanks Dr. Katy Huff for her wisdom and time in sharing her writing expertise with our group. For further communication or questions, please reach out to Dr. Huff through Twitter (@katyhuff) or via email (kdhuff@illinois.edu).