Lightning writing workshop

Presenter: Laurent Bossavit
Type: workshop
Duration: 75 minutes
Audience: Anyone who writes for professional or personal reasons, and who'd like to improve their writing skills - any level, from novices to seasoned writers.

Abstract

Beginning programmers often ask, "Which language should I learn ?" Some programming languages indeed provide more leverage than others - but the greatest possible leverage comes from improving mastery in a language you already know - written English (or the written form of your native language if you're not an English speaker).

All software-related jobs also require writing about software as an ongoing duty, in one form or another - from writing articles evangelizing particular methods or technologies, to writing end user or technical documentation, to writing comments in code. Writing well increases your effectiveness in spreading crucial ideas, and focuses your own thinking as well. Writing is a complex technology in own right - and there are specific practices which can help tame that technology.

This session will

introduce participants to techniques to improve writing skills, including freewriting and the use of audience feedback
elicit further techniques from the participants.

A longer-term objective is to assess the feasability of online equivalents of group techniques for building writing skill