# Cal Newport Writing Tips * Spend more time thinking through thesis * Start with a standard structure * open on an illustrative example * then go to the nut graph - the paragraph in a news article that summarizes the main points of a the story (here is what I'm going try and convince you of in this piece). * So you've created a bit of narrative tension which you relieve partially with the revelation of your thesis * Then you go into elaboration, provide examples, work out your thinking * They now have a full understanding of the idea and the narrative example has been released * Conclusion should callback to what you opened with * Show, Don't Tell * Professional writing is denser. Points are established with quotes, citations with specific examples * Be wary of the conversational voice * Don't ask rhetorical questions * Avoid rhetorical asides * This conversational tone reads amateur * Don't write for the sake of writing * Try and get out of a passage as soon as possible! Get out of each argument as quickly as you can. * What is the essence of what I am trying to say here? Cite this, its different than this. * Avoid "ya know and maybe this and maybe that, rhetorical question here, lets go back and summarize" * Rip cord, rip cord, rip cord! --- Date: 20250126 Links to: Tags: References: * [What's Your Process for Writing New Yorker Articles? - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHsTgonU0yY)