By Glen Berseth
Writing is a complex skill. It is also a vital skill to succeed in research and is a useful skill in general. I ran a writing workshop in my group (and invited all of Mila, and now everyone else, to join). It focuses on principles for writing clear prose that are easy for readers to understand. In this workshop series, we look at writing from the perspective of mental load (and minimum description length) for the reader and consider that some sentences are easier to process than others. Next, writers should understand how to organize their text to make sure they cover the ideas they want to express well enough, connect ideas together, and avoid confusion across the text. Last, we will cover some tools to improve these skills and produce coherent documents quickly, avoid writer’s block and work collaboratively.
We'll cover the following topics (see page links for slides and recordings):
Session 1: Construct understandable sentences
Session 2: Paragraphs and staying on topic
Session 3: Organization and Collaboration
| Date, Time | Topic | Speaker/Workshop leader | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thur May 4, 10am-noon. | Constructing understandable sentences. | Glen Berseth | Auditorium 1+2 |
| Thur, May 25, | |||
| 10 am-noon | Constructing understandable sentences. (again, post NeurIPS deadline) | Glen Berseth | Auditorium 2 |
| Thur, June 1, 1 pm - 3 pm | Paragraphs and staying on topic | Glen Berseth | Auditorium 2 |
| Thur, June 15 10 am - noon | Organization, clarity and collaboration | Glen Berseth | Auditorium 2 |
Thank you to the over 100 people that attended the workshop at @Mila_Quebec, and those that helped me create the content.
References: