How to Write Better Blog Posts - EA Forum

@tags:: #lit✍/📰️article/highlights
@links:: blogging, writing,
@ref:: How to Write Better Blog Posts - EA Forum
@author:: forum.effectivealtruism.org

2023-10-05 forum.effectivealtruism.org - How to Write Better Blog Posts - EA Forum

Book cover of "How to Write Better Blog Posts - EA Forum"

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Notes

Why write a blog post?

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Aiming at writing a post is a way of gaining clarity on what you know and what you don't know.
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By now, when I want to get a better grasp of a topic, I start writing a blog post.
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- writing, blogging, learning, thinking,

What should I write about?

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Write about obvious things. We have a hard time understanding how large the understanding gap between experts and non-experts really is.
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Things you want to understand better: If you want to understand a topic better, just write a blog post about it
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Tips and tricks:

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Use figures: Figures are often able to communicate more information than text.
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True, understandable, concise--in that order
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Your informed opinion is part of the service your post provides.
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important claims should be bold or italic
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If your post is a wall of text or confusing, people won’t bother to read it at all.
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the reasons why I find some of Elizier’s posts hard to read is because they start with a wall of text rather than a summary
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Make the post about one thing only: Focus your post on one question or statement. If you can summarise the post as “this post is about X” you’re fine
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the title can be a summary, a question or a teaser
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recommend simple and descriptive titles
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Words that quantify something such as “overwhelmingly”, “strongly”, “uncertain”, etc. are useful but they carry different meanings for different readers
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I would take some time (at least one day) between iterations to get your head clear and remove your identity from a particular wording. The more time has passed the easier it is to cut bad content. Overall, I think iterating multiple (e.g. 3-5) times is worth the time. If it takes 1 hour to reduce the average reading time by 1 minute without loss of information, 60 readers already justify your effort.
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- revising, writing,

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you should probably just send your post to people that might enjoy it. In the worst case they decide not to read it.
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How to get started: