Replay: James Surowiecki shares Five Things He's Learned about How to Write about Ideas
Check out the first five minutes of his recent class.
“Journalism is often thought of as a matter of Who, What, When, and Where. But some of the most interesting and important writing does something different: its central focus is on Why and What Does It Mean? It looks at the deeper causes of human behavior, digs into the concepts that influence and shape us, uses insights from other disciplines to explain the seemingly simple, but actually complex, aspects of everyday life. And so that’s what we’ll be focusing on in this two-hour class: how to write about ideas in an engaging and compelling way; how to take complicated concepts and make them accessible (without dumbing them down); how, as the saying goes, to both enlighten and entertain.”
– James Surowiecki, Five Things I've Learned about How to Write about Ideas
James Surowiecki is a celebrated journalist and the author of The Wisdom of Crowds. He was the business columnist for The New Yorker for 17 years, and has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and The New York Review of Books. Here’s the first five minutes of James’ two-hour class in which he shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how to write about ideas – how to take complicated concepts and make them accessible; and how, in the process, to enlighten and entertain.
Five Things I’ve Learned about How to Write about Ideas delivers the essential, practical, real-world-tested writing tips James shares with his own students about exactly how to think about and then write about ideas. James shares his take on the specific work of renowned writers, provides concrete advice writers can employ right away, and offers approaches from his own writing practice so that viewers can better communicate their ideas effectively, no matter the medium.
If you’re eager to improve the way you present and share ideas with your readers, this class is for you.
In addition to his many publications, James has written and co-produced two documentaries for ESPN. He blogs at Medium.com, and teaches English at Yale University. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his partner, Meghan O’Rourke, and two sons.
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