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How to Write an Essay - The Jordan Peterson Writing Template
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Jordan Peterson
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The Levels of Resolution
An essay exists at multiple levels:
- The choice of words
- The formation of sentences
- The arrangement of sentences in a paragraph
- The arrangement of paragraphs in a logical progression, beginning to end
- The essay as a whole
A good essay works at every one of those levels simultaneously.
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Step 1: Choose Topic, Read & Take Notes
Writing begins with these 3 steps:
- Pick a topic: because your essay should answer a central question.
- Make a reading list: You should aim to read 5-10 books before you write an essay. And plenty of online sources.
- Take Notes: of everything that catches your attention.
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Step 2: Make an Outline
The outline is the skeleton of the essay and provides its structure.
An essay that is 1,000 words requires a 10 sentence outline.
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Jordan Peterson's Rules of Thumb for Note Taking
- Take note of anything that catches your attention.
- Don't highlight or underline. (That doesn't work.)
- Read a bit, then write down what you have learned or any questions that arise.
- Take about 2 to 3 times as many notes by word as you will need for your essay.
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Step 3: Write Paragraphs
Use your notes. You can work back and forth between changing the outline and your sentences.
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Jordan Peterson's Rules of Thumb for Writing
- Your first draft should be 25% longer than your final draft. This will give you material to throw away during the editing process.
- Each paragraph in your final draft should be about 10 sentences or 100 words long. If your paragraph is much shorter than this, that is a sign that your idea isn't substantial enough. If your paragraph is much longer, it's a sign you have multiple ideas going and need to split them into separate paragraphs.
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Step 4: Edit Your Sentences
Working paragraph by paragraph, take each one of your sentences and write a better version of it.
Peterson advises you place each sentence on its own line and write the revised version underneath.
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Jordan Peterson's Editing Advice
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Steps 5&6: Reorder Sentences & Paragraphs
Within each paragraph, see if your sentences are in the best possible order. Get rid of any sentences that are no longer necessary.
Same for paragraphs: They should help the essay flow in the best, most logical progression. Move the corresponding paragraphs until they are in the most appropriate order.
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Step 7: Make a NEW Outline
After finishing your first draft: write a NEW outline of 10-15 sentences. DON'T LOOK BACK AT YOUR ESSAY WHILE YOU DO THIS!!!
The purpose of this step is to force yourself to reconstruct your argument from memory. Generally, when you remember something, you simplify it and retain only what is most important. Doing this, you will remove what is useless and keep what is vital.
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Step 8,9&10: Repeat Editing & Add References & Format
To continue improving your essay, you can repeat the process of re-writing and re-ordering your sentences, re-ordering your paragraphs, and re-outlining. Add references, links, biography.
Then format it: 12pt font, tabbed idents.
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Jordan Peterson Writing Template
For Peterson, writing is not just a matter of fulfilling an assignment; it is a skill with deeply existential consequences.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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The first draft
The first words you write are the first draft. Writing is thinking. You'll rarely know what exactly you want to say when you start writing.
The time you put into editing, reworking and re...
Common errors
Most writing mistakes are widespread, but good writers just get better at spotting them. Some things you'll learn to watch for are:
- Overuse of jargon and business-speak, like "utilize" or "endeavor" instead of "use" or "try."
- Clichés are stale phrases that have lost their impact and novelty through overuse. If you are used to seeing it in print, don't use it.
- The passive voice. The subject of the sentence should be the person or thing taking action, not the thing being acted on. "Harry wrote this article," is better than "This article was written by Harry."
- Rambling. When you are not sure what you want to say, it is easy to phrase it in three or four different ways. A single concise sentence is generally better.
Give it some space
When you write something, you get very close to it. It is nearly impossible to distance yourself from it straight away to edit properly.
The longer you can leave a draft before editing, the better. Half an hour to two days is enough of a break to edit well. When you do edit, read your work out loud. You'll catch more problems and get a better feel for how everything flows.
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Components of a good essay
Many people think a good essay is persuasive. But more importantly, an essay should be useful.
There are four parts to a good essay:
- correctness
- s...
Correctness
An essay should be correct. However, to be correct is not enough if it is vague.
Don't publish anything unless you're sure it's worth hearing. Write the first draft of an essay quickly, trying out all sorts of ideas. Then rewrite it very carefully, being sure to sift out anything that you're not sure of, or that is not true. Useful writing makes claims that are as strong as they can be without overstating it.
Strength
Strength comes from two things: thinking well, and the skillful use of qualification.
Qualifications can express many things: how broadly something applies, how you know it, how happy you are it's so, even how it could be falsified. As you try to refine the expression of an idea, adjust the qualification accordingly. The more you refine an idea, the less you'll need to qualify it. However, don't underestimate qualification. Learn to use its full range.
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Writing with good formatting ≠ good writing.
Formatting with paragraphs, an introduction and a conclusion is not the central component of good writing.
The underlying purpose behind writing is to communicate information and is co...
Mind mapping: A tool for all writers
Mind Mapping is a tool to support writing processes. It provides a space for negotiating the tension between form and formlessness—the negotiation that is at the heart of the creative process.