00:00Hey, what's up guys? So I just got my hands on some new books, and I am itching to read these things

00:04But before I do, we do need to talk about the opposite side of the reading coin, which is writing, specifically the writing of essays

00:12Now, the status of the essay as a cruel and unusual punishment was hotly debated at the formation of the Geneva Convention back in 1949

00:18But if you bring this fact up to your teacher, they're just gonna tell you not to believe everything you hear on the internet, and you're still gonna have to do your essay, which is unfortunate because, among all the types of assignments out there, essays rank among the most time-consuming

00:32You can take this from somebody who basically writes essays for a living

00:36I mean, I know

00:39I'm a YouTuber, but every script I create is essentially an essay before I communicate it in front of this camera

00:43And even though I've been writing these for a really long time, they're still extremely time-consuming

00:45So, what I want to do today is give you some practical tips for speeding up the essay writing process

00:51Now, I do have to throw in a qualifier here, because if I don't, it really comes down to two main tips: one, typing the same word over and over again until you hit the page requirement; or two, massive plagiarism—both of which are probably not things you want to be doing

01:04So, let's add that qualifier and find ways to speed up the essay writing process without sacrificing quality, while still… Ending up with something that is worth reading and that communicates a well-structured idea

01:15Now, typically, the formation of well-structured ideas starts in the research stage, so let's start there

01:24[Music] When you're writing a research paper or the process of finding sources to back up your arguments can actually be one of the most time-consuming parts of the project

01:32That's because, no matter how many sources you have, it's really easy to convince yourself that your paper would be truly great if you just got one more source

01:40And then, once you have that, you want another one, and then another one

01:43Cal Newport calls this research recursion syndrome—you get stuck in this endless loop of just finding source after source

01:49It becomes really easy to go down rabbit holes that you think are going to yield really insightful information but end up being completely irrelevant to your paper

01:55Now, luckily, Newport doesn't just stop at giving the dragon a name, but he also gives you the tools you need to slay it

02:01His book *How to Become a Straight-A Student* outlines a series of steps with some general rules for avoiding this problem while still getting the information you need

02:09To follow this process, first, you venture into the stacks library or the internet and find your sources

02:13Once you've found them, you make personal copies of them and annotate those copies

02:17Finally, you decide if you're done, and if you're not, you loop back to step number one

02:22Let's go ahead

02:27And call this the efficient research algorithm since it's a logical set of steps that are easy to understand and carry out in order, but without fleshing out this algorithm, it's hard to know exactly what you're supposed to be doing at each step

02:32So here are a few details that will make it a bit more useful

02:35First, when you're looking for your sources, start with general sources—things like broad history overviews, the top big popular science books

02:42These kinds of books are easy to find and they kind of gloss over everything within your topic

02:46Now, that does make them not quite as good as specific sources for finding arguments that you can use in your paper, but they do have bibliographies and point to other works

02:56Specific sources, like we said, are more powerful; they're going to contribute more

03:00But number one, they're difficult to find if you don't know where to look, and two, because they are so detailed, it's really easy to go down rabbit holes that don't end up being fruitful

03:09So, if you start with a general source and use that to drill down to find specific sources, you're going to be really efficient in your research process

03:16Now, before I move on, I do want to say that research in itself is a huge topic, so if you do want to learn how to do it more efficiently and get some more tips, we did just publish an article all about library research over on College Info Geek, and I'll have that linked in a description down below

03:22Moving on to that second step of..

03:29The algorithm I find the easiest way to make copies of sources that I want to reference later on is to just take pictures of them with my phone

03:35I do this all the time when I'm researching for scripts

03:39Now, I'm the kind of person who likes to own my books, but I also like to write at coffee shops, and I can only fit so many books in my backpack

03:44So, when I know I have a quote that I want to reference or something that I want to go back to, I'll take a picture of it with my phone

03:51That way, I have a good reference of all the different sources I’m going to use

03:54Lastly, when it comes to that question of whether you are done or should you repeat the algorithm, you can follow Newport's rule of thumb: first, list out all the arguments that you want to make

04:03Paper and then figure out which ones are crucial and which ones are merely helpful, but the arguments that are crucial aim to have at least two good sources to back them up, and for the ones that are merely helpful, one will probably do the trick

04:16[Music] Now, when you're looking over your list of crucial and helpful arguments, keep this mantra in mind: quality over quantity

04:24This applies to the number of sources you choose to use, but it also applies to the number of arguments that you choose to flesh out in your paper, because unless there's some arbitrary requirement in the assignment, a smaller number of well-structured, well-thought-out arguments always beats out a larger number of mediocre ones

04:37And that might sound obvious

04:40On the surface, but it's important to note that the inclusion of a mediocre argument can actually detract from the entire paper, even if the other arguments are good

04:46Now, this idea of quality over quantity doesn't just apply to the number of arguments and sources you're using, because you should also scrutinize the actual words and letters that you're using

04:56What I mean by this is that when people know they're writing an essay that's going to be evaluated, a lot of them experience the temptation to utilize a cornucopia of abstruse, esoteric terminology, contrary to the vernacular

05:06In other words, people use big, fancy words because they think it’s going to make them sound smarter, but this usually has the opposite effect

05:14In fact, at Princeton University, psychology professors did a study about 10 years ago that showed perceptions of intelligence actually decrease when people use needlessly complicated vocabulary

05:22But when you think about it, this is really common sense, and you don't have to read a bunch of charts and graphs to understand the point of essays: to communicate your ideas clearly

05:31As Karl Popper put it, if you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet and keep working on it until you can

05:37Honestly, going into an essay without feeling like you have to dive into the deep end with your vocabulary will make the writing process a lot faster because you'll be writing in the way that you naturally think and speak

05:47The temptation to use complicated vocabulary can definitely slow down the writing process, but it is only a tiny speed bump compared to the brick wall and the middle of the road that is perfectionism

06:01Every time you find yourself staring at a blank page or blinking cursor and just can't think of what to write, perfectionism is likely to be the main culprit

06:08Luckily, there are some things you can do to get over it

06:11First and foremost, I recommend that you write your body paragraphs first and save the intro and conclusion for last

06:17See, your intro is where you're going to introduce the topic or the argument that you're writing about, but going into the intro before fleshing out the body paragraphs is like trying to give a tour of..

06:27Building an outline that you've never even been in, you need to have a clear understanding of each point that you're talking about before you introduce them

06:32The same thing applies to your conclusion

06:34Plus, choosing to go in this order also makes it easier to get into the flow state of writing because you know you're making a mess and you're going to have to go back and edit things later

06:42When you start from a blank page and think you have to write the introduction first, it's really easy to succumb to the temptation that you can do it all in one go

06:48On that note, it can also be really helpful to separate the drafting stage and the editing stage as much as you possibly can, and there are lots of ways to do this

06:54You can block off different..

07:00Chunks of time on different days for each stage of the process—you can have different locations and you can even work within different apps for drafting and editing

07:05This is something I love doing for video scripts

07:07I often do my research and draft over in Evernote, and once that's done, I move it over to Google Docs for editing and final prep

07:14I actually do something similar with video recording as well

07:17When I want to get some ideas out of my head, I often pull out my phone and record something really casually that I know I’m not going to use in the final cut

07:24Doing this takes a lot of pressure off

07:25When I’m filming, here, there is a ton of pressure because I know I’m probably going to use it

07:32The last tip is pretty nuts and bolts, but use a citation generator

07:35There are a ton of these out there; almost all of them are completely free, and they really speed up the process of creating a bibliography for a works cited page

07:44I remember having to do this by hand back when I was a student, and every time I would do it, I would have to constantly refer back to the style guide so I didn't make really common mistakes like misplacing a comma or accidentally summoning an Elder God

07:53But with sites like BibMe and Citation Machine, you can put in the details of your sources and leave all the formatting to the algorithms

08:00Now, throughout this video, we've covered some specific tactics that will definitely help you speed up the writing process

08:05Without having to resort to the potato trick, but it's important to note that tactics are exactly what these are

08:11While the world's most prolific writers definitely use them to some degree, they are no replacement for building more foundational skills like thinking clearly, critically assessing your sources, and building logical, well-structured arguments

08:21While these types of skills take a lot more time and effort to develop, they will speed up your writing process even more

08:27Because you'll be thinking better, you'll also be writing better

08:30Now, if you want to start improving your foundations in these areas and learn something new at the same time, you should try Brilliant.org

08:37Brian has an entire course

08:39That can actually teach you formal logic in-depth, but the platform will also help you boost your skills in these areas more fundamentally due to their hands-on, challenge-based approach to teaching math, science, and computer science

08:48All the courses on Brilliant immediately push you to actively start solving problems, which makes you think critically and stretch your capabilities in a way that doesn't happen when you just passively sit through lectures

08:58So, whether you're learning probability, digging into classical mechanics, or getting a grip on computer algorithms—which is the course that I'm taking right now—you'll also be improving your general reasoning skills as you progress in Brilliant

09:04It also has..

09:10An active community where people can ask questions and get feedback on the problems they're trying to solve, which really complements their courses because when you're stuck, it can be really helpful to get an outside perspective

09:17So, if you guys want to start learning something new and stretch your capabilities, give Brilliant a try with the link in the description down below

09:22And if you're among the first 200 people to sign up, you'll also get 20% off an annual subscription

09:27I want to give a huge thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this video, as their support definitely helps keep this channel running, but I'm also just a huge fan of their service and their commitment to advancing STEM education

09:36So, I definitely think you guys should check it out

09:38You should give it a try

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