How to start writing a shot

How to start writing

Let’s go over how to start writing.

Brainstorming

Before you dive into writing, it can be helpful to brainstorm first. Brainstorming looks different for everyone, but its basic goal is to use various methods to generate ideas. In the brainstorming stage, your ideas don’t need to be refined or fit together perfectly: just write them down!

Writing down your brainstorming is sometimes called “braindumping.” There are lots of ways to braindump. A couple possibilities include:

• Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write down every thought you have related to your topic in this time.
• Collaborate with other writers and brainstormers to have braindump sessions where you can bounce ideas off of each other and generate new ones.

Regardless of how you brainstorm and braindump, the important thing is to avoid overthinking. Overthinking your ideas can lead to analysis paralysis, which can lead to not writing, and we don’t want that!

Once you’ve compiled your ideas in the brainstorming stage, then you can start going through them, figuring out how they relate and how they might be organized, and fleshing them out with our next step: research!

Research

Research is rarely a linear process: it’s useful to dive into research after doing the preliminary brainstorming, but keep in mind that you may be researching during the next step, outlining, too.

We can think of research as gathering evidence for your writing project. In your brainstorming, you may find gaps and questions that need answers. Research seeks to answer those questions and fill those gaps.

Let’s say you’re writing about accessible UX design for an app. Maybe you know about how to implement those design aspects, but you don’t know why these design aspects are effective and want to include that information to explain it for your reader.

To do this, you need to start researching. This means gathering sources, which are materials from which you gather evidence and answers. Sources can be articles, books, blogs, official documentation, etc. But we need to be careful when finding sources…

Evaluating sources

Not all sources are credible, and we only want to use credible sources in our research. When a source is credible, it may:

• Be peer-reviewed (i.e., multiple people verified the information in the source is correct)
• Contain references (e.g., has a list of sources referenced, which should also be credible)
• Be written by an author with appropriate credentials (e.g., an MA in Computer Science or a job title in UX design)
• Be recently published with currently relevant information. Especially in fields like tech, which are always evolving, your sources should not be out of date.

Once you have evaluated sources that are relevant, credible, and directly pertain to your research gaps and questions, gather all the evidence you need from them, and get started on the next prewriting step: outlining.

Note: Don’t worry if more gaps and questions come up later on in the writing process, because it’s very likely that they will, and you can always research more later.

How to write a shot

1. Pick a topic. You can pick any topic from this topic sheet. If no topics work for you, reach out to edpresso@educative.io.

2. Do some research. Think about the topic:

   • What are some common confusions or misconceptions around this topic?

   • What were you confused about when you first learned this?

3. Create an outline.

A good outline does a few things:

• It shows you where you need more information.
• Shows you which areas you have enough information in.
• Gives you an overview of all the information your shot will contain.

Let’s take a look at a sample outline of the shot What are Python modules?

What are Python modules?

• Overview

  • “A Python module is a Python file containing a set of functions and variables to be used in an application. The variables can be of any type (arrays, dictionaries, objects, etc.)”

• Modules

  • Built-in
  • User-defined

• Built- in

  • Function to call a built- in module
  • Provide code example with explanation

• User-defined module

  • To create a module, create a Python file with a .py extension
  • Uses the import statement.
  • Provide an example of a simple module
  • Explain code example

• Benefits of modules in Python

  • Structured code

    • Code can be organized in a Python file
    • Less error prone
    • The code is easier to understand and use

  • Reusability

    • Can easily be reused by other parts of the application.
    • Eliminates the need to recreate duplicate code

3. Start drafting. Write your article without any concern for how it sounds or looks. Try to get essentially everything from your outline into your shot.

4. Revise. Read through your article, improve your sentence structure, organize it so that the most important information is first and explanation follows, and add graphics/interactivity as needed (this is a good time to check for any information holes).

Don’t be worried if you need to go back and do more research. Sometimes you won’t see the “holes” until you’re done.

Steps for a basic shot

1. Add a tag of the languages used/discussed in your shot.

2. Begin by explaining the topic you are talking about (i.e., definition, who created it, and what it does. You want the reader to open your shot and have their question (i.e., the title) immediately answered.

3. Now, explain further. Give the syntax of what you just wrote about, give the “types” of what you’re talking about (i.e., the different types of modules in Python), add an image, a slide widget that goes through the steps, or anything else that will further clarify your answer. All shots must have at least one interactive element (i.e., image, code widgets, slides, etc.) You can find information on how to use our widgets here.

4. Then, provide an example. You must give an explanation of what is happening in it below. If your example involves code, we heavily encourage you to use the code widget.

If you have a short topic, you will be done after this. If the topic requires more examples, continue adding them until your explanation is complete.

4. Create a title. If you create a title after you’ve written your article, it is much easier, as your content has already been written.

We advise that your title is in the form of a question or “how to” statement as it draws potential readers in.

Example

Take a look at this shot. Then, follow along as it’s broken up into its various parts.

Take a look at, “What are Python modules?”.

Shot flow:

• Starts out explaining what a Python module is and defines modules as built-in or user-defined. This is then further shown with an image created with the drawing widget.
• Then, the two types of modules are explained in detail.
• For each module, the author talks about how to create it, call it, shows a graphic made with the drawing widget, shows an example of a simple module, and explains the example.
• The author then goes into the benefits of modules in Python, explaining each one as he goes.

That’s how a basic Edpresso shot is made! If you have questions, please reach out to edpresso@educative.io.

This format will not work for shots that are comparing two things​. For such shots, look here.