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Forms of life, forms of mind | Dr. Michael Levin | How I write papers

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There are many ways to write scientific manuscripts. The following is my personal process, and what I encourage most of my students to do. There are remarkable people out there who can write linearly. They sit down, start at the beginning, and write a draft from beginning to end. They edit the draft, but the initial structure is solid so that all of the edits are a progressive improvement and eventually converges on a great final product. I am not one of those people. I have to write top-down (or as computer scientists would say, “breadth first“) – strictly following an outline format. So for example, for a Perspective piece or essay, I decide on the content by writing down a set of main ideas, ordering them, and then go on to the next level of the outline by putting down the sub-sections that are needed to develop each of the main sections. Rinse, repeat. This cures a problem that plagues a lot of early stage academics: long hours spent writing and rewriting drafts which do not conver

Forms of life, forms of mind | Dr. Michael Levin | How I write papers Advice , Text How I write papers Published by Mike Levin on December 10, 2023 There are many ways to write scientific manuscripts. The following is my personal process, and what I encourage most of my students to do. There are remarkable people out there who can write linearly. They sit down, start at the beginning, and write a draft from beginning to end. They edit the draft, but the initial structure is solid so that all of the edits are a progressive improvement and eventually converges on a great final product. I am not

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