Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience

Lang (education, Univ. of Notre Dame; Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It) begins with the premise that the skills possessed by great teachers can, when translated onto the page and tweaked for an audience, make them great writers because the vocations shape each other. He argues that for professors and other educators to write nonfiction successfully, they should write like they teach—creating a supportive learning environment as the end goal. While this sounds straightforward, it is relatively nuanced: many educators shift between their classroom personae and the jargony, heavily specialized, copiously documented style favored, if not required, by academic journals and the expectations of their field. Lang includes takeaway points about AI, bulleted lists addressing intentional and invitational writing, and strategies for making information timely, purposeful, and relatable. Lang also offers real-life examples and a valuable appendix designed as a syllabus for moving from submission to promotion of a manuscript. His tips and tricks demonstrate that by writing in a way that bears in mind the needs of an expanded readership, authors can take their words beyond classroom walls and into the world in ways that have a transformative impact.