Jordan Peterson’s Essay Writing Guide Summary

Jordan Peterson’s writing guide improved my writing skill more than any writing class I took in school. Here’s a summary

Jordan Peterson

Link to the full guide. All credit to Dr. Peterson.

Why Write

• Extends your memory across time by allowing you to edit past thoughts
• Sharpens your ability to think critically
• You can’t lie to yourself thinking you know something if you have to write about it
• Clears your perception of the world
• Become more skilled at persuading others to give you things you want

When to Write

• Write in the mornings
• Write for 1–3 hours
• The most effective writers write every day

General Notes on Writing

• When you first sit down to write your mind will rebel against it. It will take about 15 minutes for your mind to quiet
• If you are bored while writing you are doing it wrong. If you are bored, your reader will be bored
• Writer's block doesn’t exist. It means you have no ideas. Read something to get out of it. Repeat reading various things until you are out of it
• Never create and edit at the same time
• Takes chances because you will throw 80% of your writing away

Essay Writing Steps

1. Choose a central topic
2. Make a list of 5–10 related books/articles/sources about it

• Use as inspiration, sources, and writer's block cure
• Take 2–3x the number of notes as the length of your essay

3. Write an outline

• The most difficult part of the whole process
• Forms the skeleton of your argument
• Consists of sentences

4. Write a paragraph for each outline sentence

• Don’t care about grammar at all
• Don’t edit at all
• Just keep going. If you get stuck, skip to the next outline sentence heading
• Each paragraph should be one idea long
• Once completed, this step is your first draft

5. Write another version of each sentence

• Choose the one that is more precise, shorter, and meaningful
• Delete unnecessary sentences

6. Reorder the sentences within the paragraph as necessary

7. Reorder the improved paragraphs as necessary

• once completed, this step is your second draft

8. Read your essay and then generate a new outline without looking at your essay

• This step forces you to recreate your argument from memory which likely improves it

9. Repeat steps 4–7

• The goal is to not be able to edit your essay to make it better

10. Add references, bibliography, and formatting