by: Aleksandra Ćirković
What I love the most about ESTIEM is that it gathers students who are open-minded, interested in self-development and are willing to share their knowledge and skills to improve each other as well as their surroundings. The Magazine is an extra opportunity we have to share our experiences. To motivate you to develop the writer within you and encourage you to share your voice, this article is going to cover some issues that authors face through the whole process of writing, from choosing the topic to structuring your text in the best possible way.
No 1. problem — “What should I write about?” Of course, every issue of the magazine has its focus topic, for example “30th Anniversary of ESTIEM”. Besides it, there is always space where you can write about anything you want, as long as it is related to topics of industrial engineering and management or the network itself. Ideas can come from anywhere. That means that if you do not know what to write about, then change your environment, apply for the conference of something that you are interested in, listen to some new podcasts, or read a textbook that is not about one of the classes you are currently taking. It is never really too early to start thinking about the subject of your next article. Sometimes the inspiration is harder to find, or it requires thorough research that takes a lot of time. As soon as the inspiration kicks in — write it down before the idea vanishes.
Now, when you have the idea, the hard work begins — “How do I write an article?”. This is a process where you have to ask yourself some questions.
Q1: Will I address the reader directly or will I use passive voice (e.g. “You should write that idea down” vs “That idea should be written down”)?
Q2: Will I talk from a personal angle? The answer to this and the previous question depends on you and the topic of the article. I am now writing about some things I had to go through to write an article in the past, so I believe it is good to write it from a personal angle, and that is good to address you directly. I usually like reading articles that are not subjective and are very fact-oriented, but not every topic can be written in that manner.
Q3: How should I start? “How should I start?” — that seems to be one of the biggest problems when you are trying to write something important. A literature professor once told us to skip the introduction if we do not know how to write it. Just start writing a part that you already know how to develop and structure, and get back to the introduction later. The same goes for the conclusion. You can also write smaller pieces that sound good to you and then slowly figure out the way to fit them together.
Q4: What if my level of English is not perfect? Write the article anyway. After you have finished your article, make sure you read it once or twice and see if you are covering all the points you wanted in the beginning. There are tools online that can also help you have the correct structure and avoid grammatical mistakes. Furthermore, there is a proofreading task group in the ESTIEM Magazine team that will help you later on to make an outstanding article.
Some basic tips are to avoid writing the article in the last minute. Give your article to a friend to read it that will see it from a different angle, and be accepting of feedback. Practise your writing skills with every given opportunity. Finally, we are all engineers and writing is a skill that is required in our field, whether it is a project or a scientific paper. So do not be afraid of writing. Share your voice and change your community for the better.
Credit: 58th issue of ESTIEM Magazine (2020)
You can now read the whole 58th issue of ESTIEM Magazine on the ISSUU platform!
