Remember Kyungsub? He's the graduate student who I wrote about a few weeks ago.
When ChatGPT launched, Kyungsub stopped coming to the writing lab. Why wouldn't he? AI could fix his grammar, tighten his sentences, and polish his prose in seconds.
But then his postdoc application was rejected.
Every word of it was perfect. That was the problem. Correct isn't the same as valuable, and readers only care about one of them.
Here's how we rebuilt his application, and what it means for yours.
In this week's issue:
- Words vs. Value (readers only care about one)
- Building the best writing course on the internet
- How modern schools make terrible writers
🪟 Clear Writing and Valuable Writing
Good prose is like a window pane.
—George Orwell, "Why I Write"
POLONIUS: What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET: Words, words, words.
Kyungsub and I keep getting interrupted.
We're sat in my office, working on his Statement of Purpose.
If you were ever a graduate student, you know how important this document is—it's the lynchpin of his entire postdoc application.
If it works, Kyungsub will leave Korea to join a research lab at one of his top schools in the US.
But Kyungsub's just got rejected.
That's why he's in my office.
Outside the building, window cleaners are washing the glass. They hang just past my window, lathering it up and squeaking it down, and every minute or so a squeegee thumps the pane.
It's a little distracting.
"Alright. Where were we."
"You were explaining that readers don't read words. But I don't get it—if not words, what do they read?"
"Ah. Right. Readers don't read words, they—"
Thump. The squeegee again.
Kyungsub's eyes drift—past me, to the window.
"Kyungsub," I say, reclaiming his attention.
"Sorry, yes," he says. He seems a little embarrassed.
"No, don't worry. I want you to keep looking." Turning towards the spotless window, I ask: "When you look over here, what do you see?"
"What do I see? Well, I see mountains."
"Yes, good. Go on."
"I see the soccer field. And the student dormitory."
"Exactly," I say. "There's a lot to see. But there's one thing you didn't notice: the window."
Let me pause the scene here—because this is exactly where many expert writers get stuck.