zero essay writing

Elevate AI to Human Perfection

Bypass ai detection with the world's most powerful ai humanizer..

Humanize AI text in three easy steps:

Copy ai-generated text, paste into writehuman.ai, click write human to humanize ai text, bypass ai detection with writehuman.

Effortlessly Humanize AI Text

Protect your ai privacy with real undetectable ai.

Choose the plan that's right for you .

Built-in AI Detector for Ultimate Al Bypass

Humanize ai text, built-in free ai detector, create undetectable ai, ai to human text, quality humanizer output, leading anti-ai detector, frequently asked questions, recent ai humanizer posts, how it works: mastering the art of undetectable ai writing with writehuman, understanding ai writing detection, bypass ai detection with natural language processing (nlp), humanize ai text to craft content at scale, bypassing ai detectors and humanize ai text, the magic of rewriting and originality, from ai to human: the best ai humanizer., humanize ai and create quality ai writing.

© 2024 WriteHuman, LLC. All rights reserved.

• Testimonials

How to Overcome Academic Writer’s Block: Writing a “Zero” Draft

• by Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz
• April 14, 2015 October 28, 2020

Instead of feeling joyful anticipation, however, your stomach begins to churn. All of the great ideas that have been brewing for the last several days when you didn’t have a second for writing suddenly disappear. You start to write and immediately delete it. You write another sentence and hit “delete” again. The blank screen that seemed so full of possibilities a few moments ago now seems to be mocking you with its white expanse.

You check the clock; two minutes into your academic writing session and a sense of panic is starting to well up inside of you. You find yourself longing for a knock on the door or an email notification from your phone (which you wisely turned off before sitting down to the computer). Even grading seems appealing right now…that’s not a good sign.

Instead of packing it up and waiting for the mood to strike you to start writing, you decide to keep butt in chair and forge ahead. So what do you do now? You start writing a zero draft.

You’re probably acquainted with the concept of a zero draft and might even have recommended it to your students, but you might not have tried one as a step in your own academic writing process. If you’re not familiar, a zero draft is all about creating a safe, non-threatening space to get your thoughts down on paper and start writing.

There’s really only one rule of writing a zero draft, but it’s often fairly difficult for writers to adhere to: you must resist the urge to revise in any way, shape, or form at this particular stage. Although the idea of writing incomplete sentences or making a huge leap in your interpretation of the evidence is abhorrent to most academic writers, denying your urge to edit as you write is crucial. Trust me, there will be plenty of time to revise, revise, and revise some more (which I’ll be talking about in future posts), but this is about getting your ideas flowing and down on paper.

I first learned about zero drafts from Joan Bolker’s amazing book, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day , when I had to write three chapters in three months to secure a tenure-track position back in 2003. Since then, I’ve identified some additional tips for incorporating zero drafts into your academic writing process.

• Make sure you save the document specifically as a zero draft and write “Zero Draft” at the top of the page. For some writers, that extra step of calling something a zero draft immediately alleviates some of their anxiety.

• To resist the urge to stop and edit as you go, type “REVISE” or “REVISE ALL” at the beginning of particularly problematic sentences and paragraphs and then keep moving. Although theoretically the whole draft is a work-in-progress, I’ve found that including this extra signpost that a particular sentence or section will need some additional work helps me not to get stuck.
• Another great strategy for writing a zero draft is creating an outline for the whole piece or a particular section. I am a huge proponent of using outlines for academic writing. Most of my zero drafts eventually take the form of an outline. Clearly and succinctly identifying your arguments and major themes not only provides a rudimentary framework for your writing but will result in a stronger piece over all. As you develop your outline, make sure that all of your headings are directly related to your main argument(s). Once the hard work of creating the outline is finished, all you have to do is fill it in and you’re on your way!

Pro tip: at this stage, do not allow yourself to get too caught up in writing an introduction or a conclusion. Usually both of these sections undergo so much revision over the course of future drafts that I’ve found that leaving them until closer to the end saves precious writing time and results in more effective introductions and conclusions. It is fine at the zero draft stage just to make a placeholder for the introduction and conclusion and move on.

These are some ideas for how to push past writer’s block. What about you? What strategies do you use that would be helpful to other academic writers?

3 thoughts on “How to Overcome Academic Writer’s Block: Writing a “Zero” Draft”

Pingback:  It’s Not Too Late to Gear Up for a Productive Summer! | MargaretEdits

I think the idea of writing a “zero-draft,” is a great idea. It is definitely an idea that I am willing to try. I wish that I would have found this article before I started the research paper that I completed on Monday. Thanks again for the tips!

Glad it was helpful! I always use zero drafts in my academic writing, or else I’d never be able to get started.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

A.J. Hanson

Writer. Blogger. Freelancer.

What is a Zero Draft and Why Should You Write One?

Call it writer’s block, procrastination, decision paralysis, whatever you’d like, but there’s nothing like indecision to send my writing to a grinding halt. So what’s the solution? A zero draft.

The Zero Draft goes by many names and just about as many definitions. The Zero Draft. The Skeleton Draft. The Chaptered Outline. Ultimately, they all serve one purpose: turn off your inner critic and set the story loose.

Zero drafts tread the line between plotting and pantsing. They still give you that free-wheeling sense of writing into the void but at the end, you’re left with a plan.

So…What is a Zero Draft?

There’s many different ways to do this, and as usual, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to writing. I’ll share how I write a zero draft that works for me, and it may or may not work for you.

When I zero draft, I start with a rough idea of the five main plot points: the inciting incident, the first plot point, the midpoint, the third plot point, and the climax. Once I’ve jotted down a rough idea for those, I calculate approximately how long I’m aiming for the novel to be. For example, if I’m writing an 80,000 word novel, and I know my chapters tend to be around 3000 words long, I’m going to need approximately 27 chapters. (Coincidentally this also fits neatly into the 27 Chapter Method of plotting popularized by Kat O’Keeffe if you’re looking for an easy plot structure to follow). This leads to the following loose plot structure:

• Inciting Incident: Chapter 1 or 2
• First Plot Point: Chapter 8
• Midpoint: Chapter 14
• Third plot point: Chapter 20
• Climax: Chapter 25 and 26.

Now that I know approximately how much space is between each of the main plot points, I start freewriting the plot between them.

My zero draft is messy. I often write it in third person so I can see from a bird’s eye view what my characters are doing (regardless of what POV I’m using for the real thing). My tenses switch from present to past and my grammar is abysmal. But the zero draft isn’t about pretty writing, it’s about laying down the bones of the story. It’s much easier to cut out a paragraph of the zero draft when you can see that the story is veering in the wrong direction rather than chopping out entire chapters you’ve bled over the keyboard for.

I’ve heard different suggested lengths for zero drafts but keep in mind this isn’t a rough draft. It’s just the essential bits of the story distilled into approximately ten pages (though this can differ based on your story).

Why Bother with a Zero Draft?

In theory, this step should reduce the amount of big edits when you get to the second draft. The zero draft helps to make sure the character arcs are working and the structure of the plot is sound before you begin writing the readable prose. Strong foundation = Less structural level edits ( In theory…the story can still wildly deviate from the zero draft as you’re writing, in which case, there will still be substantial edits ).

Also, a zero draft can help you write faster. If you’re like me and you suffer from that paralysis that comes from not knowing where your characters are heading, a zero draft is a powerful solution. I recently read 2,000 to 10,000: How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron, a quick read about how to write faster and maximize the use of your writing time. One of the suggestions from that author was also the zero draft. It gives you the opportunity to try different plotlines and experiment with the story without having to worry about how much you’re going to need to cut or delete. Let it be fun. Tell yourself the story. Then, when you have a zero draft, you can barrel ahead with the first draft as though you knew what you were doing all along.

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my monthly newsletter for notice of new blog posts and book news.

You might also enjoy:

How to Find Time to Write When There’s No Time Left

The Ultimate Guide to Types of Keyboards

NaNoWriMo 2022

7 Key Insights From My Writing Journey

Love this idea! It can be so hard to just give yourself permission to write. Calling it a zero draft, or an outline feels like a good way to trick your brain into turning off editor mode.

Comments are closed.

Privacy Overview

Is a Zero Draft The Cure For Writer’s Block?

Your schedule is clear, your coffee is hot, and you’re sitting in front of the computer screen, ready to begin your masterpiece. But as you stare at the blinking cursor on the blank page, dread and anxiety overwhelm you. How should you get started? How can you possibly begin, much less finish, dissertation writing?

Even if you aren’t struggling with thesis writing , this story might sound familiar. Writer’s block affects everyone sometimes, whether you are writing a dissertation or a blog post. While there are several techniques to overcome writer’s block, like taking a walk or reading something inspiring, the truth is that the blank page is every writer’s worst enemy.

Fear of the blank page is what has inspired the rise of zero drafts, a writing technique that is gaining popularity among novelists and students alike. Now, you might ask what is a zero draft, when and why do people use them, and will writing a zero draft help you complete your next writing project? Let’s dive in and see if writing a zero draft might just be the key to reimagining your whole writing process.

What is a Zero Draft?

A zero draft is a prewriting exercise . Unlike a first draft, zero people will ever read your zero drafts. It’s unstructured, unlike an outline or an organized brainstorming session. A zero draft is a completely unrevised, unstructured, free-flow of ideas and thoughts from your brain to the page. 

A zero draft can be a couple of paragraphs or over twenty pages long. You can write it all in one sitting or over several periods of work. It’s up to you. The main thing to keep in mind is the purpose of the zero drafts, which is to jump-start your writing and get your thoughts out of your head and onto a page.

Once you get started, a zero draft can be the key to unlocking your creativity. This is because, often, as we write, the process itself helps us think more clearly and organize our thoughts. Once you have something on a page, it’s easier to add to it, revise it, move it around, and play with it. A zero draft helps you push past that intimidating blank page that every great piece of writing starts with.

How Do I Write a Zero Draft?

While the idea behind a zero draft is to overcome the fear of the blank page, creating a new writing process can still be challenging. However, there are a couple of techniques you can use to write a zero draft to make it easier and help you get the most out of this step of the writing process.  

• Set a timer  If you don’t think you can write much, set a five-minute timer and write whatever comes to mind. Then, if you want to stop at the end of those five minutes, no problem! You can come back to your zero draft later. You might even find that once you’ve started, it’s easy to keep going.   
• Write as long as you can If setting a timer seems too limiting, try the opposite, which is to write as long as you can. If your thoughts seem to jump all over the place or do not connect logically, that’s ok! The main goal isn’t to write something nice for anyone else to read. It’s just for you to get your ideas out on a page where you can look at them.  
• Don’t use any formatting like headings or sections  You just want to write ideas as they come to you and not try to organize them. Organizing your ideas while you write can interrupt your workflow, which is the exact opposite of what you want to happen when you write a zero draft.  
• Don’t overthink it If this sounds overwhelming to you, then let me assure you: You are overthinking the zero draft. If you want to get started on a zero draft, you only must bring a pen and paper (or pull up a new blank document on the word processor of your choice) and start writing. That’s it.

Writing a zero draft is a preparation for the rest of your writing. In fact, you can write a zero draft while you’re still conducting research on your topic! In addition, a zero draft is a great way to  identify what you know   and see where your knowledge still falls short, which is one reason it is becoming increasingly favored by academics and thesis writers. 

Will a Zero Draft Help Me?

Will writing a zero draft help you? The only way to find out is to give it a try! In addition to writer’s block, a zero draft can help your writing in several ways. 

First, a zero draft can provide a rough outline for later and help you form sections of your writing that you are struggling with. Maybe you have a vague idea of what things should go in a particular section, but you can’t seem to organize them or connect them without a few gaps. By creating a zero draft, you’ll have all of your ideas laid out in front of you. Once you see them on paper, it becomes easy to see how they fit together or experiment with different organizational formats.

A zero draft can help you identify weak points or gaps in your knowledge. Whether you’re writing a dissertation, a short research paper, or your thesis, writing is a process of discovery. Often, what we discover as we write is where we fall short on a topic. By writing a zero draft, you can help lay a solid foundation for your thesis or dissertation writing , even as you figure out what you still need to spend more time researching and understanding.

If you’re a student who has written countless research papers, you may think your writing process is pretty solid and doesn’t need any changes as you approach your thesis or dissertation. Frankly, you might be right. But you might also  discover that writing a zero draft   is a helpful way to break through writer’s block and get started on your next project. Writing is an evolving discipline, and trying new techniques never hurts anyone. So on your next project, whether it’s a short literature review or a dissertation, try starting with a zero draft! 

Editor’s pick

Get free updates.

Subscribe to our newsletter for regular insights from the research and publishing industry!

A writer and reader

Writing Tips: What’s in a zero draft?

A lot of you have probably heard the term “zero drafting” thrown around. So, what’s a zero draft? 

A zero draft is like the rough draft of a first draft. It’s stream of consciousness, whatever comes into your head writing. You don’t stop to edit. Not even for typos and run ons. You don’t even have to write full sentences if you don’t want to. You can write bullet points, notes for yourself. You can skip all the detail and just write dialogue. 

Why zero draft? 

The idea is just to get words out onto the page as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you’re like me and you fear that blank page, it’s a way of breaking past the fear and getting out something, anything. Perfectionism can prevent you from finishing anything. If you edit as you go, you may find yourself stuck trying to make a paragraph perfect–but then you never actually get to the next paragraph and finish the story! 

Okay, but what does it actually look like? 

If you’re curious what that looks like for me, here is the zero draft vs final draft of the opening for THE WANDERING DOLLS 

Zero draft 

In ten days, the world will end.

This is what Daga’s mother had told her, as she had been told by her mother, as she had been told by her mother. This was the truth upon which the festival was born. 

And it all started with the Autumn Pageant.

The Pageant was tomorrow, and Daga was effervescent with excitement. For today was the Choosing. One girl among those in their seventeenth year would be chosen to play the Maiden in the Autumn Pageant, the most important ritual of the year. She would be the center of attention for the whole Autumn Festival. She would have the best place at the feast. All of the best young people would want to dance with her. She would be crowned and celebrated throughout the whole festival. [[add more detail here]] 

[[MAYBE ADD A TRANSITION HERE?]] 

“Daga! Dagmara! You’re letting the hem trail.”

Daga broke out of her reverie at the sound of Jadzia, her best friend. “Oh no!” Indeed, the white pageant gown in her hands had dragged in the dirt, muddying the hem. She would have to wash the whole thing again.

“Daydreaming again?”

“I can’t help it! How can you think of anything else right now?” 

Final product 

The Carnival Koniec Swiata is in town! Come one, come all, come everybody in between! See the dazzling acrobatics, the fire eater and the Goblin tamer, the women who do not laugh and the men who do not die. Dance with the denizens of another world. Lose yourself and find yourself again.

But hurry, hurry, do not delay, for the Carnival comes but once a year.

Once a year, at the end of the world.

This is what Daga’s mother had told her, as she had been told by her mother, as  she  had been told by  her  mother, and on and on for centuries. The world would end after the Autumn festival, to be reborn in the Spring.

And it all started today.

Today was the Choosing, and Daga was effervescent with excitement. One girl in her seventeenth year would be chosen to play the Pageant’s Maiden. The Maiden would be the center of attention for the whole Autumn Festival. She would have the best place at the feast. All of the best young people would want to dance with her. She would be crowned and celebrated and admired. If that were not inducement enough, everybody knew that being chosen as the Maiden was almost a guarantee that you would be married by the next year. To be secure of a lover by your eighteenth year—Daga could scarcely even laugh for giddiness. She was a hopeless romantic, always full of quixotic notions and swooning stories. To find her true love—that would be everything.

“Daga! Dagmara! You’re letting the hem trail. Pay attention.” Jadzia’s voice pierced through Daga’s reverie.

“Oh no!” She sighed exasperatedly. Indeed, the white pageant gown in her hands had dragged in the dirt, muddying the hem. She would have to wash the whole thing again. Clicking her tongue, she dumped it back into the wash bucket.  Pay attention, Daga.  It was an exhortation always being tossed her way. Attend to what you’re doing. Don’t dawdle. She wished she could be frolicking in the fields right now, and leave the washing to people like Jadzia and Poldek who actually enjoyed the work.

“Daydreaming again?” Jadzia teased lightly.

“I can’t help it!” Daga balled up the dress and dunked it into the washtub. Daga, Jadzia, and Poldek were doing their chores all together; their parents didn’t mind, as long as the chores got done. “How can you think of anything else right now?” 

Share this:

Leave a comment cancel reply.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Zero Drafting: How to Start Writing Without an Outline

Do you ever feel paralyzed when it comes time to start writing? You know what you want to say, but you can't seem to get started. This is where zero drafting can help.

What is a zero draft? I hear you ask.

Simply put, with the zero drafting approach, you don't need an outline or any other type of plan; you simply start writing and see where the words take you.

Simple enough, right? But you will soon learn that there is method to the madness.

In this blog post, we will discuss how zero drafting can help you start writing without any stress or anxiety. We'll also provide tips for getting the most out of this approach.

Are you ready to try zero drafting?

One Method, Many Names

Tell the story, follow the rules, or don't the choice is yours, get it written; revise it later, what about the five plot points, key takeaways, who is zero drafting for, youtube videos about zero drafting and other ideas to get your book written.

Just like anything else in life, everyone has their own way of doing things. The same goes for writing a story . Some people like to outline everything before they even start writing, while others just sit down and start typing away until they have a complete story.

This latter method is called zero drafting, and it can be a great way to get your ideas down on paper without getting bogged down in the details . Zero drafting simply means writing until you have the story told, without stopping to edit or revise.

This can be a great way to get all of your ideas out , without worrying about making them perfect. The first draft will be a revised version or it may be your final draft- it just depends on your process and how well it works for you.

The process of zero drafting has many names, such as discovery draft, pre-draft, initial draft, blueprint, original draft, early draft, or first outline.

But regardless of what you call it, the goal is the same: to get the story told.

This can be achieved in a variety of ways, but the most important thing is to just keep writing until you reach the end.

Zero drafting is all about letting your creativity flow freely and not being afraid to take risks. This is in contrast to traditional writing processes, which typically involve painstaking attention to detail and meticulous planning.

With zero drafting, the goal is simply to tell the whole story, even if it means using poor grammar or no punctuation at all.

Whether you're working on short stories , poems, novels, or other forms of writing, zero drafting gives you the freedom and flexibility to explore your ideas without worrying too much about making mistakes or getting things "right".

So if you're looking for a more creative and spontaneous approach to writing, zero drafting might just be for you! It is also easier to calculate how long it will take you to finish your book , as you aren't worrying about drafts.

One of the best things about writing a zero draft is that you can play around with different styles and voices until you find the one that best suits your story.

You can also experiment with scene structure, using traditional rules or breaking them entirely. The goal is simply to get the story down on paper, without worrying about perfection.

Once you have a general idea of the scenes you want to write, you can start fleshing them out in more detail. This is where you need to decide whether to show or tell the story.

If you have a strong image in your mind, you may want to write a traditional scene.

However, if you're not sure what should happen next, telling the story may be a better option. Either way, the important thing is to keep writing and see where the story takes you.

Many writers find it difficult to start writing a new piece, especially if they are trying to come up with something original or unique.

But the truth is that getting your ideas onto the page – even in a preliminary form – is always the first step in good writing .

After all, it's only by revising and rewriting that your ideas will reach their full potential. So don't be afraid to just dive in and get something down on paper – revise later, and you'll be amazed at how much more powerful your writing can be. 

While there is no one "right" way to write a story, some writers find it helpful to think in terms of five key plot points:

-The Hook: This is the first scene or chapter that grabs the reader's attention and makes them want to keep reading.

-The Inciting Incident: This is the event that sets the story in motion and changes the protagonist's life.

-The First Plot Point: This is a major turning point that propels the story forward and raises the stakes for the protagonist.

-The Midpoint: This is another turning point that signals a change in direction, often leading to the second half of the story.

-The Third Plot Point: This is the climax of the story, where the protagonist must face their greatest challenge and make a difficult choice.

With zero drafting, you wouldn't necessarily focus on these but because you already know the story, they will naturally fall into place.

There is no hard and fast rule here, so if it helps to think about these while zero drafting, go for it!

But if you find that it's too restrictive, feel free to ignore it entirely and just let the story take you where it will.

• Zero drafting is a great way to get your ideas down on paper without getting bogged down in the details.
• The goal of zero drafting is simply to tell the whole story, even if it means using poor grammar or no punctuation at all.
• With zero drafting, you can play around with different styles and voices until you find the one that best suits your story.
• The important thing is to keep writing and see where the story takes you.
• Don't be afraid to just dive in and get something down on paper – revise later, and you'll be amazed at how much more powerful your writing can be. 
• Anyone who is looking for an alternative to the traditional outline.
• Anyone who finds it difficult to come up with all the details of their story in one sitting.
• Whether you are new to writing or an experienced writer, zero drafting can be a useful tool to help move your creative process forward and complete your story.
• Anybody who would benefit from a more freeform approach to outlining; can create an expanded synopsis of your ideas and use it as a starting point for the actual writing process.
• Anybody who finds it easier breaking down a story into smaller chunks; can escape the cycle of never finishing what you start and instead move closer to the end.

https://youtu.be/SPMkA5Lv4Ec

About The Author

Arielle Phoenix

Related posts.

What Is The Average Time It Takes To Write A Book?

should i write a book or a screenplay?

How to Write a Zombie Book: 8 Easy Steps

PDF Template For Writing A Book

What to do when you’re accused of AI cheating

Ai detectors like turnitin and gptzero suffer from false positives that can accuse innocent students of cheating. here’s the advice of academics, ai scientists and students on how to deal with it..

Your teacher says you used artificial intelligence to cheat. You did no such thing. Now what?

Stay calm, and let the facts help you.

Less than a year into the life of ChatGPT, teachers everywhere are getting AI-detecting tools that promise to expose when students use chatbots to cheat. By August, an AI detector made by the plagiarism-detection company Turnitin had already been run on more than 70 million assignments, it said.

Geoffrey A. Fowler

AI surveillance might deter cheaters. But sometimes these detectors get it wrong, too. And even a small “false positive” error rate means some students could be wrongly accused — an experience with potentially devastating long-term effects.

After I wrote about the arrival of the AI detector from Turnitin , I heard from many angry high school and college students (and some of their parents) claiming they had been falsely accused of AI cheating.

So I asked some of them how they handled the accusations, and I also sought some advice from experts in academic integrity and AI.

The clear lesson: You can fight back. Many told me sharing an article like this one with the instructor is a good place to start. (Hi, teachers. I’m on your side, too! I don’t want us to misuse tech in ways that could have dire consequences.)

Here are steps to consider. Hopefully you can find resolution before you get to the end of the list.

Start with a non-accusatory conversation

I completely understand if you’re upset, but approaching your accuser with guns blazing might make matters worse.

Several students told me that arguing with their instructors came with a cost: Their teacher stopped trusting them and gave them a bad grade in the end anyway. But in other cases, a polite back-and-forth conversation resulted in an A.

“Speak directly to the instructor, in as polite and conciliatory terms as possible,” said Christian Moriarty , a professor of ethics and law at St. Petersburg College in Florida, who studies academic integrity. “Escalating makes everybody go on the defensive.”

Part of education is learning to advocate for yourself. Explain how you either didn’t use AI at all or only used it within the terms that was permitted for the course.

Just remember: This is new to everyone. Many instructors haven’t yet had a chance to learn how Turnitin’s AI reports work, which is different from the plagiarism reports the software has offered for years. With AI, a detector doesn’t have any “evidence” — just a hunch based on some statistical patterns.

Even Turnitin says everyone should take a chill pill . “The first step should always be to have a conversation with the student,” said Turnitin’s chief product officer, Annie Chechitelli. “Our guidance is, and has been, that there is no substitute for knowing a student, knowing their writing style and background.”

Bring along data about AI detector errors

AI detectors might present scientific-looking percentages or scores, but nobody should treat those results as fact.

Too many educators think AI detectors are “a silver bullet and can help them do the difficult work of identifying possible academic misconduct,” said Sarah Eaton , an education professor at the University of Calgary and the editor of the International Journal for Educational Integrity. “The reality is that these products are not perfect.”

My favorite example of just how imperfect they can be: A detector called GPTZero even claimed the U.S. Constitution was written by AI .

In July, OpenAI — the company that made ChatGPT — shut down its own AI detector tool “due to its low rate of accuracy.”

In June, Turnitin reported that on a sentence-by-sentence level, its software incorrectly flags 4 percent of writing as being AI-generated. There is a higher incidence of these false positives in cases where Turnitin detects that less than 20 percent of a document is AI-generated.

“Teachers should be using AI reports as resources, not deciders, and educators always make final determinations,” Chechitelli said.

Certain types of writing, especially technical topics, are more likely to be erroneously flagged as AI-generated. There are only so many ways one can explain cellular mitosis, so your words may be less likely to stand out as human. (I explain some of the science of how an AI detector looks at writing that’s suspiciously average in this column .)

There’s research that suggests detectors are biased against nonnative English speakers , and several of the students who shared their experiences were writing in English as a second, or even a third, language.

Want to drive home the point? Run some of your other writing dated before the arrival of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022 through an AI detector, to see whether any of it gets flagged. If it does, the problem is clearly the detector, not the writing. (It’s a little aggressive, but one student told me he did the same with his instructor’s own writing to make the point.)

Some well-known AI scientists argue that the error rate in AI detectors means they just shouldn’t be allowed. “I think these tools should be banned and students shouldn’t be put in a position of having to do this type of stuff,” said Timnit Gebru, the executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute . “The responsibility lies with the schools and governments.”

But don’t expect them to go away any time soon. “We will continue to improve our AI writing detection systems and we remain dedicated to making it available to educators,” Chechitelli said.

Try to prove the originality of your work

When your work gets flagged, your instructor might expect you to prove you didn’t use AI to cheat. That isn’t exactly fair — how can you prove a negative?

But you might be able to avoid more trouble by offering some evidence that you really did the work.

Several students I spoke with suggested Google Docs or Microsoft Word could help. Both offer a version history function that can keep track of changes to the file, so you can demonstrate how long you worked on it and that whole chunks didn’t magically appear. Other students recommended simply screen recording yourself writing.

Copying and pasting from an AI program also has some telltale signs that should be missing in an entirely original student work. For example, ChatGPT text uses a unique font. And all chatbots have a well-documented problem with making up facts and sources. (That also means if your essay has made-up facts or completely fabricated footnotes, it could be a sign you let AI do the writing.)

There are more traditional ways to show your work, too, including offering to do a live oral presentation. If you know your writing has been flagged as AI in the past, perhaps tell your instructor that upfront and seek feedback on drafts while you’re in process.

Another way to avoid being flagged in the first place: Be sure to write with a unique voice. “Writing with your own style with language you understand and commonly use will help show that you are the unique author of the assignment,” said Christopher Casey , the director of digital education at the University of Michigan at Dearborn.

Understand your right to due process

If a polite conversation doesn’t work, it’s time to learn your institution’s official rules for academic misconduct.

“It is perfectly reasonable to file an appeal or complaint or whatever your institution calls it, to be able to say I did everything correctly and the instructor is saying I didn’t,” Moriarty said.

Many universities have an office to help students negotiate academic misconduct, sometimes called an ombudsperson or student affairs office.

In some cases, instructors have gone rogue by using unauthorized AI tools to accuse students of cheating. Some higher education institutions ban them or have very specific guidance about how they’re supposed to be used. Also, check the course syllabus for what it did or didn’t say about using AI for the class.

Most of the time, instructors shouldn’t be using detection software “in a search-and-destroy way rather than in a way that supports student learning” Eaton said.

It’s worth noting that some instructors have actually come to the conclusion that they can’t stop students from using AI. False accusations are “the crux of the issue with trying to ban students from using AI, especially for homework or online courses where students can and should not be monitored 24/7,” Casey said. (This fall, his campus will not allow AI detection reports to be part of any academic integrity processes.)

If all else fails and you need to pass a class to graduate, you or your parents could talk to a lawyer. “If you feel they didn’t follow their procedures, you might be able to have some sort of lawsuit,” Moriarty said. “But it’s a high bar, and it’s probably more money than a lot of people are willing to spend.”

Help Desk: Making tech work for you

Help Desk is a destination built for readers looking to better understand and take control of the technology used in everyday life.

Take control: Sign up for The Tech Friend newsletter to get straight talk and advice on how to make your tech a force for good.

Tech tips to make your life easier: 10 tips and tricks to customize iOS 16 | 5 tips to make your gadget batteries last longer | How to get back control of a hacked social media account | How to avoid falling for and spreading misinformation online

Data and Privacy: A guide to every privacy setting you should change now . We have gone through the settings for the most popular (and problematic) services to give you recommendations. Google | Amazon | Facebook | Venmo | Apple | Android

Ask a question: Send the Help Desk your personal technology questions .

• Vape pens catch fire on airplanes. Here’s how to stay safe. April 19, 2024 Vape pens catch fire on airplanes. Here’s how to stay safe. April 19, 2024
• The right shortcuts can give your iPhone superpowers. Here’s how. April 18, 2024 The right shortcuts can give your iPhone superpowers. Here’s how. April 18, 2024
• What’s with all the black-and-white logos for apps? April 16, 2024 What’s with all the black-and-white logos for apps? April 16, 2024

motivation and inspiration for budding (and blooming) writers

The Zero Draft: How to Take Your Jumbled Scraps of Bookish Ideas and Make Them Story-Shaped

Hello, hello, Happy Writers! Today, we’re talking about Zero Drafts . Now, we’ve all heard of  First Drafts:  the very first incarnations of the stories we tell. They’re messy, they’re earnest, and they very, very often go unfinished, as they’re very often abandoned. Now, why is that? Sometimes, admittedly, stories just don’t work, and the writer loses their motivation to keep clacking away at the keyboard. But, oftentimes, the writer is simply overwhelmed — lost and frustrated and not sure what the story is that they’re telling.

Often, this is because the writer needed a  Zero Draft . A Zero Draft is the percolation stage. It’s the answer to the question: how do I get all of the ideas in my head into something  story-shaped ? A Zero Draft is and should be the first step to writing a novel. 

So, this post basically answers two questions: What is a Zero Draft? which, in turn, answers the question:

I have a story for a novel in my head and I’m not sure how to write it down. What do I do??

Step One for writing your Zero Draft: Stuff all your notes in a single document.

You’ve got a bunch of characters running around, being snarky, in your head. You can see the world they live in as vividly as your own — or, snatches of it, at least. You have an idea for a conflict. You even have snatches of dialogue. You know there’s going to be an alien invasion, for instance, and you know your main character is a twenty-something College grad who toils away at a grocery store all day, stocking shelves. You want delicious frozen meatballs to play a role, but you have no idea how to put all these disparate pieces together.

So, you need to write them down.

In one central location. Not in a whole bunch of notebooks. Not on your phone, and on some napkins, and on your laptop, and oh, also on your wall, scrawled in shaky pencil scratchings like an inmate at a prison. No, you need them all in a single document on your computer. I swear. 

It’s so important to keep your notes in one place. You will forget things. You will lose things. You will stumble onto scenes you’ve spent the last week painstakingly writing only to find out you had already painstakingly written it. Putting all your notes, drafts, and scene scraps into a single document will benefit you in the long run, even if it seems super overwhelming at first.

I highly suggest using Scrivener to sort out your thoughts! You can divide your files into a bajillion different documents if you so desire, but everything is still kept together in a single project. Organization!

Step Two: Organize those notes into chronological order

It can be so easy to have a long document of notes that skips around your story as frenetically as an exhilarated child skips around a playground. You paste indiscriminately from a bunch of different writing sessions and end up with a document that has a little bit of chapter one, an idea for chapter seven, a conversation that has to happen earlier in the book, three drafts of a potential climax, oh and here’s another bit for the first chapter, don’t forget!! Spend a day (or two, or three!) compiling your notes into chronological order. 

This does not have to be perfect! You might (read: absolutely will) have a change of heart at some point in writing your novel and decide to re-order things. That’s 100% part of the writing process! But, if you’ve got all of these story scraps sitting in your lap, you probably already have a vague idea of which need to happen first, which need to be set up by others, which go together, which are for the ending — that sort of thing. So, give yourself a couple of days to organize your big bursting document so that, scrolling or sorting through it, you have something that seems to move in, more or less, chronological order. 

(If you’re having trouble figuring out when everything in your novel should happen, consider checking out:  Plotting In a Pinch: The Happy Writer’s Guide to Novel Writing )

Step Three: (Optional) Make a chart of all scenes in your outline

This step depends on who you are as a writer — if you’re a pantser who loves going in blind, creating an outline at this point might seem overwhelming and lack spontaneity. But, if you think it will help you, I highly recommend it! 

Now, I don’t suggest you make a super detailed outline. But, it could be helpful to keep your thoughts in order to make a kind of To Do list for your novel thus far. 

It can be as detailed as:

1. Jane works at the supermarket, has conflict with her boss, ignores coworkers gathering around TV in break room

2. Jane hears something in frozen foods section.

3. Coworker yells for Jane to come see the news — something is going on. 

4. Ignoring him, Jane walks into frozen foods and finds the alien going to town on bags upon bags of frozen meatballs

Or as simple as:

1. Jane finds alien at supermarket

2. Sneaks alien home

3. Something happens with Mom???

4. President speech on news

5. Jane needs to get more meatballs

In either case, you’re given yourself a roadmap. You’re not dictating to yourself exactly what the dialogue is going to be, what every paragraph needs to detail, but you’re giving Future Frustrated Writer!You an idea of where to go next. An idea of the shape of the story you’re putting down. You’ve got your notes in one place, organized, and now you’re taking another day to sketch out a rough outline (kind of like a painter putting down a pencil sketch of the artwork they’re about to embark on) so that you have a good sense of what you’re trying to do.

Step Four: Begin Fleshing Out Scenes in Order

The main idea here is to take each scene and start adding details. You don’t have to write the scene from beginning to end yet — this is the Zero Draft! We’re still getting ideas onto the page! But, this step is the real beginning to the writing process: sit down with every scene or moment you’ve got planned and start writing it. 

Now, I want to make clear: the working in order part of this step is technically optional — if you’re stuck and need to jump around your story to whatever you feel inspired to work on, absolutely do that! But, at first, try to work in order. You’ll be able to follow scenes and chapters to their natural conclusions, watch the story unfold in real time just like a reader will. When you write in order, there’s a sense of building momentum as you climb towards the climax, and you have everything you need to write an ending that’s satisfying, supported by all the little details and callbacks you’ve set up for as you wrote the beginning and middle. 

So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed fleshing out the scenes you’ve got so far in your draft, remember a few things:

1. You can jump around to other moments that excite you!

2. If stuck, go back to your outline! Consider where you’re trying to go and experiment with different routes to get there!

3. Set a timer, a word goal for the hour or the day, and get words written . Sometimes, if you just start typing, if you just pick a starting spot and force yourself to write a sentence for it, you’ll end up surprising yourself and writing a lot more than you thought you would! (Check out my post: Break Your Writing Into Bite-Sized Chunks: How I Got In the Habit of Writing Every Day )

Still feeling stuck on how to flesh out your outline? Consider the following:

1. Pick a specific character’s head to inhabit for each scene. If you feel it’s not working, try jumping into another character’s head and see if their POV is better suited for the moment.

2. Find imagery — sensory details — to start scenes with. If you’re trying to get words down for a scene and have no idea where to begin, just describe the scene. What does it smell like? Sound like? Are there any tastes or textures? Describe the setting, the weather, or the characters’ clothing. Decide on one of your character’s emotions (maybe they’re angry, or bursting with happiness, or starting to feel ill) and write a paragraph about that and how it relates to the broader question of what this scene is trying to do.

3. Find alternates to dialogue tags. Sometimes when I’m Zero Drafting, I’ll have a huge scene of just dialogue. The inclination is to scroll through, add some dialogue tags, and then frown at the scene with dissatisfaction, as it feels sparse and impersonal. If you find yourself in a similar position, spice up your dialogue with alternatives to dialogue tags. Add action instead, or internal thoughts, or musings on the characters’ various attitudes or aspects.

Rather than:

“Do you have an alien hidden in your closet?” her mother asked. “Of course not,” said Jane. 

Something behind the closet door shuffled again—then decisively went bonk . Her look of suspicion deepening, Jane’s mother took a step into the room. “Do you have an alien hidden in your closet?” Jane laughed—or, she made a noise that was meant to be a laugh and came out sounding like she had just been punched in the stomach. “Of course not.” 

Try expanding your snatches of dialogue into full moments, and you’ll steadily watch those moments become full, robust scenes! (See How to Add Layers to Your Dialogue for a little more help!)

4. Rewrite ‘was’ whenever possible. I love the word ‘was’, love it , but it can sound passive and distance your reader from the dialogue taking place .

So, if you’re stuck in a rut of saying “was” in every sentence, try more active verbs:

Old version: She was worried the alien would soon run out of meatballs. Without ‘was’: The alien gobbled down meatballs faster than Jane could supply them.

5. Again, when in doubt: Check your outline.

Step 5: At some point, after a week or two or four of this drafting, take a step back and take stock of what you’ve accomplished.

The great thing about the Zero Draft is that it tends to smoothly transition itself into the First Draft without you really noticing! As you continue to flesh out the various ideas in your document, you’ll find them organizing into scenes, and then chapters, until soon you have something decidedly story-shaped. So, just kept writing, keep believing in yourself and your story, and watch it all unfold.

Happy Writing. <3

For more updates related to writing, reading, gaming, and general life-ness, follow Christina on Social Media: Twitter | Instagram

[do_widget id=blog_subscription-4]

happywriter

Christina is an aspiring novelist, who wanted to create a safe, fun place to share advice, inspiration, and motivation with other writers!

Related Posts

Quick and Messy Writing Tip: Let Your Characters Disagree

How to Edit a Scene in Five Easy (Heh. Try Hair-Pulling) Steps

Use Your Character’s Strengths and Weakness to Build Your Novel’s Plot

One comment, leave a reply cancel reply.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Back to Reedsy Live

How to Write a Draft Zero (and Silence Your Inner Editor)

15:00 EST - Apr 26, 2023

S J Watson is the bestselling author of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, which became a phenomenal international success and was turned into a film starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. He has since published two further psychological thrillers, SECOND LIFE and FINAL CUT, and has recently set up THE WRITERS’ LODGE, which aims to help and support writers at every stage of their creative writing journey. S J Watson is about to embark on a public novel writing project called THE EXPERIMENT, which will see him write and publish his own draft zero of a novel on Substack. A new chapter will be released every two weeks, with specific themes, locations, and character names voted for by his online followers. Join Steve on his journey and experience the frustrations and breakthroughs of novel writing - in real-time.

Today I'm going to be talking about how to write a draft zero and silence your inner editor. 

I thought what I would do is kick off by discussing what I mean by draft zero. Then we'll talk a little bit about why we need this thing that I'm going to refer to as draft zero. Of course, other people call it different things. Most notably, many people call it the first draft or draft one, but there’s a reason I call it that. I'll also be talking a little bit about why I think it's important.

I only realized how incredibly important this draft is relatively late on when I was a fledgling writer and aspiring novelist. It made a huge difference to me. So I'm going to talk a little bit about why it's really important to separate the editing stage of the work from the writing stage. When you sit down at the desk in the morning or afternoon or evening to work, you should be very conscious of whether you are planning to write or to edit, because I think that's a very important distinction to make.

The final thing which we'll get into is why I think it's really, really important to give yourself permission to write badly.

The Experiment

I talk about a lot of this stuff in my Substack newsletter, which is sjwatson.substack.com. It also ties in a little bit with a new project called The Experiment. I was joking about there being a reason it's called The Experiment. Basically, I don't know how it's going to go. This is an attempt to try and put my money where my mouth is. To go with the things I talk about, especially around this issue of editing and writing, I want to basically write a novel in public.

The idea is that I'm going to be writing my first draft, my draft zero, but sharing it. The reason I'm slightly anxious about this is because the one thing I recommend is that you don't share your draft zero with anybody. You have to write it with a freedom that can only come from knowing that no one is ever going to see it and no one is ever going to read it.

But I want to really show people that when I say, you have to give yourself permission to do bad writing, that's exactly what I mean. I'm going to share my bad writing, essentially just to show that I'm no different to everybody else. Just because I've been in the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists, it doesn't mean that my first drafts land on the page perfectly formed. That's why I'm sharing week by week, or fortnight by fortnight more likely, a chapter at a time, a book that I'm writing in real time with input from you, the audience. That's what The Experiment is, and hopefully that will give you a bit of context and background and support the talk I'm about to give. Let's dive into it.

What is a draft zero?

Isn't draft zero basically just draft one? That’s the question. It can be. You can call it what you like. For me, draft zero refers to the first words you put on the page when trying to tell your story. By words on the page, I don't mean the plan, I mean the first attempt at writing the story itself. The way that we can think about this is that a draft zero, in a way, is somewhere between an outline and a first draft.

You can think of an outline as being a plan — a scene by scene breakdown — or even just vague notes about where you think the story's going to go. As I'm sure we can all agree, plans can be a varying length and complexity. Some people don't have a plan at all, and they completely “pants” the book — they just write with no real idea where it's going to go. Other people have quite lengthy plans. It can be a series of bullet points. I know one very successful multi-bestselling author who told me that she writes 90 page plans for each of her books and the books are only 300 pages. So his plan is a third of the length of the book. It can vary hugely what you would call the outline or the plan of the book.

Then the first draft would, in my formulation of it, tend to have all of the basic elements in place. There'll be an attempt at making the writing good, not as good as it can be, perhaps not as good as it will be by the time that you've been through the complete drafting process, but there'll be an attempt at doing good writing even though it probably does need some restructuring and revision. Between those two extremes — a very rough outline and a well-written or an attempted well-written draft — you've got draft zero. 

For some people, a draft zero is very rough. It's not really much more than an extended outline, but unlike an outline, it will contain scenes, breaks, dialogue, description, so it will kind of flow and tell the story. It just might not be very good. For example, a draft zero will contain typos and cliches, things that crucially, even as you are writing them down, you know will almost certainly be changed, but you write them anyway rather than stopping and changing them in an attempt to make it a polished draft.

Draft zero a less polished first draft or an unpolished first draft, if you like. For me, that's the big distinction: draft zero will contain lots of things that even as you write them, you know they're going to change. 

My draft zero, for example, is actually reasonably polished. There's an attempt at decent writing, but it will definitely contain things that I'm not sure about yet, that I think will have to change, that I know is a tired cliche phrase, that is not what I want to include in the final draft. It'll also contain endless notes to self. I'll usually use square brackets, sometimes asterisks, sometimes just capitalize or highlight. Just make a note like, this will need to be developed later or this character should be called Dave. There'll be things that are occurring to me as I write that I'll make note of because I need to go back and change it or I need to remember to pick up in future writing sessions.

Why is it called draft zero?

So why do we call it a draft zero? Why not just call that a draft one and say the draft one is really rough and then draft two starts to get a bit better and drafts three and four are improving? 

I personally call it draft zero because it's a way that I trick my brain into believing that this stuff doesn't matter. I think that's one of the most crucial things about this initial draft of a book — just getting the words onto the page so you can then fix them. It's a cliche thing to say that a blank page is scary, but it kind of is. I think if you can get some words on a page, even if they're not very good ones, and even if as you write them, you know they're not going to end up in a finished book or a finished story or a finished draft, the blank page becomes less scary. It's got stuff on it. It's not blank anymore.

I like to think of it as being a  bit like an artist would stretch their canvas or would mix their paints before they start to paint their masterpiece. I think it's the same for me for the draft zero. The draft zero is just getting things ready. It's getting my material together. The crucial thing that I would like you to take away from this talk is that you should write the draft zero knowing no one will see it. You can be as bad and terrible as you like, you can write ridiculous notes to yourself knowing that no one is ever going to see them. 

As I said before, that's why The Experiment feels very scary for me, because I'm going to let people see it. But I'm hoping that people will get something from that.

Other people have different tricks in order to trick or convince themselves that this is not an important draft. For example, I know that DBC Pierre, who wrote a book called Vernon God Little which won the Booker Prize, writes his initial drafts under a different name. He creates a document with a different author name as a way of convincing or tricking himself into thinking it's nothing to do with him. 

Whatever works for you works to give yourself that freedom to write without fear of judgment. Because let's face it, as authors, we judge ourselves harshly enough. It's a good idea to not encourage judgment from other people. 

Why do we need a draft zero?

Why do we need to create this draft zero? Why is it so important? This ties in with this distinction to be made between separating the writing from the editing.

Writing and editing use different parts of the brain. What we want to do when we are writing is tell ourselves the story and get it out. For me, the holy grail of that is when we can get into what's called “flow.” Now, you probably all have an idea of what we mean by flow, but I like to think of it as what some people call “being in the zone.”

Hopefully, we've all experienced it at one time or another. For me, it's when you become fully immersed in an activity. When I become fully immersed in the writing, the work that I'm doing, I'm not noticing distractions.

I think for most people it's a difficult state to achieve, of truly being in the zone. But when you do get there, it's a great feeling. You realize that it’s been 90 minutes and you’ve not really looked up from your notepad or your computer and you haven't noticed the passing of time.

It's that feeling that every action and thought seems to flow very effortlessly from the previous one without very much conscious brain use. Of course, we are using our brains. In many ways we’re using them to a maximum capability, but it doesn't feel so conscious. It's a much more subconscious process. 

It strikes me sometimes that this is when people talk about the muse. When writing is going very well for me, it almost feels as though the story exists out there in the ether and I'm just the conduit. I'm giving it a form but I'm not actually inventing it. Of course, that's not true, but that's when you are really in flow. That's the state that we're trying to achieve, when it just feels as though it's flooding out of us and the story is coming almost quicker than we can type or write.

I think that's when we are really being creative. When I am in that state of flow, that's when I will find surprising things happening with the work. The brain will throw things up that I hadn't been anticipating. It's when I'm most likely to deviate from any plan that I've written. 

For example, in my first book, Before I Go to Sleep, I remember there being an entire plot twist or a whole plot arc that just came from nowhere. Something I wasn't anticipating was just suddenly there on the page. That's a wonderful feeling when that does happen, and that's what we're trying to do.

But that only happens when the area of our brain called the prefrontal cortex is less engaged. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that takes care of the higher cognitive processes. These include things like self-reflection and analytical thinking.

You can probably see where this is going. We need to disengage the prefrontal cortex in order to be able to enter this state of flow. That means disengaging the parts of our brain that are analyzing, that are doing that kind of analytical assessment of the work.

To oversimplify, we can really think of it as the left hand side of the brain is the logical part and the right is the more creative part. You can think of it in terms of being the left is for editing and the right is for creating.

Although we can switch between left and right relatively easily — we do it all the time in our day-to-day lives — when you are working, switching between left brain to right brain, creating to editing, editing back to creating, does slow us down. One analogy that I really like is that it's like trying to drive a car with one foot on the gas pedal and the other foot on the brake. We are trying to move forward and at the same time trying to slow down, which is obviously not going to be very helpful and we decrease, or even reduce to zero, our chance of ever reaching that state of flow, which is what we are trying to get into. 

What I'm really saying is this draft zero is something that we want to create, even though it probably will contain lots and lots of bad writing. One of the things I truly believe is you have to give yourself permission to write badly. I think we should be striving to write well. If you've got a great idea and a great image in your head, you should, even in your draft zero, be trying to write it as well as you can.

If that's not happening, and it doesn't really seem to be going that well, and you don't feel particularly comfortable with the work you're doing, and even as you are writing it you are thinking, “oh, this isn't very good” — stick with it. Resist the effort to stop, to switch brain hemispheres, to go into analytical mode, to start correcting things, to think too deeply about what you're doing, because that's going to decrease your chance of reaching that point where it starts to flow seemingly effortlessly.

I think it's worth remembering that when you read something which moves you or you think is brilliant or just feels perfect in some way, unlike when you look at a painting or listen to a piece of music, you can’t see or hear the effort. You can see the detail of the brushstrokes or you can hear the way the chords move together. With almost any other piece of art or creative work, when you experience it you also are very aware of the effort, time, and energy that's gone into it and the skill that it's taken to produce that thing. Whereas it's slightly different with writing because when you read a piece of writing that moves you or that seems to create an image in your head, when it's good it feels like there is no other way that that piece, image, thought, or idea has ever been expressed or could ever be expressed.

The irony is that when you read a great book, story, or essay, it feels like it's a first draft. It feels like it just fell out of Stephen King's or Margaret Atwood’s head onto the page. It's a really, really crucial thing to remember that nothing we read is ever a first draft. Even people who say their first drafts are very clean will still need their work to be polished and edited. At the very least, there’ll be typos, but more likely there’ll be cliches or more obvious mistakes that need to be taken out and re-worked, revised, and polished. 

Just remember that when you read something that's been published in whatever form, it's never a first draft. It's always been edited. In many cases the initial draft of it was not very good. 

Books are made in the edit. Stories are made in the edit. That's when the raw material approaches its final form. 

How to write a draft zero

How you go about this is up to you and different people do different things. Some people will write a whole draft zero from the beginning to the end. Then, they begin to revise, polish, and edit the whole thing. I know some people's draft zeros are a third of the length of the final book because they'd skim over things that they're not quite sure about yet. They don't put as much description in as they ultimately might or some of the dialogue might not be there at all. I know one author in particular that if she hits a stage in her book when two characters have to, for example, have an argument, she'll just write “big argument here” knowing that means that she can get on with telling the story. Then in the next draft, she can flesh out that argument when she knows the characters a little bit better. Whatever works for you works. 

Some people will write a whole draft and then edit it. Other people might write a draft zero of chapter one and then edit chapter one, and then when chapter one feels that it's done, then write a draft zero of chapter two and then edit chapter two and so on. Or you can go section by section, 50 pages by 50 pages. The crucial thing in all of this is not to write and edit in the same session.

If you are writing, write. Get the ideas out, get the words onto the page. I'm not saying rush it, I'm not saying type as quickly as you can. I'm saying type as quickly as you need to. Even if as you are typing you're aware that the line you just wrote doesn't belong there, it belongs at the beginning of the paragraph, or even the scene that you've in the middle of typing actually should have happened 3000 words ago, don't move it. Resist the temptation to move the chapter, scene, line, or even the word. 

I find it difficult to do this, but if you can, I wouldn't even correct typos. I type quite quickly, but I find it hard not to go back and retype the word so it's spelled correctly. As long as you can read it, as long as when you come to it you know what word you meant, it doesn't really matter. Just push on. 

At this point, the crucial thing is to be enjoying it. Writing is hard. But it's also supposed to be fun, at least some of the time. If you can get into flow and lose yourself in the story that you are writing, who cares if you've misspelled a word here or there or if you've used a cliche when something else could be better. If you can tell the story and get the words down, that’s great.

If you don't take anything else from this part of my talk, just remember a page of bad writing is better than a hundred pages of no writing. You can work with a page of rubbish, whereas if you've got nothing, you've got nothing. You're starting from scratch. So do give yourself permission to write really badly.

Tips and tricks for writing a draft zero

I also wanted to talk about things that you can do if you feel that the work is straying off course a little bit, if you're struggling to get into the flow, or if you're losing your enthusiasm for the work. We all go through stages where just dragging ourselves to the desk or to the notepad feels like an effort and we'd rather be doing anything else.

If you're going through a prolonged period of time where you are just not feeling it, it can be a good idea to take a step back and look at why that might be. Sometimes it's just because you're in the middle of a book. What can often happen is that when you've just started a new project, especially if it's a novel length piece of work, it feels new, it feels exciting, the ideas are there. You can't wait to get them down. It can be easier to get into that stage of flow and switch off your inner editor. At the end, you’re often thinking, “I'm nearly done,” and you've got that renewed burst of enthusiasm. But if you are in the middle, it can be a bit sludgy.

I call it the sludgy middle bit, which is not particularly poetic, but I think it creates the right image for me. It could just be that you're stuck in the middle, but if the work is resisting, if you're struggling to get into flow, if you're struggling to switch off the editor, maybe something isn't right. Maybe it's the work telling you that something isn't right. 

There are a few things you can do. Go back to where you felt that the work was flowing, where you felt it was easier to create, to achieve that state of flow. Often, deep down, you know where you went wrong. You might not want to admit it to yourself. It might be difficult to pinpoint exactly, but deep down you often will know more or less where you took a wrong turn. Start again from there or go back there at least. I find it really helpful to just free-write about why I feel I'm stuck, what seems to be happening, and why I am reluctant to pick up my pen. If you can excuse the cliche, free writing can unlock something.

It's a really good idea sometimes to get away from your desk. When I'm struggling, I very rarely have a breakthrough while I'm sitting at my desk. It's when I've given up, and I'm washing up or walking the dog or cooking, that's when the answer to my question will come to me. 

If you can, do something that's creative and absorbing, something that does occupy your brain, but that’s very different from the work you're doing. You're not thinking about the characters you’re writing about, you're not thinking about the plot point that you're stuck on, you're doing something very different that can help you to switch off that editor. Because, let's face it, the editor is the part of your brain that's going, “This isn't very good. You need to do better.” That's the part of the brain that you need to switch off. 

How to get into the flow

The last thing I'm going to talk about is some practical ways that you can get into the zone or get into flow where you're just creating and not editing if you’re struggling to do that. These are some practical tips that I've come across that can help you remain within the writing side of the brain, which is the right hand side. How can we stop ourselves from being tempted to edit as we go, which is what we shouldn't be doing. 

There is a program called Write or Die, which I've used in the past and is a bit hardcore, but I think it gives you the idea of what we're trying to achieve here. It's software which will start to delete words from the beginning of the piece if you leave too long a gap between writing two words. It's a bit brutal. It's the equivalent of forcing you to keep your pen in contact with the page and be continually writing words. That's one quite extreme method, but there are others that I've also found a little bit less scary because that can actually put me in a state of panic with the need to write my next word before I lose one.

It sounds very strange, but there are two things that I do, and the first is I switch my screen off. Especially if you use an external monitor with a laptop, it can be very helpful to turn the brightness down. Either switch the screen off or turn the brightness down. That then means you literally can't see what you are writing, so you don't know you've just misspelled the word “particular.” It forces you to push on. You can't look back and go, “Well, actually that paragraph should be at the top there and this paragraph, which was at the beginning, should be at the bottom." You can't do that cause you can't see it. It forces you to remain in that creative mindset of just getting words out there.

Similar, if not perhaps quite as hardcore or as brutal as that, I quite often make the text huge. I'm not talking about quite big, I mean huge , so it's almost filling the screen. That's another way that it forces you to focus solely on the words that you are writing because you can't easily look back and see what you wrote a paragraph ago. Obviously, when you are editing, this would be a terrible position to be in, but when you are writing that's the ideal position to be in. When you are not looking and analyzing where you've been, you're just concentrating on pushing forward. 

Switching the screen off or making the text very large can help. There are two other things that I can recommend. 

I use Focus quite a lot, which is a feature in a lot of Apple products. It’s essentially a way of blocking distractions. This is slightly different because it's not so much about keeping the editing brain at bay. It's really about keeping all distractions at bay. Focus or whatever the equivalent is on the system you use, is a way to switch off your phone. It's making sure you don't get WhatsApp messages or text messages or phone calls unless they're very important. If there's a way that you can cut out those distractions, that can also make it easier to get into the flow state where the editor disappears. 

There's also something called the Pomodoro technique, which you may have come across. For 20 minutes, you are going to do nothing else but the thing that you're engaged in. For us, of course, it's writing. After 20 minutes, the timer goes off and you have a five minute break, and then it's another 20 minutes. There are different ways of doing it, but some people will do three or four of those 20 minute bursts with five minute breaks, and then they're allowed a 15 minute break.

I find that beneficial because I can tell myself much more easily, “I'm just going to write without editing for 20 minutes.” Then after 20 minutes, I can have a break and then I can edit if I want for 20 minutes. It's just a way of dividing the time up, so you are very clear about whether you are editing or writing.

The last one, which many of you may do anyway, and is probably the easiest of all these techniques to try to stop yourself from editing as you go, is actually handwriting. I find that very helpful because you can't go back and delete a word or cut and paste this line from the beginning of the paragraph and move it to the end of the paragraph. The nearest I get to editing when I'm handwriting is drawing a circle around a line and then doing an arrow. Meaning even as I'm writing this, I know this should have gone earlier.

It's much easier to just keep the flow when you are handwriting and you haven't got that temptation, because you haven't got the ability to delete, to cut, to edit, to paste. So at a very basic level, if this is something you struggle with —just getting the words down — I would hand write them and give yourself permission to hand write badly, to rush through a draft. You might find that when you read it back the next day or the next week, 95% of what you wrote isn't very good and needs a lot of polishing, but I think you're more likely to find that the 5% will contain something you may well not have come up with had you been trying to edit and write at the same time and basically working with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator.

That's my advice. Do whatever it takes to decide whether you are doing a session of writing or a session of editing, and then do whatever it takes to stay in one or the other. It's easier to stay in editing than it is in writing because the temptation's always there to edit. 

That's my talk. There's much more on my Substack newsletter, as I said. Do join in with The Experiment. My goal with The Experiment is to give you an idea of what this means in practice, what I mean by bad writing.

Similar Writing and Editing events

First Line Frenzy™ #9: An Editor Reviews Your Opening Line

Becca Heyman is back to critique your story's opening sentence.

Is Your Story Idea Any Good? (with SJ Watson)

Learn how to find those rare ideas with the potential to be novels.

Using Poetry to Become a Better Writer

Learn how it poetry can elevate your novels, short stories, and non-fiction books.

Join a community of over 1 million authors

Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.

Bring your publishing dreams to life

The world's best freelance editors, designers, and marketers are on Reedsy. Sign up for free and meet them TODAY.

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Enter your email or get started with a social account:

Essay on Zero Hunger

Students are often asked to write an essay on Zero Hunger in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Zero Hunger

Understanding zero hunger.

Zero Hunger is a global aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition. It’s one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.

Why is Zero Hunger Important?

Hunger leads to malnutrition, which can cause health problems. Achieving Zero Hunger means ensuring everyone has enough nutritious food, promoting better health.

How Can We Achieve Zero Hunger?

We can contribute by reducing food waste, supporting local farmers, and promoting sustainable farming. Everyone’s effort counts towards achieving Zero Hunger.

Also check:

• 10 Lines on Zero Hunger

250 Words Essay on Zero Hunger

Introduction to zero hunger.

Zero Hunger, a critical initiative of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aims to eradicate all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. It emphasizes the necessity of a comprehensive approach, focusing on sustainable food production, improved nutrition, and increased agricultural productivity.

The Imperative of Zero Hunger

The urgency of Zero Hunger is underscored by the stark reality that nearly 690 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night. The situation is exacerbated by factors such as climate change, economic disparities, and global pandemics. Achieving Zero Hunger is not merely about addressing hunger, but also about ensuring health, stimulating economic growth, and preserving our planet.

Strategies for Achieving Zero Hunger

Achieving Zero Hunger requires a multifaceted strategy. Sustainable agriculture, for instance, is a key pillar, promoting efficient use of resources and reducing the impact on the environment. Additionally, fostering resilient agricultural practices can help communities withstand climate-related shocks and natural disasters.

Challenges and the Way Forward

Despite the clear roadmap, the journey to Zero Hunger is riddled with obstacles. These include political instability, resource constraints, and the complexity of coordinating global efforts. Overcoming these challenges necessitates robust global cooperation, innovative solutions, and unwavering commitment.

In conclusion, Zero Hunger is an ambitious yet achievable goal. It demands collective action, sustained commitment, and innovative strategies. As we move towards a world free of hunger, we also pave the way for a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable future.

500 Words Essay on Zero Hunger

Introduction.

Zero Hunger is a global initiative aimed at eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2030. It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. The objective of Zero Hunger goes beyond addressing hunger, to include the commitment to ensure access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round for everyone.

Understanding the Zero Hunger Challenge

The Zero Hunger challenge is an ambitious goal that requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex issues surrounding food security. It is not simply about increasing food production, but rather creating a sustainable food system that can feed every person on the planet. It involves improving food quality, reducing food waste, promoting sustainable agriculture, and tackling the root causes of hunger such as poverty, inequality, and conflict.

The Importance of Zero Hunger

Achieving Zero Hunger is crucial for the health and wellbeing of individuals and societies. Malnutrition and hunger are linked to poor physical and mental health, lower educational attainment, and reduced economic productivity. Moreover, hunger perpetuates a cycle of poverty and inequality, as those who are malnourished often struggle to work and learn, further limiting their opportunities. Therefore, eradicating hunger is not just a moral imperative, but also a necessary step towards achieving sustainable development and social justice.

Challenges in Achieving Zero Hunger

Despite the global commitment to Zero Hunger, progress has been slow and uneven. Conflict, climate change, and economic downturns are among the major barriers to achieving this goal. For instance, climate change threatens food production through increased droughts, floods, and storms, while conflict disrupts food distribution and access. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity, pushing millions more into hunger.

Strategies to Achieve Zero Hunger

Achieving Zero Hunger requires a multifaceted approach. This includes promoting sustainable agricultural practices, reducing food waste, improving food distribution systems, and implementing social protection schemes for the vulnerable. Education and public awareness are also crucial to change consumption patterns and reduce waste. Furthermore, international cooperation and peacebuilding are needed to address the global challenges that threaten food security.

Zero Hunger is a vital goal that demands urgent and collective action. It requires not only addressing immediate food needs, but also tackling the root causes of hunger and building a sustainable food system. While the challenges are immense, the potential benefits of achieving Zero Hunger – healthier populations, stronger economies, and more equitable societies – make it a goal worth striving for. As global citizens, we all have a role to play in achieving Zero Hunger and creating a world where everyone has access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on YouTube
• Essay on Youth Violence
• Essay on Youth Sports

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Trusted GPT-4, ChatGPT and AI Detector tool by ZeroGPT

Zerogpt the most advanced and reliable chat gpt, gpt4 & ai content detector.

Simple and Credible Open AI and Bard detector tool for Free

Highlighted Sentences

Every sentence written by AI is highlighted, with a gauge showing the percentage of AI inside the text

Batch Files Upload

Simply upload multiple files at once, and they will get checked automatically in the dashboard

High Accuracy Model

Advanced and premium model, trained on all languages to provide highly accurate results

Generated Report

Automatically generated .pdf reports for every detection, used as a proof of AI-Free plagiarism

Support All Languages

Support all the languages with the highest accuracy rate of detection

Our team has developed a user-friendly API for organizations. Get API access

DeepAnalyse™ Technology

A pioneering research in the modeling of AI content detection Our AI detection model includes several components that analyze text to determine its origin and if it was written by AI. We use a multi-stage methodology designed to optimize accuracy while minimizing false positives and negatives. From the macro level to the micro one, this is how DeepAnalyse™ Technology works. Our model specializes in identifying AI generated content like Chat GPT, GPT 3, GPT 4, Bard, LLaMa models … Finally, we employ a comprehensive deep learning methodology, trained on extensive text collections from the internet, educational datasets, and our proprietary synthetic AI datasets produced using various language models.

Fix grammar and spelling mistakes, detect AI plagiarism, check for plagiarism, generate citations, advanced word counter, powerful summarizer and paraphraser

Your questions, answered

Check our blog created with the help of ai.

• CBSE Class 10th
• CBSE Class 12th
• UP Board 10th
• UP Board 12th
• Bihar Board 10th
• Bihar Board 12th
• Top Schools in India
• Top Schools in Delhi
• Top Schools in Mumbai
• Top Schools in Chennai
• Top Schools in Hyderabad
• Top Schools in Kolkata
• Top Schools in Pune
• Top Schools in Bangalore

Products & Resources

• JEE Main Knockout April
• Free Sample Papers
• Free Ebooks
• NCERT Notes
• NCERT Syllabus
• NCERT Books
• RD Sharma Solutions
• Navodaya Vidyalaya Admission 2024-25
• NCERT Solutions
• NCERT Solutions for Class 12
• NCERT Solutions for Class 11
• NCERT solutions for Class 10
• NCERT solutions for Class 9
• NCERT solutions for Class 8
• NCERT Solutions for Class 7
• JEE Main 2024
• MHT CET 2024
• JEE Advanced 2024
• BITSAT 2024
• View All Engineering Exams
• Colleges Accepting B.Tech Applications
• Top Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Engineering Colleges Accepting JEE Main
• Top IITs in India
• Top NITs in India
• Top IIITs in India
• JEE Main College Predictor
• JEE Main Rank Predictor
• MHT CET College Predictor
• AP EAMCET College Predictor
• GATE College Predictor
• KCET College Predictor
• JEE Advanced College Predictor
• View All College Predictors
• JEE Main Question Paper
• JEE Main Cutoff
• JEE Main Answer Key
• JEE Main Result
• Download E-Books and Sample Papers
• Compare Colleges
• B.Tech College Applications
• JEE Advanced Registration
• MAH MBA CET Exam
• View All Management Exams

Colleges & Courses

• MBA College Admissions
• MBA Colleges in India
• Top IIMs Colleges in India
• Top Online MBA Colleges in India
• MBA Colleges Accepting XAT Score
• BBA Colleges in India
• XAT College Predictor 2024
• SNAP College Predictor
• NMAT College Predictor
• MAT College Predictor 2024
• CMAT College Predictor 2024
• CAT Percentile Predictor 2023
• CAT 2023 College Predictor
• CMAT 2024 Registration
• TS ICET 2024 Registration
• CMAT Exam Date 2024
• MAH MBA CET Cutoff 2024
• Download Helpful Ebooks
• List of Popular Branches
• QnA - Get answers to your doubts
• IIM Fees Structure
• AIIMS Nursing
• Top Medical Colleges in India
• Top Medical Colleges in India accepting NEET Score
• Medical Colleges accepting NEET
• List of Medical Colleges in India
• List of AIIMS Colleges In India
• Medical Colleges in Maharashtra
• Medical Colleges in India Accepting NEET PG
• NEET College Predictor
• NEET PG College Predictor
• NEET MDS College Predictor
• DNB CET College Predictor
• DNB PDCET College Predictor
• NEET Application Form 2024
• NEET PG Application Form 2024
• NEET Cut off
• NEET Online Preparation
• Download Helpful E-books
• LSAT India 2024
• Colleges Accepting Admissions
• Top Law Colleges in India
• Law College Accepting CLAT Score
• List of Law Colleges in India
• Top Law Colleges in Delhi
• Top Law Collages in Indore
• Top Law Colleges in Chandigarh
• Top Law Collages in Lucknow

Predictors & E-Books

• CLAT College Predictor
• MHCET Law ( 5 Year L.L.B) College Predictor
• AILET College Predictor
• Sample Papers
• Compare Law Collages
• Careers360 Youtube Channel
• CLAT Syllabus 2025
• CLAT Previous Year Question Paper
• AIBE 18 Result 2023
• NID DAT Exam
• Pearl Academy Exam

Animation Courses

• Animation Courses in India
• Animation Courses in Bangalore
• Animation Courses in Mumbai
• Animation Courses in Pune
• Animation Courses in Chennai
• Animation Courses in Hyderabad
• Design Colleges in India
• Fashion Design Colleges in Bangalore
• Fashion Design Colleges in Mumbai
• Fashion Design Colleges in Pune
• Fashion Design Colleges in Delhi
• Fashion Design Colleges in Hyderabad
• Fashion Design Colleges in India
• Top Design Colleges in India
• Free Design E-books
• List of Branches
• Careers360 Youtube channel
• NIFT College Predictor
• UCEED College Predictor
• NID DAT College Predictor
• IPU CET BJMC
• JMI Mass Communication Entrance Exam
• IIMC Entrance Exam
• Media & Journalism colleges in Delhi
• Media & Journalism colleges in Bangalore
• Media & Journalism colleges in Mumbai
• List of Media & Journalism Colleges in India
• CA Intermediate
• CA Foundation
• CS Executive
• CS Professional
• Difference between CA and CS
• Difference between CA and CMA
• CA Full form
• CMA Full form
• CS Full form
• CA Salary In India

Top Courses & Careers

• Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com)
• Master of Commerce (M.Com)
• Company Secretary
• Cost Accountant
• Charted Accountant
• Credit Manager
• Financial Advisor
• Top Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Government Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Private Commerce Colleges in India
• Top M.Com Colleges in Mumbai
• Top B.Com Colleges in India
• IT Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• IT Colleges in Uttar Pradesh
• MCA Colleges in India
• BCA Colleges in India

Quick Links

• Information Technology Courses
• Programming Courses
• Web Development Courses
• Data Analytics Courses
• Big Data Analytics Courses
• RUHS Pharmacy Admission Test
• Top Pharmacy Colleges in India
• Pharmacy Colleges in Pune
• Pharmacy Colleges in Mumbai
• Colleges Accepting GPAT Score
• Pharmacy Colleges in Lucknow
• List of Pharmacy Colleges in Nagpur
• GPAT Result
• GPAT 2024 Admit Card
• GPAT Question Papers
• NCHMCT JEE 2024
• Mah BHMCT CET
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Delhi
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Hyderabad
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Mumbai
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Maharashtra
• B.Sc Hotel Management
• Hotel Management
• Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology

Diploma Colleges

• Top Diploma Colleges in Maharashtra
• UPSC IAS 2024
• SSC CGL 2024
• IBPS RRB 2024
• Previous Year Sample Papers
• Free Competition E-books
• Sarkari Result
• QnA- Get your doubts answered
• UPSC Previous Year Sample Papers
• CTET Previous Year Sample Papers
• SBI Clerk Previous Year Sample Papers
• NDA Previous Year Sample Papers

Upcoming Events

• NDA Application Form 2024
• UPSC IAS Application Form 2024
• CDS Application Form 2024
• CTET Admit card 2024
• HP TET Result 2023
• SSC GD Constable Admit Card 2024
• UPTET Notification 2024
• SBI Clerk Result 2024

Other Exams

• SSC CHSL 2024
• UP PCS 2024
• UGC NET 2024
• RRB NTPC 2024
• IBPS PO 2024
• IBPS Clerk 2024
• IBPS SO 2024
• Top University in USA
• Top University in Canada
• Top University in Ireland
• Top Universities in UK
• Top Universities in Australia
• Best MBA Colleges in Abroad
• Business Management Studies Colleges

Top Countries

• Study in USA
• Study in UK
• Study in Canada
• Study in Australia
• Study in Ireland
• Study in Germany
• Study in China
• Study in Europe

Student Visas

• Student Visa Canada
• Student Visa UK
• Student Visa USA
• Student Visa Australia
• Student Visa Germany
• Student Visa New Zealand
• Student Visa Ireland
• CUET PG 2024
• IGNOU B.Ed Admission 2024
• DU Admission 2024
• UP B.Ed JEE 2024
• LPU NEST 2024
• IIT JAM 2024
• IGNOU Online Admission 2024
• Universities in India
• Top Universities in India 2024
• Top Colleges in India
• Top Universities in Uttar Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Bihar
• Top Universities in Madhya Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Tamil Nadu 2024
• Central Universities in India
• CUET Exam City Intimation Slip 2024
• IGNOU Date Sheet
• CUET Mock Test 2024
• CUET Admit card 2024
• CUET PG Syllabus 2024
• CUET Participating Universities 2024
• CUET Previous Year Question Paper
• CUET Syllabus 2024 for Science Students
• E-Books and Sample Papers
• CUET Exam Pattern 2024
• CUET Exam Date 2024
• CUET Syllabus 2024
• IGNOU Exam Form 2024
• IGNOU Result
• CUET Courses List 2024

Engineering Preparation

• Knockout JEE Main 2024
• Test Series JEE Main 2024
• JEE Main 2024 Rank Booster

Medical Preparation

• Knockout NEET 2024
• Test Series NEET 2024
• Rank Booster NEET 2024

Online Courses

• JEE Main One Month Course
• NEET One Month Course
• IBSAT Free Mock Tests
• IIT JEE Foundation Course
• Knockout BITSAT 2024
• Career Guidance Tool

Top Streams

• IT & Software Certification Courses
• Engineering and Architecture Certification Courses
• Programming And Development Certification Courses
• Business and Management Certification Courses
• Marketing Certification Courses
• Health and Fitness Certification Courses
• Design Certification Courses

Specializations

• Digital Marketing Certification Courses
• Cyber Security Certification Courses
• Artificial Intelligence Certification Courses
• Business Analytics Certification Courses
• Data Science Certification Courses
• Cloud Computing Certification Courses
• Machine Learning Certification Courses
• View All Certification Courses
• UG Degree Courses
• PG Degree Courses
• Short Term Courses
• Free Courses
• Online Degrees and Diplomas
• Compare Courses

Top Providers

• Coursera Courses
• Udemy Courses
• Edx Courses
• Swayam Courses
• upGrad Courses
• Simplilearn Courses
• Great Learning Courses

Access premium articles, webinars, resources to make the best decisions for career, course, exams, scholarships, study abroad and much more with

Plan, Prepare & Make the Best Career Choices

Our Aim Zero Harm Essay

Zero harm is an important concept that has gained widespread acceptance across various industries. The aim of zero harm is to eliminate accidents, injuries, and illnesses in the workplace. Here are some sample essays on ‘our aim zero harm’.

• 100 Words Essay on Our Aim Zero Harm

The idea of ‘our aim zero harm’ is to create a culture of safety where everyone is responsible for their own safety and the safety of others around them. The aim of zero harm is a noble and worthwhile goal that should be pursued by every organisation.

It is difficult to achieve zero harm, and it takes a team effort from everyone involved in the workplace. Organisations must prioritise safety and integrate it into all aspects of their operations in order to achieve zero damage. Companies need to create solid safety rules and procedures, provide their staff the necessary training, and spend money on infrastructure and equipment for safety.

200 Words Essay on Our Aim Zero Harm

500 words essay on our aim zero harm, importance of our aim zero harm.

Achieving zero harm requires a collective effort from everyone involved in the workplace, and it is not an easy task.

Achieving zero harm has several advantages. It assists in lowering the monetary costs of workplace accidents, including medical bills, workers' compensation claims, and lost productivity. Also, it helps to boost the organisation's credibility and reputation, which may result in more commercial possibilities and higher staff morale.

However, achieving zero harm is not just about reducing costs or enhancing the organisation's reputation. It is about valuing human life and ensuring that everyone goes home safe and healthy at the end of each workday. Every employee has the right to a safe workplace, and it is the responsibility of every employer to provide it.

Significance

The significance of our aim zero harm cannot be overstated.

Sustainability | Achieving zero harm is essential for sustainability. A safe workplace can help to reduce the environmental impact of the organisation's operations. This can help to ensure the long-term viability of the organisation and its activities.

The protection of human life, the reduction of costs, the enhancement of reputation, the fulfilment of legal obligations, the enhancement of production, and the promotion of sustainability all depend on attaining zero harm. Organisations may develop a culture of safety and reach the objective of zero harm by giving safety a high priority and integrating it into daily operations.

The concept of zero harm has evolved over time and has its roots in the safety movement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

History of The Evolution of The Concept of Zero Harm

The Safety Movement | The safety movement began in the late 19th century, and its goal was to improve workplace safety. The movement led to the creation of safety laws and regulations, which required employers to provide a safe working environment for their employees.

The Zero Accident Vision | The idea of the zero accident vision first appeared in the 1930s. The premise was that every accident could be avoided, and the objective was to have no workplace accidents. Later, this idea was expanded to encompass both diseases and injuries in addition to accidents.

The Zero Harm Vision | In the 1990s, the concept of zero harm emerged. The goal of zero harm was to eliminate all harm to employees, contractors, and the public. This concept was more comprehensive than the zero accident vision, as it included harm from illnesses and diseases.

Implementation of Zero Harm | Several organisations have embraced the idea of zero harm in recent years and incorporated it into their safety procedures. As a result, there have been much fewer workplace accidents, illnesses, and injuries.

The idea of zero harm is now generally recognised across many industries, and many organisations have declared achieving zero harm their mission. The goal is to establish a culture of safety in which each individual is accountable for both their personal safety and the safety of others around them.

The importance of our aim zero harm cannot be overstated. Here are some reasons why achieving zero harm is crucial:

Protecting Human Life | The preservation of human life serves as the primary motivation for seeking zero harm. Every employee has a legal right to a secure working environment, and employers are tasked with ensuring that this is the case. We can guarantee that no one is injured or loses their life as a result of a working accident by attaining zero harm.

Reducing Financial Costs | Workplace accidents can be costly for businesses. They can result in medical expenses, workers' compensation claims, and lost productivity. Achieving zero harm can help organisations save money by reducing the financial impact of workplace accidents.

Enhancing Reputation | Organisations that put safety first and aim for zero damage can improve their trust and image. This may result in more prospects for the company and higher staff morale.

Compliance | Achieving zero harm can help organisations comply with legal and regulatory requirements. It can also help them maintain a positive relationship with regulatory bodies and avoid penalties.

Productivity | A safe workplace promotes productivity. Employees are more likely to be productive and perform better when they feel protected and secure. Hence, achieving zero damage might result in increased productivity and better financial results.

The protection of human life, cost savings, reputational enhancement, legal compliance, and increased productivity all depend on attaining zero damage. Organisations may develop a culture of safety and reach the objective of zero harm by giving safety a high priority and integrating it into daily operations.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

• Construction
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Information Technology

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

Applications for Admissions are open.

Aakash iACST Scholarship Test 2024

Get up to 90% scholarship on NEET, JEE & Foundation courses

JEE Main Important Chemistry formulas

As per latest 2024 syllabus. Chemistry formulas, equations, & laws of class 11 & 12th chapters

ALLEN NEET Coaching

Ace your NEET preparation with ALLEN Online Programs

SAT® | CollegeBoard

Registeration closing on 19th Apr for SAT® | One Test-Many Universities | 90% discount on registrations fee | Free Practice | Multiple Attempts | no penalty for guessing

TOEFL ® Registrations 2024

Thinking of Studying Abroad? Think the TOEFL® test. Register now & Save 10% on English Proficiency Tests with Gift Cards

PTE Exam 2024 Registrations

Register now for PTE & Save 5% on English Proficiency Tests with Gift Cards

Everything about Education

Latest updates, Exclusive Content, Webinars and more.

Download Careers360 App's

Regular exam updates, QnA, Predictors, College Applications & E-books now on your Mobile

Cetifications

We Appeared in

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Our 15th Annual Summer Reading Contest

Students are invited to tell us what they’re reading in The Times and why, this year in writing OR via a 90-second video. Contest dates: June 7 to Aug. 16.

By The Learning Network

The illustrations for this post were originally created by Adolfo Redaño for “ Summer Books 2023 .”

Our Summer Reading Contest is our longest-running challenge — and our simplest.

All you have to do to participate is tell us what you’re reading, watching or listening to in The New York Times and why.

Don’t have a subscription? No problem! We’ll be providing dozens of free links to teen-friendly articles, essays, videos, podcasts and graphics every week from June through August.

And this summer, both to celebrate the contest’s 15th year and to shake things up a bit, we’ll be trying something new: Students can enter as they always have by submitting a short written response — or they can make a video up to 90 seconds long.

Got questions? We have answers. Everything you need is detailed below.

But if you’re a teacher who would like to have your students practice for this now, before the contest begins, note that the only rule around content is that a piece must have been published in 2024. Beyond that, we don’t care if your students pick something on cats , chatbots , the cost of college or the crisis in the Middle East ; Beyoncé , book bans , basketball or banana bread . We just want to hear what they think. To help, we’ve created a special practice forum . Join us!

Have fun, and, as always, post your questions here or write to [email protected].

This announcement is available as a one-page PDF to hang on your class bulletin board.

Here’s what you need to know:

The challenge, rules and guidelines, resources for teachers, students and parents, frequently asked questions, how to submit.

Choose something in The New York Times that got your attention and tell us why — via a short written or video response.

Here’s how the contest works:

Every Friday for 10 weeks beginning on June 7, we will publish a post asking the same question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” That’s where you should submit your response any time until the following Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern, when we will close that post and open a new one that asks the same question. On Aug. 9 we’ll post our final question of the summer, open until 9 a.m. on Aug. 16.

You can enter every week, or any week, all summer long, but you may only submit once each week.

You can always find the proper link to the place to submit at the top of this page, updated each week. Once the contest begins, you can also find it on our home page . Please see the How to Submit section below for more details.

You can choose anything you like that was published in the print paper or on nytimes.com in 2024, including articles, Opinion and guest essays , videos , graphics, photos and podcasts . To see the variety of topics winners have responded to over the years, read this column .

Then tell us what Times piece you chose and why it got your attention via a 250-word essay OR a 90-second video. See the full Rules and Guidelines for each type of response below. We have a contest rubric , as well as a guide for students that details four simple ways to make your response stand out.

We’ll choose winners each week, and every Tuesday during the contest, starting June 25, we’ll publish them in a separate post, which you can find here . All written and video entries will be judged together. We will also celebrate the winners on Facebook.

Please read these rules and guidelines carefully before you make your submissions.

Guidelines for written responses

Your written response should tell us what you read, watched or listened to in The Times and why it got your attention. You can find many examples in this column , which spotlights the work of our previous winners.

This guide walks you through some of the key elements of a great reader response, including making a personal connection to the piece, thinking critically about it, referencing specific details or quotes, and writing in your own unique voice.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Written responses must be no more than 1,500 characters, or about 250 words.

Make sure to i nclude the complete URL or headline of the Times piece you have chosen. For example, “The Joys and Challenges of Caring for Terrance the Octopus” or https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/us/tiktok-octopus-pet-oklahoma.html. Yes, this is included in the word count.

Guidelines for video responses

Just as with written responses, video responses should explain what Times piece you chose and why you chose it. The advice in this guide , while originally created with written responses in mind, can apply to video, as well.

We hope you’ll be creative, but that doesn’t mean your video has to be complicated or use special effects; sometimes simple is best. All you need is yourself and the camera on your phone to make a great video response.

Here are the guidelines:

Use a phone to shoot your video vertically (so it looks like the videos you might see on TikTok or Instagram Reels ).

Your video must be 90 seconds or fewer .

Please be sure to say or show the headline of the Times piece you are discussing.

Your video MAY NOT use any images, video clips, music or sound effects, other than those that appear in the Times piece you are discussing or what you create yourself. We cannot publish your video if it uses any copyrighted images or sounds — including TikTok sounds.

Make sure we can see and hear your video clearly. Pay attention to lighting and try to limit background noise as much as possible if it’s not an intentional part of your video.

Please do not include anyone else in your video. For the most part, we recommend filming only yourself, inanimate objects, animals, or your Times piece. You may film crowds of people in public places, but, to protect people’s privacy, try to avoid any close-ups.

A few additional rules

These rules apply to both written and video responses:

You can participate as often as every week, but we allow only ONE submission per person per week.

Any teenager 13 to 19 years old anywhere in the world is invited to join us , as long as you are in middle or high school, or have graduated from high school in 2024 and haven’t started college yet. See below, How to Submit , for more details.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Teenagers who live in the same household as a Times employee are also ineligible.

The work you submit should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, created by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.

Your work must be original for this contest. That means it should not already have been published at the time of submission, whether in your school newspaper, for another contest, or anywhere else.

Keep in mind that the work you send in should be appropriate for a Times audience — that is, something that could be published in a family newspaper (so, please, no curse words).

For this contest, you must work alone , not in pairs or a group.

Entries must be received by the deadline at 9 a.m. Eastern time each Friday to be considered.

We have created many resources to help students practice for and participate in this contest over the years. Although they were written with the goal of helping students create written responses, many of them can work for video, too.

Writing Resources and Lesson Plans: Our full unit on independent reading and writing has lesson plans, writing prompts and mentor texts that can support students in the kind of thinking we’re asking them to do for this contest.

But, to see how easy this contest is, you might start with “ A Simple Exercise for Encouraging Independent Reading .” We invited four teachers across the country to try a short experiment in which they challenged their students to read a Times article on a topic within their comfort zone, and one article on a topic outside it. In this piece, they and their students reflect on the successful results.

We also have a Student Opinion question that challenges any student to do the same.

Student Mentors: “ Writing Rich Reading Responses: Participating in Our Summer Contest ” showcases a series of student-written mentor texts that demonstrate the four key elements that can make a short response — whether in a written or video format — sing.

You can also read all of the winning student entries from 2017 to the present , including reflections from many participants and judges.

And, check out a video version of our “Annotated by the Author” series (embedded above) in which two student winners of our 2020 contest discuss the “writer’s moves” they made.

Webinars: Teachers, to learn more about this contest and how you can teach with it, watch this free on-demand webinar from 2020 . And, to get ideas for supporting your students’ independent reading and writing, watch this on-demand webinar from 2021 .

Our Rubric: This is the rubric our judges will use to judge this contest. We’re looking for written and video responses that include personal connections, critical thinking, references to the source material, and voice and style.

Q. What kinds of responses are you looking for?

A. The subject matter isn’t important; neither is whether you loved or hated it. What we care about is what you have to say about why you picked it.

If you don’t believe us, scroll through the work of previous winners . They have written on weighty topics like abortion , racism , the war in Ukraine , Alzheimer’s disease , climate change and the dangers of vaping , but they have also covered handbags , hummingbirds , the Minions , text messaging , staycations , power naps, junk food , Wordle , Disney shows, running and bagels.

Whatever the subject, you’ll see that the best responses year after year make personal connections to the news and discuss the broader questions and ideas that the topic raises. We have even created a guide that outlines four simple things you can do to make your responses more powerful. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

So whether you were moved by an article , irked by an essay , bowled over by a photo , or inspired by a video , simply find something in The Times that genuinely interests you and tell us why, as honestly and originally as you can.

Q. Since you now offer the option to respond in video, are you looking for something different in that format?

Short answer: No. Longer answer: We’re excited to see what you come up with! We’ve purposely not put a lot of guidelines around what you can create since a) it’s summer, and we want this to be casual and b) we hope you’ll surprise us and show us what’s possible.

Though at the beginning all our contests focused on writing, in recent years we’ve been trying to encourage other forms of composition and expression. We hope you’ll take a risk and submit in video at least once this summer.

Q. Who will be judging my work?

A. The Learning Network staff, a team of New York Times journalists, along with educators from across the country.

Q. What is the “prize”?

A. The prize for winning any of our contests is having your work published on The Learning Network.

Q. When should I check to see if my submission won?

A. Every Tuesday from June 25 until Aug. 27, we will publish the previous week’s winner or winners in a separate article that you can find here . We will also celebrate the winners on Facebook.

Q. How do I participate in this contest if I don’t have a digital subscription to The Times?

A. All Learning Network posts for students, as well as all Times articles linked from them, are accessible without a digital subscription . So if you use any of the articles we have linked to on our site, they will not be blocked.

Each time we pose our question — “What got your attention in The Times this week?” — we will link to dozens of recent, teen-friendly pieces that you can choose from if you don’t have your own subscription.

You can also find copies of The New York Times at most public libraries, and some even allow you to access NYTimes.com with your library card.

And remember: You can use anything published anytime in 2024.

Q. How do I prove to my teacher that I participated?

A. If you are 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — or 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — and are submitting your written response by posting a comment, make sure to check the box that asks if you would like to be emailed when your comment is published. If you do so, the system will send you a link to your comment, which you can use to show your teacher, your parents, your friends or anyone else you’d like to impress. (Please note that you will not get an email until the comment has been approved, which may take longer over weekends.)

If you are submitting a video response or an adult is submitting a written response on behalf of an eligible student via the embedded form at the bottom of the post, please take a screenshot if a student needs proof that they are participating in the contest. You will not receive a confirmation email.

Another method? Some teachers ask students to keep a Google Doc of all their submissions, while others instruct students to take screenshots of their responses before they hit “submit.”

Q. How can teachers, librarians and parents use this challenge?

A. Our goals for this contest include some that appear on many educators’ lists. We want to help students become more aware of the world and their place in it; learn how to navigate sophisticated nonfiction; and create for a real audience, beyond the classroom. But more than anything else, we just want students to realize that reading the newspaper can be fun.

Through the years, adults have told us over and over that participating in this contest has made their students both more aware of and more interested in what’s going on in the world. Many see it as a low-stakes way to help teenagers start building a news-reading habit.

And, too, at a time when some educators are alarmed by the ability of chatbots to do students’ work for them, this is a contest that rewards the human touch. As our step-by-step guide to participating shows, what we’re looking for are genuine personal connections to the news, explored with voice, style and personality — something A.I. can’t (yet?) do with anywhere near the verve of the teenagers we hear from.

Another reason? For some teachers, assigning the contest over the summer helps them to quickly get to know their new students when school starts. In our related webinar , Karen Gold, English department chair at The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass., details how she uses the contest in this way.

But maybe the most compelling reason to assign this contest is what students themselves say about it. In 2017, Emma Weber, a student from London, posted that, thanks to the contest, “I feel grounded in my views and understand what’s going on in the world. It’s amazing what a change 1,500 characters a week make.” In 2020 we invited Emma to help judge the entries, and here is what she had to say after Week 10:

I know firsthand that the Summer Reading Contest has the ability to change the way one engages in the news — I went from passively reading to actively thinking and questioning. The more you reflect on what is going on in the world and what interests you about it, the more you will understand your place within it. I urge all those who enjoyed participating this summer to continue reading, reflecting and writing.

Thank you for making this contest a hit year after year, and please spread the word that it’s back for its 15th season.

Any 13- to 19-year-old anywhere in the world is invited to join us, if you are in middle or high school, or if you graduated from high school and haven’t yet started college.

Every Friday starting on June 7, we’ll post a fresh version of this question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” We will link to each week’s version at the top of this post. Here is an example from last summer. How you respond to this question will depend on your age and whether you are choosing to respond via writing or video, but all responses will be judged together.

For written responses:

Students ages 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — and ages 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — can submit by posting a comment on the post itself. See the GIF below to see how to do that.

If you are a teacher, parent or guardian of a student or child who is ages 13 to 15 anywhere in the world besides the United States and Britain, then you should submit an entry on the student’s behalf using the form embedded at the bottom of each week’s post.

For video responses:

All students should use the form at the bottom of each week’s post to submit video responses. Students ages 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — and ages 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — can submit their own entries. Students ages 13 to 15 anywhere else in the world must have a parent, teacher or guardian submit on their behalf.

AI Writer : Write Email, Essay 4+

Ai essay writer: writing tools, appzibrain infotech llp, designed for ipad.

• Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description.

Powered by the cutting-edge AI technology, AI Writer generates high-quality content that is tailored to your needs in just seconds. Whether you need to craft a persuasive essay or a professional email, AI Writer has got you covered. Whether you're stuck on an assignment or just need some extra help getting your thoughts down on paper, AI Writer is for you! We understand that writing essays can be a tedious and time-consuming task, especially when you're struggling to come up with ideas or simply don't have the time to write. That's why we've created AI Writer, to help you write smarter, not harder. Our app analyzes your topic and generates a comprehensive essay tailored to your specific needs, saving you time and effort. The process is simple: all you have to do is input your topic, select the type of essay you need, and let our AI technology do the rest. Our AI algorithms will analyze your topic and generate a comprehensive essay that is tailored to your specific needs. 【Writing Features】 - Articles and Outlines: Intelligently generates articles and their outlines, assisting your writing projects. - Creative Writing: Includes compositions, stories, jokes, prose, novels, poetry, fables, scripts, etc. - Academic Research: Papers, experimental reports, research reports, literature reviews, academic book reviews, etc. - Professional Needs: Includes diaries, summaries, reading notes, weekly reports, work plans, personal growth plans, etc. - Multimedia Content: Video scripts, movie scripts, TV drama scripts, podcast scripts, animation scripts, etc. - Business Writing: Trending headlines, news reports, product descriptions, advertising copy, social media content, etc. - Personal Purposes: Travel logs, reflections, lyrics, brand stories, personal records, and thoughts, etc. For more information : Privacy Policy : https://appzibraininfotech.blogspot.com/2024/03/privacy-policy.html Terms of Use : https://appzibraininfotech.blogspot.com/2024/03/terms-of-use.html

App Privacy

The developer, AppziBrain Infotech LLP , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Identifiers

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• writing generator Three Month $19.99
• writing generator One Month $9.99
• writing generator One Week $5.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

More By This Developer

Video AI Art Generator - Maker

Morning Rundown: Tucker Carlson and Trump blamed for Ukraine aid delay, National Enquirer admits making up Ted Cruz father story, loose horses run amok in London

Senior NPR editor resigns after accusing outlet of liberal bias

An editor for National Public Radio resigned Wednesday just days after he inflamed the ongoing culture war about mainstream media with an essay about what he considers the news outlet’s liberal leanings.

Uri Berliner, who was a senior business editor, wrote an essay for the right-leaning online publication The Free Press in which he said he believes NPR is losing the public’s trust. 

NPR, a nonprofit radio network, has an “absence of viewpoint diversity,” he wrote in the essay, which was published April 9. It “has always had a liberal bent,” but now an “open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR,” he wrote.  

The essay triggered a wave of scrutiny of NPR from conservatives, some of whom responded to it with calls to defund the news organization, which receives federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR says on its website that federal funding is “essential” to NPR but that “less than 1% of NPR’s annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments.”

In a resignation statement on X, Berliner briefly elaborated on the reason for his departure, which came days after NPR reported that it had suspended him for five days without pay following the op-ed’s release. 

NPR’s chief business editor, Pallavi Gogoi, had told Berliner about its requirement to secure approval before he appeared in outside media, according to NPR’s report.

“I don’t support calls to defund NPR,” Berliner wrote. “I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism.  But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.” 

Berliner did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. A representative for NPR said it “does not comment on individual personnel matters.” 

Berliner’s essay gained traction on X, with many conservatives homing in on his thoughts about NPR’s political makeup. He wrote: “In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None.” 

He also criticized NPR’s coverage, or lack thereof, of certain stories, such as the Mueller report, Hunter Biden’s laptop, the origins of Covid-19 and systemic racism following the murder of George Floyd.

High-profile supporters of Berliner’s essay, including former President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk, shared criticism of NPR and its CEO, Katherine Maher. 

“NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO ‘DAMAGE TRUMP.’ THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on April 10.

Musk wrote on X that the “head of NPR hates the Constitution of the USA” in response to a clip of Maher discussing the challenges in fighting disinformation and honoring the First Amendment right to free speech.

Meanwhile, some journalists at NPR pushed back against Berliner’s accusations.

“Morning Edition” co-host Steve Inskeep shared his take in a post on his Substack newsletter , saying he believes Berliner failed to “engage anyone who had a different point of view.”

“Having been asked, I answered: my colleague’s article was filled with errors and omissions,” he wrote, adding, “The errors do make NPR look bad, because it’s embarrassing that an NPR journalist would make so many.”

NPR’s chief news executive, Edith Chapin, also denied Berliner’s assessment of the newsroom in a memo to staff members, according to NPR .

“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” she wrote. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.”

Maher also said Monday in a statement to NPR : “In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen. What matters is NPR’s work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests.”

Daysia Tolentino is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism

David Folkenflik

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument. Uri Berliner hide caption

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument.

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press . It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo is among those now targeting NPR's new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network. Among others, those posts include a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist and another that appeared to minimize rioting during social justice protests that year. Maher took the job at NPR last month — her first at a news organization .

In a statement Monday about the messages she had posted, Maher praised the integrity of NPR's journalists and underscored the independence of their reporting.

"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," she said. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."

The network noted that "the CEO is not involved in editorial decisions."

In an interview with me later on Monday, Berliner said the social media posts demonstrated Maher was all but incapable of being the person best poised to direct the organization.

"We're looking for a leader right now who's going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about," Berliner said. "And this seems to be the opposite of that."

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month. Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss hide caption

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month.

He said that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders and to Maher's predecessor as chief executive before publishing his essay.

Berliner has singled out coverage of several issues dominating the 2020s for criticism, including trans rights, the Israel-Hamas war and COVID. Berliner says he sees the same problems at other news organizations, but argues NPR, as a mission-driven institution, has a greater obligation to fairness.

"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners."

A "final warning"

The circumstances surrounding the interview were singular.

Berliner provided me with a copy of the formal rebuke to review. NPR did not confirm or comment upon his suspension for this article.

In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a "final warning," saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again. Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment.

The Free Press is a site that has become a haven for journalists who believe that mainstream media outlets have become too liberal. In addition to his essay, Berliner appeared in an episode of its podcast Honestly with Bari Weiss.

A few hours after the essay appeared online, NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi reminded Berliner of the requirement that he secure approval before appearing in outside press, according to a copy of the note provided by Berliner.

In its formal rebuke, NPR did not cite Berliner's appearance on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation program last Tuesday night, for which NPR gave him the green light. (NPR's chief communications officer told Berliner to focus on his own experience and not share proprietary information.) The NPR letter also did not cite his remarks to The New York Times , which ran its article mid-afternoon Thursday, shortly before the reprimand was sent. Berliner says he did not seek approval before talking with the Times .

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

Berliner says he did not get permission from NPR to speak with me for this story but that he was not worried about the consequences: "Talking to an NPR journalist and being fired for that would be extraordinary, I think."

Berliner is a member of NPR's business desk, as am I, and he has helped to edit many of my stories. He had no involvement in the preparation of this article and did not see it before it was posted publicly.

In rebuking Berliner, NPR said he had also publicly released proprietary information about audience demographics, which it considers confidential. He said those figures "were essentially marketing material. If they had been really good, they probably would have distributed them and sent them out to the world."

Feelings of anger and betrayal inside the newsroom

His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR. Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts. They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited.

Morning Edition host Michel Martin told me some colleagues at the network share Berliner's concerns that coverage is frequently presented through an ideological or idealistic prism that can alienate listeners.

"The way to address that is through training and mentorship," says Martin, herself a veteran of nearly two decades at the network who has also reported for The Wall Street Journal and ABC News. "It's not by blowing the place up, by trashing your colleagues, in full view of people who don't really care about it anyway."

Several NPR journalists told me they are no longer willing to work with Berliner as they no longer have confidence that he will keep private their internal musings about stories as they work through coverage.

"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben tweeted last week, without mentioning Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and sh--ing on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."

Berliner rejected that critique, saying nothing in his essay or subsequent remarks betrayed private observations or arguments about coverage.

Other newsrooms are also grappling with questions over news judgment and confidentiality. On Monday, New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn announced to his staff that the newspaper's inquiry into who leaked internal dissent over a planned episode of its podcast The Daily to another news outlet proved inconclusive. The episode was to focus on a December report on the use of sexual assault as part of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. Audio staffers aired doubts over how well the reporting stood up to scrutiny.

"We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule," Kahn wrote to Times staffers.

At NPR, some of Berliner's colleagues have weighed in online against his claim that the network has focused on diversifying its workforce without a concomitant commitment to diversity of viewpoint. Recently retired Chief Executive John Lansing has referred to this pursuit of diversity within NPR's workforce as its " North Star ," a moral imperative and chief business strategy.

In his essay, Berliner tagged the strategy as a failure, citing the drop in NPR's broadcast audiences and its struggle to attract more Black and Latino listeners in particular.

"During most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding," Berliner writes. "In recent years, however, that has changed."

Berliner writes, "For NPR, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating both for its journalism and its business model."

NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner wrote in a comment for this story: "Minorities do not all think the same and do not report the same. Good reporters and editors should know that by now. It's embarrassing to me as a reporter at NPR that a senior editor here missed that point in 2024."

Some colleagues drafted a letter to Maher and NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, seeking greater clarity on NPR's standards for its coverage and the behavior of its journalists — clearly pointed at Berliner.

A plan for "healthy discussion"

On Friday, CEO Maher stood up for the network's mission and the journalism, taking issue with Berliner's critique, though never mentioning him by name. Among her chief issues, she said Berliner's essay offered "a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are."

Berliner took great exception to that, saying she had denigrated him. He said that he supported diversifying NPR's workforce to look more like the U.S. population at large. She did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with me for this story. (An NPR spokesperson declined further comment.)

Late Monday afternoon, Chapin announced to the newsroom that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

"Among the questions we'll ask of ourselves each month: Did we capture the diversity of this country — racial, ethnic, religious, economic, political geographic, etc — in all of its complexity and in a way that helped listeners and readers recognize themselves and their communities?" Chapin wrote in the memo. "Did we offer coverage that helped them understand — even if just a bit better — those neighbors with whom they share little in common?"

Berliner said he welcomed the announcement but would withhold judgment until those meetings played out.

In a text for this story, Chapin said such sessions had been discussed since Lansing unified the news and programming divisions under her acting leadership last year.

"Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it," Chapin said. "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

• Katherine Maher
• uri berliner

In Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets,' the torture is in the songwriting

'the tortured poets department' further complicates my feelings surrounding the pop star, and proves that taylor swift could benefit greatly from a more communal, creative approach..

When Taylor Swift announced her new album, “ The Tortured Poets Department, ” earlier this year at the Grammys , I was equal parts curious and unaffected. Even as a lifelong fan, I wasn’t fond of her previous effort, “Midnights,” cause I found most of it overwhelmingly uninspired – despite it winning Album of the Year. 

Nevertheless, Swift’s command over the zeitgeist makes her inescapable, and as a fan of most of her work, I’m bound to engage with her offerings regardless. The quality and acclaim of her previous works made me cling to the futile hope that “Midnights” was just a fluke. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days. 

That hope died, though, as soon as I saw the album credits.

To my dismay, Swift keeps her usual creative ensemble on “The Tortured Poets Department”: Jack Antonoff, every indie-pop girl’s go-to producer, and Aaron Dessner, of The National fame, who previously worked with her on her “Folklore” and “Evermore,” and “Midnights (3 a.m. Edition).” She also brings on Post Malone and longtime friend Florence Welch as new collaborators. 

Swift is known for writing songs based on her own life experiences. This artistic choice has made her synonymous with a certain brand of relatability and bestowed her with scrutiny and acclaim alike. Her fans in particular, “Swifties” for the uninitiated, use this to justify that sometimes unwarranted acclaim and discredit artists who choose a more collaborative approach to creating. “The Tortured Poets Department” further complicates my feelings surrounding the pop star and proves that Swift could benefit greatly from a more communal, creative approach. 

Beyoncé reclaims country music: Beyoncé pushes the confines of genre with 'Cowboy Carter.' Country will be better for it.

Taylor Swift has already won. Swifties don't need to banish criticism.

It’s not all bad, though. Moments of her past brilliance find a way to break through the crest every now and again, especially on “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” the second installment of what appears to be a double album, which she released at 2 a.m. on Friday .

“The Black Dog” builds into a heart ache roar as she laments why memories of her don’t mar a lover’s mind while he visits the places they used to share. On “The Albatross,” she makes clever allusions to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798), referring to herself as both the saboteur and savior of her past relationships. 

As a singer-songwriter, Swift is often perceived as a “singular” artist with her personhood at the center. Much of her discography is akin to intimate diary entries. The fact that she is so singular, often credited as the sole writer on many of her tracks, and her life is so large allows fans to decode her songs like scripture and attach them to moments in her life and relationships.

Conservatives are 'Down Bad': Taylor Swift is an American icon, regardless of what you think

The beauty of her older music is that listeners can take her tales of sneaking out late to tap on a lover’s window, her journey out of the woods or the regret that takes her back to a fateful December night and apply them to happenings in their own lives. It’s why I admire “Folklore” and “Evermore” so deeply. The way she blurred the lines between fact and fiction, making it hard to determine when she was chronicling her own life or one she’s concocted, offered universality in its specificity. Now, it seems that her celebrity has eclipsed her.

“The Tortured Poets Department” will undoubtedly be the best-selling album of 2024 and will be nominated, and possibly win, the big awards at next year’s Grammys. The record has been universally praised by publications like Rolling Stone. Her previous album broke almost every record imaginable and won every award. She embarked on one of the most lucrative tours of all time.

By most metrics, she’s the biggest pop star in the world , possibly of all time. Taylor Swift has won.

But so much of the discourse surrounding Swift exists in extremes. Anything less than unabashed praise is shunned. And some of her most ruthless dissenters obviously do so in bad faith. Engaging with any art without nuance is a fruitless endeavor. 

She keeps her ink and quill tightly to her chest, but this individualist and self-centered way of creating has led to an uninteresting product, unless you are obsessed with the innards of her personal life. I doubt she’ll ever run out of stories to tell. Life always gives us new inspiration. The trick lies in whether she’ll find interesting ways to tell them. 

Nevertheless, I still love Taylor Swift. I went to see the Eras Tour in New York with my best friend. I have countless memories of a younger me belting “Mine” and “Our Song” out of car windows down I-95. I remember the first time I heard “Cruel Summer” in my friend’s bright red Honda Fit and knowing I’d be obsessed with that song forever.

I spent so much of quarantine shattered and painstakingly introspective from the beautiful prose on “Folklore” and “Evermore.” My heart broke with hers on “All Too Well,” first in 2012 and again in 2022. Swift has soundtracked the lives of so many, chronicling the beauty of falling in love and the hurt thereafter. My only wish now is that she’d see beyond herself and relinquish her powerful pen to someone new – someone who could reignite the fire in her.

Kofi Mframa is a music and culture writer and opinion intern at the Louisville Courier Journal. 

Jamaica teen takes top prize in NYPD essay-writing contest

Tina Perumal, 18, bested 300 teens vying for an award in the Police Athletic League-NYPD annual essay competition. She snagged the prestigious NYPD Commander Award, one of a handful of NYPD awards for essay writing.  The contest was open to all New York City students in grades 9-12.

Perumal was honored on Tuesday during the Police Commissioner for a Day Ceremony. Her essay was noteworthy since it was based on the concept of her being appointed police commissioner, where she used the high-ranking position to bring together a task force to combat child neglect.

Perumal said the essay was inspired by a close friend who went through a traumatic childhood experience, which prompted her to focus on the topic. “My essay was basically helping to bring back child safety and bring attention to the child safety that doesn’t really get looked at or recognized,” she said. 

Perumal, a senior at Martin Van Buren High School , plans to attend John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the fall. She grew up watching shows such as “Law and Order” and other crime series, and now plans to be a police officer. “That’s where my mind and my heart has always been set on,” she said. “I just also want to help everybody around me and just protect everyone.”

When she is not spending time writing award-winning essays, Perumal works as an administrative intern at Life Camp’s Creative Arts Lab . She has been working with the organization since 2022 and oversees middle and elementary school students in the program. Perumal said her time working at Life Camp has inspired her to expand her own world view.

“They provide a lot of opportunities for you to get yourself out there. To be something you never saw yourself becoming or changing yourself that you never saw yourself changing to be,” she said. Currently, Perumal is working with staff on raising funds for a trip to Six Flags so they can celebrate the work they have done at the Creative Arts Lab over the past two years.

Life Camp’s mission is to provide youth and families in Southeast Queens impacted by gun violence with tools to stay in school and out of the criminal justice system. The organization offers programs to affected youngsters and their families as part of the initiative.

The Creative Arts Lab is a program sponsored by Life Camp targeting youth aged 12-24. The lab offers educational programs focused on arts education including DJing, composition and recording, theater, dance, painting and an array of other artistic mediums.

About the Author

Jobs in new york, add your job.

• The 13th Child Behavior Analyst, P.C. ABA Therapist
• A&J Fire Extinguisher Fire Safety Technician
• NY ELITE CANNABIS- NYS LEGAL ADULT USE DISPENSARY Sales Personnel/ BAYSIDE

View all jobs…

Things to do in queens.

Post an Event

Get Animated with Elemental Museum of the Moving Image

Free Paint Watercolors

Sayville Spring Fest 2024

Kids Superhero Party The Shops at Atlas Park

Neir’s Tavern Community Block Party Neir’s Tavern

Camino A La Ciudadanía Estadounidense: Convertirse en Ciudadano y desarrollar sus conocimientos cívicos Jackson Heights Library

View All Events…

Latest News

Get Queens in your inbox

Dining & nightlife.

Entertainment

Police & Fire

Related Articles

More from Around New York

Op-Ed | Don’t let FAFSA troubles derail your college dreams

LGBTQ groups warn Supreme Court against ‘criminalizing homelessness’ in Oregon case

Dan Rattiner speaks with Shoshanna McCollum, the editor in chief of the Fire Island News – Episode 180

Guggenheim’s Learning Through Art Presents A Year with Children 2024

Queens’ job board.