Cut and Paste
The expression of cut and paste has taken on a derogatory connotation. It implies a degree of laziness or casual composition. You cut and paste when you don’t want or need original thought. I think that is actually a very unfair characterization of what can be a true creative process. I write a lot. I write every day…usually several times a day. Sometimes I write stories for this blog. Sometimes I write books (I’ve ghost-written three books for friends over the past two years). Sometimes I write expert witness reports and rebuttals. I am a prodigious writer and I pride myself in writing quite fast. Almost all of those writings occur on my iPad, as is the case with this very story. FOr almost all of these writings I use some form of cut and paste to get to a final product.
I have found over the years that the key to good and rapid writing is organization. My mother taught me that back when I was in grade school in Wisconsin and she was getting her Ph.D. in Adult Education at the University of Wisconsin. At the time she was teaching a course to undergraduates in how to study (which included writing) as a way to earn a few extra bucks to supplement her $3,000 per year stipend to house, feed and clothe herself and three growing kids. It was like a scene out of A River Runs Through It when Tom Skerrit, the preacher father of the young Norman Maclean keeps editing his written work and sending him back to the bullpen to rewrite and usually tighten his prose. I did my share of rewriting and tightening, but my mother always insisted that I write an outline, preaching to me, as it were, that I needed to organize my thoughts to write cogently. She explained that very few people can just write great works just off the top of their head. She knew I was OK smart, but also knew that I was no photographic-memory or instant and perfect recall brilliant (she had discussed the results of my IQ test with me and taught me what I could and could not expect to accomplish on sheer intellect alone).
My mother’s openness with me about my capabilities and limitations was and continues to be extremely valuable to me. It taught me a degree of humility and caused me to understand that there were plenty of people out there that could beat me at sheer mentalism and that I needed to both work hard and work smart (as in organized) if I was to adequately compete. I feel that openness served me very well. As Garrison Keillor implied on the Prairie Home Companion, not everyone can be above average and telling them that does more harm than good in setting expectations, but also in reminding them of what they might need to do remedially to be competitive. I love my mother for than (among many other reasons) and while she always told me I could do anything I set my mind to, she also very acutely explained that I might have to go an extra yard to do it right.
Research is a key element of writing. Again, some people can just read and read and read and retain everything salient, sort it out as they go and then pound it into the keyboard with minimally seeming effortlessness. The other week when my friend Steve was coming to speak in my ethics class, I saw him reading something in the car as we drove. They were 3×5 cards (he actually corrected me and said they were 4×6 cards…that difference alone sounds like the basis of an entire story). He had written crib notes for his lecture on those cards. Hardly a first, but something we have all done at one time or another in a public speaking class or some such event. I can’t remember the last time I used such cards, but I do understand their value as an aid or a crutch in the lecture process, where ones thoughts and observations can take many a side-road as one drives for the finish line. From my dozen years of teaching and because my classes have always tended to run two to three hours in length, I have used the PowerPoint deck as my 3×5 cards (I wonder if that qualifies as a 16×9 card, in reference to the standard screen aspect ratio?) Those form my notes (I rarely use the PowerPoint Notes functionality because that feels like notes on notes to me). I tend to feel like fussing with cards in my hand is less smooth and more prone to disaster from dropping or mixing them up. How many movies have we seen where that happens?
The longer you speak or write (longer meaning a longer document or lecture), the more you need the crutch of notes in one form or another. It also implies that you are gathering, analyzing, organizing and delivering a quantum of research to back up your points. This advocacy approach is not just for lawyers, it is how strong businesspeople or even just strong everyday people get their points of view across in a compelling manner. Being compelling is very useful. I admit that it can feel contrived and even bullying if overdone, so the trick is to do it fluidly and not try to jam information and points of view down people’s throats without pause for reflection. The old Army adage is to tell them once, tell them twice, tell them a third time. Repetition is very much a friendly form of advocacy. It can annoy the smarter among us who see it for what it is and can be off-putting, but for most listeners or readers, it is what imbeds the material into their brains the best.
The way I keep research or outlines or just random thoughts in front of me while I write is to…you guessed it…cut and paste it. That cutting and pasting can come from my own notations or it can come from other material I have referenced to bring facts or figures to the argument. I even cut and paste charts. I often don’t bother to properly download the underlying charting program, but just take a screenshot of the chart or graph and then edit it down to a good visual and pop it into my document in process. That way I have less problem with Word as I type away and I can easily just use the graphic to aid in my writing and thought process, or I can leave it to incorporate as an exhibit in my piece. AI can even go back and find the full-blown graphing program if need be to include a bit of interactivity in my work (written or PowerPointed).
I am in the middle of preparing an expert report. I have been provided an array of documents from which I must draw factual information and assess or develop cogent arguments on my clients’ behalf. This is an iterative process since I am rarely given everything I need up-front to produce my best possible report. So, what I do is start by relabeling a similar report I have done to use as a template for my report. That prevents me from having to reinvent the formatting wheel, including that annoying, but helpful, linked indexation of the table of contents with the material outline. The good news is that the legal industry must have met my mother since reports are already organized as outline with a typical hierarchical outline structure. I always get gummed up trying to do that right in Word, so using an older, correctly formatted report is a great time-saver. Time is money and I do take my client’s money quite seriously (that is to say, I do not like to waste it). I always want people to feel that they have gotten great value from me in production per billable hour.
I then take that template and start changing the contents to reflect my new report issues. The keys to making this cut and paste system work is to always be wary of two things: repetition and plagiarism. Repetition is important to avoid for efficiency, so the Summary of Opinions followed by the Opinions followed by the Conclusion of the Opinions must be done to maximize the Army redundancy benefit while minimizing the boring repetition bugaboo. Plagiarism is the tougher one. If you are staring at a cut and paste written by someone else, it is all to tempting to change a word here or there and then voila, claim it as your own. Not a good idea. I read the piece and then delete it and go ahead and express the though on my own, based on my own filters and interpretations. I remember it because its in front of my, but I don’t copy it unless I specifically value the reference for gravitas. So, the bottom line on cut and paste is to cut twice and paste once, or something like that. Happy cutting.