Fully Booked
The Hidden Gems Author Podcast
Episode 247 – Knowing Your Subject Is Only Half the Challenge
Hosted by: Craig Tuch and Roland Hulme with special guest Daniel Bullen
Knowing your subject inside out can be an advantage when writing nonfiction, but it can also make it harder to recognize what beginners need explained. How much background should you include for the novice while still keeping more experienced readers interested? This week, teacher and author Daniel Bullen joins us to discuss how he tackled those challenges when writing his computer science book, which he designed to build from the fundamentals into more advanced topics so that both novices and more experienced readers could benefit from it.
Through our discussion of Daniel’s book, we explore how the order of information shapes a reader’s understanding, why foundational ideas sometimes need their own explanation, and how different names for the same concept can create unnecessary confusion. By bringing his teaching materials together into a manuscript and including practice exercises, Daniel hoped to engage readers with the content more directly. For authors writing educational nonfiction, his approach offers a starting point for thinking beyond the information they want to share to what readers need to understand and put it into practice.
Daniel Bullen
https://danielbullentutor.my.canva.site/daniel-bullen-s-website