Melissa Q. Wood

Writing · /writing

Things that
finished on the desk.

Some pieces are part of a longer thread; others stand alone. The series live on the left, the standalones on the right. Most of these began life over on my desk.

Series

Threads I’m pulling on for a while.

Linear Algebra from Scratch.

Working towards Bayesian modeling from the foundations up. The math underneath the methods I keep wanting to use.

  1. LA-02
    04.29.26

    Matrices are functions in disguise.

    The single sentence that made the rest of the course click. (Spoiler: it's the title.)

  2. LA-01
    04.22.26

    Vectors, three different ways.

    Arrow, list, abstract object — and why each framing matters at a different point in the curriculum.

Start at the beginning

BRCA SEO.

Building a plain-language guide to BRCA testing from the patient's view up. Learning, along the way, how public information actually reaches people.

  1. BS-02
    04.25.26

    The keywords adoptees use are different.

    The standard family-history triage doesn't apply, and the search behaviour reflects that. Notes from the data.

  2. BS-01
    04.18.26

    What 'People Also Ask' tells you about fear.

    Twelve seed queries, ninety-six suggested follow-ups, and a pattern that was hard to look at.

Start at the beginning

Standalone

One-off pieces.

04.10.26

Matrescence is not postpartum depression.

A short distinction that took me a year of reading to make cleanly. With references.

Read
03.30.26

An intake form is a thesis statement.

What a clinic chooses to ask first tells the client more than the website ever will.

Read
03.12.26

Looking for one true sentence.

On personal statements, throwaway drafts, and the Hemingway trick that finally helped.

Read

Looking for the reading list, watchlist, and other ongoing things? They live at /now ↗

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