Reading time: About 2 minutes Some skills are extra important for any corporate communicator. Here’s a quick primer on one of them: how to write key messages… If you’re forced to make a big announcement for your company or organization, you need some key messages. Essentially, these are statements that answer the obvious questions. For […]
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a simile from Chad Harbach. I’m not much interested in sports (and I’m especially incurious about baseball) so I can’t figure out how the novel The Art of Fielding ended up
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: suppurate. When I worked in the daily newspaper business, I spent an occasional few hours in the photo studio. I was helping to edit a cookbook and
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Reading time: About 3 minutes You’ve probably heard the charge that many academics write badly. You may even have said it yourself! Here’s why… A group of doctors paid me to edit a report a few years back. Their work — not a medical study, but a document aimed at making a political point —
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Reading time: About 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss six writing tips from novelist John Steinbeck…. It’s been several decades since I read East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1902-1968). I
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Reading time: Less than 2 minutes If your company or group has something to announce — especially if it might be considered negative — you need to do some planning first. Here’s how to make a big announcement… Planning an announcement is a little bit like launching a book or a new product. Details matter!
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Reading time: About 2 minutes I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from Canadian writer Ian Brown. I don’t know Ian Brown personally. But I feel as if I do, from reading his writing. A journalist for the Globe and
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Reading time: About 1.5 minutes Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: desultory. Whenever I read I like to record words that either tickle my fancy or that I don’t yet know on a first-name basis. (I use the notes
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Here’s my advice: don’t plan to write when you go on holiday. Instead, take a break…. My husband and I had been out for dinner. I awoke at 4:30 the next morning feeling vaguely “off.” After tossing and turning for half an hour, I decided to get up and work.
When you take a break, take a break! Read More »
Reading time: About 1.5 minutes This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a piece of software — designed to help you write like Hemingway — available free on the Internet….. I’ve never been a
Can the Hemingway App help you? Read More »
