I love reading the expressive ways other people have found to make a point. Here are my latest finds (the parts I particularly like are in bold): “I sometimes think of cancer as a long and difficult journey, a quest out of Tolkien, or a dark waltz.” – Dana Jennings, “With Cancer, Let’s Face It, [...]
Tag Archives: Writing tips
Ditch the jargon
You know it’s a good idea to stay away from jargon, or what I like to call the “secret handshake” between insiders. Sadly, many people (many of them in high places) do not. My guest post at Advantis Communications is a reminder of why it’s a good idea to ditch the jargon.
105 words guarantees confusion
Ontario and British Columbia are getting a new Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST, on July 1. The HST replaces the Goods & Services Tax that I now charge, so this will affect me. So I signed up about a month ago to receive technical bulletins from the government that would tell me things I might [...]
Write news releases without this lead
A client called yesterday in a bit of a panic, wondering if I could revise a news release for her by end of day. This is the kind of thing I often refer to as “pulling a rabbit out of a hat.” I was already juggling a number of projects, but this is a long-time, [...]
More heartfelt writing
Here’s some more expressive writing. Love Letter is a public art project in Philadelphia consisting of a series of 50 rooftop murals painted by local and international artists. The project began in August 2009, and is described this way: The murals, which are best viewed from the Market-Frankford elevated transit line, collectively express a love [...]
Every comma has its day
Yesterday was a big day for those of you (us) who notice and cringe at signs with extra or missing apostrophes. If people suggest that makes you a nitpicker, tell them you have nothing on former newspaperman Jeff Rubin, the founder of National Punctuation Day. Jeff started it as a “celebration of the lowly comma, [...]
The writer’s diet includes humble pie
This week I had the shocking experience of having someone Not. Like. My. Work. I say shocking because I’ve been fortunate. Over about 18 years of running my own business, I’ve been able to submit a first draft of my assignments that’s pretty close to what’s required. There may be a bit of back and [...]
Expressive language v.4
Here are more great examples of words eloquently or imaginatively written for the enjoyment of readers: “The files holding the data are as thick as unabridged dictionaries.” – Joshua Wolf Shenk in The Atlantic, “What Makes Us Happy?” “I’m at home a lot, begging for quiet from a child who has the same need for [...]
Watch out for jargon
When interviewing someone for an employee newsletter article, I always ask the meaning of unusual terms, acronyms (a word, like OPEC, formed from the initial letters of other words) and initialisms (a group of initial letters pronounced individually, like CBC). People often reply, “Everyone knows what it means” because they are insiders familiar with the [...]
Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog Also tagged Communications, Newsletters, Words Leave a comment
Truly awful writing
Everyone can write, can’t they? But it takes real skill to come up with truly awful writing, like that celebrated by the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. This is almost as much fun as the Oddest Book Title of the Year contest. But instead of just finding existing examples — in this case, that fit the [...]