One of the best worst Christmas presents I ever received was a yellow dress, given to me by my grandmother when I was about 8. I suppose it was pretty enough despite the square neck and puffy sleeves, but I hated it as soon as I opened the box. I didn’t wear dresses. At all. Ever. I was a strictly jeans and cowboy boots sort of kid. Not only that, all of my...
Read MoreAre you facing a blank screen? Have you typed and deleted and typed and deleted and still you don’t like what you have? Try asking questions. Put yourself in the shoes of the reader and interview yourself. What are you trying to tell me? Why should I care? What do I need to know? What do I need to do? How should I do it? When should I do it? This little trick...
Read MoreIt may seem that in order to get better at the kind of writing you want to do, whether it is for blogs, newsletters or websites, that the best thing to do is to concentrate on doing that sort of writing and to do a lot of it. This is true. However, there is something to be learned from the sports world. Good athletes cross train. Runners sometimes lift weights....
Read MorePost by Scott VanVoorhis I don’t care whether it’s a business memo, a marketing pitch or an article. In order to write fast, and, even more importantly, to write effectively, you first need to take a step back and consider the landscape. As a veteran newspaper reporter, I became known around the office as a fast writer. The compliment puzzled even as it...
Read MoreI don’t expect everyone to like everything I write. Heck, I don’t like everything I write. The problem comes when you can’t quite figure out what’s wrong or worse when the person for whom you are writing just doesn’t like it. The trick to fixing it is to figure out what’s gone wrong. Is it the grammar? Is it the fact? Is it the set up of the document?...
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