You’ve written something good. Return to it. If you’ve been blogging for a year or more, you’ve probably covered many topics. Good news: ideas don’t get used up. In fact, they’re probably due for a refresh and repeat. It’s time to revisit the things you’ve already written. If you’re resisting this idea, I get it. […]
Business writing
Define Your Revision Function
In business writing, book authoring, and software coding, revision is how we get to our best work. But the act of revision challenges many writers. They either want to rush through it to get to the finished product, or they get mired in doubts whether the work is good enough. Having a well-defined process might […]
Using the Future to Guide Us Today
An Interview with Trista Harris Trista Harris is a philanthropic futurist and author of Future Good. In her role as president of the Future Good consultancy, she helps nonprofit leaders envision and build a better future in their work. Futurism, as Trista defines it in her book, is the practice of recognizing trends and anticipating […]
Making Revision a Habit with WordRake
Most of us understand that great writing happens through revision. We realize that revision is important, but we’re in a hurry. As long as we think of revision as an ‘extra’ process outside of writing, we’re tempted to skip it. So we send out our work with imperfections, excess words, remnants of messy thought processes—small […]
Writing with Confidence About Uncertainty
Strategies for using indirect language patterns with intention When writing to communicate expertise and authority, you want to avoid language that makes you seem uncertain. My previous post here described indirect speech patterns that make you seem less confident or knowledgeable when they creep into your written words. However, indirect speech isn’t all bad. Indirect […]
Speech Patterns that Threaten Authority in Writing
Indirect speech is one way that we communicate politeness, willingness to collaborate, modesty, and other worthy attributes when we speak with each other. Despite the American love of “getting right to the point,” people who always speak directly may sound brusque, impatient, or rude. However, indirect language patterns often read differently in print. In writing, […]