What’s the most important part of writing? Right. The reader. Consider the readers’ needs. Write for them. Keep in mind why they should care about what you have to say. What’s in it for them? How can you make their lives or work easier or better? Why should they spend time reading or watching […]
In my last post, I outlined GRIP, which stands for the four steps that every writer should complete before starting to write: – set a Goal – know your Reader – state your main Idea – make a Plan, or an outline. This post focuses on the G: setting a goal. Communication as a tool […]
You can’t persuade an audience with unproven ideas, nor can you fire one up without appealing to their values. Read this opening to a seminar on secure information technology practices and then answer this question: do you care? “Why is security important to us? Because the effectiveness of our programs, activities and services depends on […]
The next few posts on this blog are going to focus on something that I like to tell myself I know something about: how to write. Since audiences seem to like step-by-step guides, I’ll start with the two basic rules of writing. Know what you want to say. Be able to sum up your main […]
Today’s hottest buzzword is “onboarding.” A group of corporate Internet professionals has “onboarding” an official part of a major, inter-departmental project, as in “The onboarding phase will continue until buy-in has been obtained from a significant majority of players in this space.” See what they’ve done here: defined one buzzword with another in a passive […]
News item: Ontario sex ed: Protesters disrupt school meeting Protesters turned out in force at a Scarborough school Thursday night, disrupting efforts by two local MPPs to discuss Ontario’s new sex ed curriculum. The information session at Agincourt Collegiate Institute was cut short when demonstrators moved inside — chanting “We say no” at MPPs Soo Wong and Bas Balkissoon. The new curriculum has […]
“A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” That’s been attributed to more than one person, and it’s an excellent way to describe written documents that get approved by authorities who are more concerned about things other than the content of the documents themselves. In other words, documents produced by corporations and governments. Recently, […]