“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Those words by Michelangelo have always resonated with me, because great writing is as much about what you leave out as it is about what you keep. It’s
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I spend a good part of my time training business people to write. But by far the most rewarding part of my job is working with leaders in the C-suite to polish their written communication. As leaders, executives are tasked with influencing, inspiring and rallying their teams. Their ability to do this depends on their
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One of the most common things I do when I’m reviewing a piece of copy – whether it’s a proposal, report, media release or any other piece of content – is to cut out the first paragraph entirely. People are so focused on having a good introduction that they over-introduce, and the writing starts to
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In seven seconds you can butter two slices of bread. You can do five push-ups. You can make your bed. You can tie your shoes. Seven seconds. That’s all the time you have to grab the reader, listener or watcher’s attention when it comes to your content. Whether you’re making a video, drafting an email,
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Here’s a style tip for content writers: step away from the capital letters. Capital letters have some fundamental uses – they mark the first word of a sentence, they’re for proper nouns and acronyms, and they are often used in the titles of books, plays, films and other works of art. They are *not* for
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Writing is about words, right? Well, of course – but numbers also have the power to trip a writer up, and not just because you don’t think you’re mathematically gifted. Consider a speech I was reviewing on this week, where the speechwriter had the speaker talking about ‘several vital issues’, then saying the first one
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From time to time I produce content for a client that gets feedback along the lines of, “You’re a natural!” Or, “Wow! You’re so talented!” There’s always a faint air of suprise at my ability to express what they want to say in exactly the right words, or admiration at my “gift”. This is like
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“I’m sorry this letter is so long; I didn’t have time to write a short one,” is a quote variously attributed to Cicero, Blaise Pascal and Mark Twain. Whoever said it hit the nail on the head – writing something short that has both impact and depth of content is much more difficult than banging
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So you’ve decided you need a business blog. But you don’t have the budget for a PR or content agency, which means it’s something of a DIY – and you don’t know where to start. Here are some helpful pointers. First, spend some time planning. As a professional writer, I often get requests from people
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Most people outside of the media or literary worlds haven’t ever made use of an editor before (although they really should – not that I’m biased or anything…). But let’s say you’ve decided you do want someone to look over what you’ve written – to check that it flows well, that you haven’t left out too
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