A man walks into a bank with a gun in his hand. “Ok, everybody,” he shouts, “lie on the floor! This is a hold-up!” Some people obey immediately, but a few don’t. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of bullets. “Get on the floor,” he commands. “I have a handful of bullets!” When that doesn’t provoke the desired response, the man begins throwing the bullets one at a time. The security guards quickly realize that the man has no bullets in the gun. They dodge the bullets the man throws at them, and quickly overpower him.
Why did this man fail to rob the bank? He had the necessary tools, namely the bullets and the gun. His problem, however, was that he used them separately. Each tool had some effect, but they did not help him accomplish his purpose when used alone. In mostcases, tools need to be combined to make the greatest impact on your audience, whether people in a bank or people who read your documents.
Strategies for Impact
Writers have at their disposal many strategies for making an impact. In most cases, they can be used independently to create some level of emphasis, or impact. For example,
Parallelism: Creating a series of parallel items provides increasing emphasis on those items while showing how they are related to a main point.
Framing: Framing ideas by stating similar ideas at the beginning and end of an argument reinforces those ideas and keeps the reader focused.
Sentence Fragment: A sentence fragment starting with a conjunction tells the reader to pay close attention to what comes next.
Style Shift: Dropping in a rare colloquialism garners reader attention to a particular point.
Terminal Placement: Stating the most important information or concept at the end of a sentence or paragraph demonstrates its importance and helps the reader focus on it.
Short Phrase or Sentence: Short sentences and phrases have the potential to create strong emphasis. They catch the eyes visually, and the punctuation on either side creates pauses so that the phrase or sentence stands out.
Many such strategies exist. In fact, the writing guide Bang! Writing With Impact contains over 200 such strategies.
However, these strategies increase the overall impact of your writing when they are combined logically and artistically. Let’s look at a great example of how the strategies described above can be combined to create an overall emphasis on a particular idea.
Sample of Strategies Combined
The text in this sample is taken from An Intellectual and Cultural History of the Western World by Harry Elmer Barnes (Author: 1937, 1941; Dover Publications Inc.: 1965). The passage discusses the idea that while human nature has not changed since the earliest days of our history, humankind has made great advances in culture, thus negating the idea that human nature is a barrier to societal advancement. By the time you finish reading this selection, you will have a good idea of where the author stands on this issue, and, likely, you will agree with him.
These considerations should serve to make clear that what we regard as human civilization has developed without any change in human nature. Our institutions, literature, art, and religion have grown from the most rudimentary beginnings to their present forms without involving the slightest changes in the physical equipment which we designate as human nature. We have passed from cave dwellings to the Empire State building and Rockefeller Center, from small clans and tribes to great national states and colonial empires, from the possession of a few skins and bone implements to billionaires, and from illiteracy to the wisdom of a John Dewey or the erudition of a Joseph McCabe. And all of these advances have been accomplished with the same old human nature, persisting unchanged.
The writer used the strategies above to emphasize his points, lead to a final conclusion, and make an impact on his readers.
Parallelism: This passage contains two major examples of parallelism. The second sentence contains a parallel series of 4 individual words (“institutions, literature . . .”). The third sentence contains a series of 4 parallel phrases. In most cases, four items in a series is the maximum for creating emphasis. Using more than four actually reduces impact.
Framing: The first sentence provides the context for upcoming text: “human civilization has developed without any change in human nature.” Then the author provides some discussion of this, some examples, etc. Finally, in the last four words of the paragraph, he reinforces his idea: “human nature, persisting unchanged.” Thus, we start and finish with the central concept, which frames the entire passage.
Sentence Fragment: Starting a sentence with “and,” “but,” and “yet,” (coordinating conjunctions) will always make a sentence fragment. However, this strategy tells the reader that the next information is inherently linked to and provides the conclusion from the previous statement. This tells the reader, “Pay attention. I’m about to write something important.” The author used this strategy by starting the final sentence, “And all of these advances . . . .” At this point, he begins to build up to the final impact statement.
Style Shift: This passage has a fairly academic tone. While the author obviously is passionate about this issue (we know this from the other strategies), he maintains a high, fairly impersonal tone. Then, he uses the term “same old,” which is a colloquialism. This draws the reader’s attention to what comes next. If the reader’s attention has started to wander during the previous discussion, this temporary shift in style will draw the reader back in so that the author can make his central point, which follows immediately.
Terminal Placement: The most important information in a sentence should be at the end of the sentence. Similarly, the most important information in a paragraph should be at the end of the paragraph. The reason for this is simple. The words at the end of the paragraph have the potential to create the greatest impact, so placing the main idea there means placing the greatest emphasis on the main point. The last four words of this paragraph summarize the main point.
Short Phrase or Sentence: Look at the final phrase of the entire passage: “persisting unchanged.” That is the point of the entire passage: human nature has persisted unchanged and yet all these accomplishments have occurred.
Harry Barnes packed many strategies into four sentences. The effect is cumulative, building to an impressive, emphatic paragraph. The final sentence, alone, combines four strategies, which together build to the final impact statement: start with a conjunction to catch the reader’s attention, shift the style to increase the impact, and conclude with the most important information in a very short phrase. Barnes would have been a very successful bank robber.
Your resume is your first interview. Most personnel directors will look at your resume before they meet you. They will form an opinion of your competency and your personality based on your resume. Based on our work helping clients prepare resumes, we have created a list of 8 words your resume needs, words that will create a favorable impression of you.
1. Successfully Companies want to hire winners. Use this word to describe your accomplishments in a prior responsibility. Example: I successfully negotiated a new contract for services.
2. Leadership Companies want to hire leaders. Use this word to describe your involvement with task and project teams. Example: Under my leadership, the customer service unit managed all client records.
3. Team Companies want to hire people who can cooperate with others to accomplish company goals. Use this word to describe your involvement with colleagues. Example: Our team was responsible for answering customers’ questions about products.
4. Created Companies want to hire innovators. Use this word to describe new ideas and processes you developed. Example: I created a checklist to track daily service tasks.
5. Expanded/Increased (the verb, not the adjective) Companies want to hire people that will help them grow. Use this word to describe your participation in company growth. Example: During this time, the company expanded the product line to include 2 new models.
6. Support (the verb, not the noun) Companies want to hire people who will assist the management team. Use this word to describe your relationship with your former supervisors. Example: I supported the division director by compiling financial data.
7. Will Companies want to hire people who are confident about their ability to deliver what they promise. Use this word to describe what you will do if hired. Example: I will solve customer software and hardware problems.
Some of these words may not apply to your resume. However, if you think carefully about your prior experiences, you will find that you can use most of them. Using these words does not guarantee that you will get the job you want, but they will help you make a good impression.
Effective writing and the correct use of writing mechanics are very important. Once you have developed the draft of your resume and cover letter, you will need to edit it carefully. Editing guides will help, as will daily writing instruction.
Good luck in your job search. [link “Editing guides” to the training manual page. Link “daily writing instruction” to the writing tips page.] Read Precise Edit's new article and optimize your resume.
If you want to be clear, if you want to be quoted, using effective language must be your top priority.In today's business and politics this is hardly ever the case. In many instances, imprecise language is used intentionally to avoid taking a stance. This is hardly a recent problem, and as George Orwell wrote in his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, the condition is curable. By following Orwell's five rules for writing, you'll distinguish yourself from competitors and clearly communicate your ideas:
This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally. But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I thinkthe following rules will cover most cases:
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable. One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in those five specimens at the beginning of this article.
I hope you find these rules a good start. If you enjoyed this brief journal entry, be sure to read Orwell's original essay. It has many helpful examples and is a joy to read.
Hey all — a few tips, for blog writing in particular, but I thought they'd be applicable to writing of all kinds — here you go!
Blogging can bring your business exposure, credibility, and whole lot more revenue - so it's in your best interest to deliver a steady stream of powerful writing. But for a lot of us, that's a tall order. If you're finding your creative juices running a little dry, this list of quick and easy tips is sure to get them flowing again.
Every author I know gets asked the same question: How do you write a book? Scott provides simple, basic information about writing and book and links to more practical advice.
It's a simple question, but it causes unexpected problems. On the one hand, it's nice to have people interested in something I do. If I told people I fixed toasters for a living, I doubt I'd get many inquires. People are curious about writing and that's cool and flattering. Rock on.
But on the other hand, the hand involving people who ask because they have an inkling to do it themselves, is that writing books it's a topic so old and so well tread by so many famous people that anyone who asks me, with the seriousintent of discovering secret advice from my small brain and limited writing experience, is hard to take seriously.
Here's the short honest truth: 20% of the people who ask me are hoping to hear this - Anyone can write a book. They want permission. Truth is you don't need any. There is no license required. No test to take. Writing, as opposed to publishing, requires almost no financial or physical resources. A pen, a paper and effort are all that has been required for hundreds of years. If Voltaire and Marquis de Sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia, at lunch at work, or after your kids go to sleep.
Scott is an author, public speaker and consultant. He worked as a manager at Microsoft from 1994-2003, on projects including (v1-5) of Internet Explorer, Windows and MSN. His blog is pretty solid.
He's an excellent speaker for hire, and frequently performs interactive talks, workshops, and courses for organizations, conferences and the occasional living room couch.
Here's a fantastic selection of tools for writers of any style. This is a list of tips aimed at improving your writing skills that I cribbed from another site here. Before you start firing off submissions to publishers or you embark on that eBook writing project, do yourself a favor and review.
All of these tools come various sections of Poynter Online which is a rich resource for journalists. If for some reason you want to see last year's post (for the comments perhaps), you can do so here.
Self-publication of a neatly produced, high quality (the paper is never less than 100 gram, preferably 120 gram) booklet with a smart Photoshop cover professionally folded and stapled makes a great gift, or maybe a summary of a good year at the writing group, a fundraiser for a school, or a memorial for a special person.
Why bother to go through all the heartache and hassle of fighting to get your precious memories or thoughts into mainstream publication? Your own PC, printer and digital camera are waiting to make someone's day. If you really want to go big and produce a novel, there's the internet or print on demand (no surplus stock there!).
Getting published by a mainstream company is great, but in all honesty, how many of us can reallyafford to give up the day job, even when we've signed that contract? Such a long, heartbreaking haul for what? The joy of writing should be just that - the writing.
Define your audience and publish yourself. Get your books and anthologies into the hands of people who really want to hear from you - whether it's one copy, or a couple of dozen through print on demand.
Check out the rest of the article here. An interesting perspective, nonetheless. Could it be that the joy of writing is fuel that drives the desire to write? It's this joy that sustains a writer's identity rather than the promise of being published?
I'd like to think so, but from the volume of submissions Jesse and I receive, it's likely not!
I've pretty much not had internet access the last couple of weeks. Obviously I haven't posted much, though there seems to be interesting things happening.
I am still here though, and following goings-on as best I can. In some ways I'm really enjoying being unplugged for a couple of weeks.
I'm taking a little vacation right now, in the last six months, I've started a job, resigned, been unemployed, started another job, moved into a new apartment and managed to stick with my weekly review deadline.
Regardless, I know that my output hasn't dropped off because I haven't had time to write. I've been able to write just fine. I'm still making time to write. I'm finding time to write, but I haven't been writing too much fiction. For quite some time now.
On Monday night, I went to a book launch. One of the members of my group, published her second book of short stories. Short fiction is a tough market to get into because it's so small.
There's something satisfying about seeing a project go from conception to published book, to hear the drafts, and to make suggestions, however small, along the way. That's one thing I like about creative writing groups-hearing someone suggest something and seeing the possibilities. I also like the support that we give each other. There's a lot to be said for a group where everyone works cooperatively rather in competition, which can happen too. Cooperation leads to everyone celebrating each other's success.
I'm always circumspect about celebrating too early, because my first story accepted never saw the light of publication. The story, about 1500 words long, was accepted, and I was offered $320, much more than I've had for any similar-length story I've soldsince. Then, a month later, the journal folded and that was that. I wasn't able to place it anywhere else. Sometimes, I think I should rewrite it and send it out again, but it's so old now that I look at it and cringe.
Well, I beleive I am suffering from writer's block. And that has resulted in very little posting online, or any desire to post to my weblog. Nothing interesting to post. While it lasts at least, when I am on the Internet, I'm catching up on my favorite weblogs. So I imagine it isn't time wasted anyway.
So, summer is here! The last few days around here have been amazing. Sunday it was like 65! I'm so happy to be finally be able to throw open the shutters and let breeze roll through!
Anyway - I was checking out stuff online. Grammar Girl (her podcast was the first one I put on me old iPod! offers the following tips for those suffering from Writer's block:
If you're going to procrastinate, force yourself to do something productive. Your choices are folding laundry or writing, not playing solitaire or writing.
Don't get too hung up on writing the first sentence or paragraph. If you have a great quote or a great plot point, and it falls in the middle of your story, write that first and come back to the beginning later. That's how I wrote this transcript. I wrote the tips about generating freelance story ideas first, and then I jotted down a few things about overcoming writer's block. Then I went back to the beginning. I jump around a lot, and I find it helps me to keep writing when I feel stuck.
Free writing. When I was in college, I had a professor who forced us to do free-writing exercises. We had to sit at our desks and write without stopping for 30 minutes. It didn't matter what we wrote. She just watched to make sure that we were constantly putting pen to paper. I found it a very useful exercise, so you might give it a try if you are having a creative block. And a bonus is that it can also be a good way to come up with story ideas.
But nothing focuses my mind like a deadline. So set yourself a deadline and try to make it as real as possible. Line up friends to read your story and tell them you'll deliver it at a certain time. Plan a date, but let yourself go out only if you finish your story. Maybe you're not like this, but I don't take a deadline seriously unless I know that something bad is going to happen if I don't finish on time. All you listeners are now my "something bad" because I know you'll be unhappy if I release my show late.
Anyway, I came across the above and thought they were pretty good tips. I haven't put any into action yet, though. Maybe later today.
Why did this man fail to rob the bank? He had the necessary tools, namely the bullets and the gun. His problem, however, was that he used them separately. Each tool had some effect, but they did not help him accomplish his purpose when used alone. In mostcases, tools need to be combined to make the greatest impact on your audience, whether people in a bank or people who read your documents. 
