"The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men — the man he is and the man he wants to be." —William Feather, author and aphorist Pull the trigger Create an environment for your message My mother serves as Wylie Communications' bookkeeper. (Yes, Mom still balances my checkbook.) When she asked me recently to … [Read more...] about Pull the trigger | April 2010
Creative writing
One or 1,001? | March 2010
"[Good writers] tell not of a battle, but of a soldier, they talk not about governance, but about a deal, they discuss not a socioeconomic group, but a person and a life." — Donald M. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, in Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work One or 1,001? Why 'one individual trumps the masses' "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I … [Read more...] about One or 1,001? | March 2010
What’s the cost of ‘niggling’? | February 2010
"All that wasted motion of everybody putting in commas and taking out commas wasn't necessary." — Art Weise, vice president of Corporate Communications, Entergy Corp., after reengineering the company's approval process What's the cost of 'niggling'? Do all those tweaks really add value to the bottom line? First there was DBT, or Death by Tweakage: When a brochure or … [Read more...] about What’s the cost of ‘niggling’? | February 2010
Snip your sentences | January 2010
"(Martin) Amis has loosened his belt, and his slangy, scattershot prose veers toward self-parody. Sentences are either impossibly short or impossibly long. Commas, colons, parentheses and dashes crawl all over the page like flesh-eating microbes." — Jeff Giles, senior editor of Newsweek's Arts & Entertainment section Snip your sentences How long is too long? What's … [Read more...] about Snip your sentences | January 2010
Readers want less | December 2009
"Brevity is the sister of talent." — Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright Readers want less Establish copy length limits Size does matter. All things else being equal, your readers would rather read a short piece than a long piece. In writing — as in eating, imbibing, reality TV viewing and so much else in life — it's good to set limits. In other words, establish an … [Read more...] about Readers want less | December 2009