Present participle heads may be worse than labels Barney Kilgore, the legendary editor of The Wall Street Journal, once wrote: "If I see 'upcoming' slip in[to] the paper again, I'll be downcoming and someone will be outgoing." I'm with Barney: Stop ing-ing. Especially in headlines. Now, to be fair, Kilgore's comment refers to gerunds: verbs that get turned into … [Read more...] about Stop it with the ing-ing
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Lists with benefits
Make them parallel, verb-based When Mr. Wylie's Writing Tips had a hip replacement recently, he had to take a break from grocery shopping. I went searching for my new BFF, an online grocery delivery service. I found Envoy, which turned out to offer grocery delivery and a writing workshop in one. Envoy does a great job of expressing its benefits. My favorite: … [Read more...] about Lists with benefits
Extreme makeover
Strathcona County embraces the feature-style story structure Too many communicators have married the inverted pyramid and made a lot of triangular babies. Problem is, the traditional news structure doesn't work well with humans. But in Alberta, communicators are starting to flirt with other structures. After attending one of my Beyond the Inverted Pyramid workshops, … [Read more...] about Extreme makeover
30-3-30 redux
What does Clay Schoenfeld's rule look like today? Back in the mid-20th century, academician and communication theorist Clay Schoenfeld recommended the 30-3-30 rule. That is, you should present your message as if one-third of your audience will give you: 30 minutes. These folks are readers, and don't we wish there were more of them! 3 minutes. They're not reading … [Read more...] about 30-3-30 redux
Check it twice
How to write a good list "I love lists," writes Adam Savage. "Always have. When I was 14, I wrote down every dirty word I knew on file cards and placed them in alphabetical order." There are lots of things to list — organizational accomplishments, steps for getting the job done, dirty words. Here's a list of three ways to list things right: 1. Got a list? List … [Read more...] about Check it twice