Improve your Writing
January 27th, 2021Be honest: if you sent me a piece of your writing, and I sent it back marked up like the page at the right, would you feel insulted? I know it’s sobering to see words you’ve carefully committed to paper marked up in red ink by a critic who deems your prose something short of […]
read more...6 tips for editing your own work — and why you should solicit feedback from othersImprove your Writing
November 18th, 2020Twitter and Facebook have a lot to answer for: rampant misinformation, spiralling conspiracy theories, plummeting productivity. (And that’s just in my family!) But I fear social media echo chambers are also undermining our persuasive capacity. It’s so easy to share the stuff we agree with, and condemn the stuff that’s so obviously WRONG, without going […]
read more...4 tips for moving past mere ranting to effective persuasionImprove your Writing
October 20th, 2020I cry easily, whoop at the end of dance performances and am passionate about my work. My partner would tell you it’s not possible to have a conversation with me that does not involve me sharing my feelings. And I think the world would be a much better place if we raised men and boys […]
read more...When it is (and isn’t) useful to focus on your feelingsEffective Communication and Master Media Engagement
September 9th, 2020Can you spot the strategic communications error in this Calgary park signage? (And do you know why it’s relevant for your next media interview?) I’m not talking about the graffiti’d objection to the ownership of wild bunnies and birds signalled by the possessive “our” — although I agree with the correction. No, I’m referring to […]
read more...Replace negative phrasing with positive imagery for more effective media interviewsImprove your Writing
April 6th, 2020In Stalinist Russia, poet Anna Akhmatova’s husband was shot and her son imprisoned. Every day for months she stood outside the prison walls begging for word about her son’s fate. Recognizing her, one of the other women in similar circumstances called out to ask, “Poet, can you write this?” She responded, “I can.” And then […]
read more...“Poet, can you write this?” We need to write the post-coronavirus reality we want nowEffective Communication
May 24th, 2019These are just a few of the exchanges provoked by the Toronto Star’s recent publication of a commentary I wrote about the downside of filler phrases. Many of those who responded on Twitter took issue with my apparent ageism. (Although I referenced recent interaction with young people, I also mentioned that the habit isn’t confined to […]
read more...Clear speech advocate writes; Twitter sh*t storm erupts.Improve your Writing
July 18th, 2018In the dog days of summer 2017, when many people were at the beach, or glued to the media coverage of Charlottesville’s neo-Nazi march and the shocking response from the leader of the free world, a small posse of women with informed opinions were speaking up to make change. University of Ottawa law prof, Liz […]
read more...9 tips to improve the chances of getting your op ed publishedImprove your Writing
April 5th, 2015It could be a stressful exercise. But by the time we force our commentary writing workshop participants into allowing others in the room to vote on the engagement capacity of their opening sentences, they’ve already laughed and commiserated enough that the “thumbs down” votes don’t feel personal. And the collective intelligence of the colleagues present invariably serves up a […]
read more...How to engage readers from the first sentence — and repurpose your content, tooImprove your Writing
May 12th, 2014Informed Opinions’ Writing Compelling Commentary workshop is chock-full of concrete suggestions designed to help you write a timely and persuasive op ed and get it published in an influential media forum. And previous blog posts have offered lots of content that expands on the hand-outs we supply and the examples we offer in the session. […]
read more...3 Tricks to Improve Readership of your Op EdImprove your Writing
February 11th, 2014Up until this week, Rob Ford’s life experience — elected office, crack cocaine, domestic abuse — had little intersection with mine. But hearing his contention that he’d been “profiled” for the jaywalking ticket he received while in BC took me back. I felt badly for Mr. Ford that he wasn’t spotted by the Vancouver motorcycle […]
read more...Making smart advice irresistible