Improve your Writing
November 18th, 2020
Twitter 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 persuasion
Our Advocacy Work
May 12th, 2020
Is it possible to eat your weight in popcorn? I appear to be trying. The pandemic lock-down has also given me permission to double my chocolate intake, consume cookies at breakfast and microwave chunks of cheese on a plate so I can scrape the stuff into my mouth with a fork. The grapes have become […]
read more...How to Cope with the Coronavirus Shutdown
Improve your Writing
April 12th, 2017
Gloria Steinem… senior bureaucrats… somebody who funds the kind of work you do? Whose attention would you most like to attract? In recent years, Canadian women writing timely, engaging and persuasive commentary have elicited responses from all of the above. Others have sparked international conversations, investigative journalism, and a reversal of government policy. And […]
read more...Whose attention would you most like to attract?
Improve your Writing
August 13th, 2013
Let’s say you have a graduate degree and/or 20 years of experience in your field, and you’re used to speaking or writing for people who are similarly well-informed. Chances are you sometimes find it difficult to translate your knowledge into sentences that engage a lay audience. But whether you’re writing a newspaper commentary, or speaking […]
read more...2 words to make your writing more accessible
Improve your Writing
August 23rd, 2012
Far too much research has already documented that when something goes wrong, women are highly inclined to blame the problem or setback on their own deficiencies. This tendency operates in stark contrast to men, who are more likely to blame external circumstances, regardless of the actual cause. There’s an upside to women’s default of accepting […]
read more...Most common errors made by aspiring op ed writers – part 2
Improve your Writing
August 9th, 2012
If you saw the following sentence at the start of a piece in your daily newspaper, would you keep reading? “You don’t see a lot of naked men in advertising.” Lots of people did — no thanks to me. The lede I’d originally placed at the top of an essay I wrote 20 years ago […]
read more...Don’t Bury the Lede!
Improve your Writing
July 29th, 2012
Whether you’re picked last for the ball team, get rebuffed on the first date, or fail to elicit a positive response from an editor, rejection stinks. That’s why Informed Opinions offers online editing feedback (free to our workshop participants, but available for a fee to others). We’ve found that many aspiring op ed writers – […]
read more...Most Common Errors Made by Aspiring Op Ed Writers – part 1
Improve your Writing
May 26th, 2012
In the middle of delivering an op ed writing workshop recently to a very engaged group of United Way staff and volunteers from across Ontario (organized through Sean Moore‘s fabulous Advocacy School initiative) I was reminded again of the value of a second pair of eyes. It’s not that I don’t know this already: even […]
read more...Think “outcome” when crafting an op ed