Writing Advice

Speechwriting tips to help make sure you don’t send your audience to sleep

Have you ever listened to a speech so rambling and tedious that you felt a tidal wave of relief when it finally ended? Yup, me too. These speechwriting tips will make sure that you never subject anyone to anything that torturous. They’ll help you engage, entertain and delight your audiences. (Instead of making them feel […]

How to Write an Introduction: Your Three-Step Guide to Doing It Better, and Doing It Faster

Whatever you’re working on, you too can write excellent introductions by rethinking your writing process, and by taking a tip from journalism. 1. Write Your Introduction Last Seriously. That’s because I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen writers stuck at the first sentence because they’re trying to write the introduction first. But […]

Brilliant Books to Read if You Want to be a Better Writer

You want to be a better writer. But there are masses of books about writing and creativity out there. (A quick search on Amazon.co.uk shows over … [Read More...] about Brilliant Books to Read if You Want to be a Better Writer

Should You Use Words of Foreign Origin When Writing in English?

George Orwell thought not. So should foreign words and phrases really be verboten, or can they add a certain je ne sais quoi to your magnum … [Read More...] about Should You Use Words of Foreign Origin When Writing in English?

The differences between spoken and written English (and what they mean for speechwriting)

Steven Pinker's an American experimental psychologist who writes about language, mind and human nature. In The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s … [Read More...] about The differences between spoken and written English (and what they mean for speechwriting)

Today I’m back in the realms of the rhetorical with a word whose meaning is defined (at least by my Chambers dictionary app) as follows: Those … [Read More...] about Word of the Week: Litotes

Do you find writing difficult? I do. This may come as a bit of a surprise when you consider that for most of my life I’ve written a lot, and … [Read More...] about Got Writer’s Block? Try This Fix

You've probably noticed that I'm quite fond of reappraising established writing advice. Why? Well, I suspect much of it doesn't work, in that it fails … [Read More...] about A Word About Writing Advice

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Writing Advice

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