Useful Articles for Developing Writers

I have been getting a lot of requests for online reading material on writing improvement. My answer is usually, "Just search 'writing skills at work' or 'how to improve work-related writing,' or a thousand other variations of those prompts." I also mention this blog, WORDS ON THE LINE, which has been recommending numerous helpful sources over the past 21 years. Here are three solid advice pieces, previously unmentioned on this blog: 

1. An Indeed article, "11 Ways to Improve Your Writing (with Examples)," offers the usual, but still valuable, tips on purposefulness, content development, formatting, voice, and other stylistic devices.  
2. "How to Improve Your Writing Skills at Work" by Etelka Lehoczky on the Forbes website goes a bit more off the beaten path. This brief primer proves a correlation between confidence and efficiency.
3. The Articulate Marketing website suggests positive and proactive practices in "Concentration: 22 Ways to Help You Focus on Writing." It serves several off-beat tips to spark creativity and sharpen focus that just might work for you. 

You can also browse WORDS ON THE LINE for topics such as the six-part series on writing confidence, an eight-part series on summarizing successfully, a seven-part series on reading for writers, and hundreds of other posts on writing best practices.

Giving Away the Store, Part 3: Perverse Punctuation

Great writers don't follow rules. They don't look up in a style book how to use a comma. They invent their own rules. Some don't even care about the standard subject-verb-object order of English if they can create a dramatic effect, as in by the grace of God go I. Here's an example of an exceptional writer, whose name has often appeared in this blog, who defies conventional punctuation rules:

One sees that most human beings are wretched, and, in one way or another, become wicked: because they are so wretched. And one's turning away, then, for what I have called the welcome table is dictated by some mysterious vow one scarcely knows one's taken—never allow oneself to fall so low. – from James Baldwin,  No Name in the Street in Collected Essays (Library of America, p. 374)

Most writing teachers would suggest that a dash should replace the colon, and a colon should replace the dash. To which Baldwin would surely say, "I don't care what you suggest." Baldwin was a born rebel, a fierce social critic, an American treasure, a global original, and an extraordinary writer, among the many other reasons why his life and work have resurged nearly four decades after his work. He has been the subject of notable documentaries, biopics, biographies, and plays. (For my money, he has never receded into the shadows of world literature.)  

Back to my point. Writing by the textbook requires us to use colons for announcements and dashes for emphasis. Baldwin seems to apply those rules in reverse. But why fuss over rules when you want people to focus on your ideas, not your understanding of grammatical edicts? Be on the lookout for rule breakers in your reading of masterful writers.

Giving Away the Store, Part 2: Word Smarts

If I find a website that contains more than a half dozen answers to questions students have frequently asked me, I'd have no choice but to refer it. Word Smarts is such a site. 

Word Smarts offers an extensive list of grammar, diction, punctuation, and style tips. You will learn something about our spoken and written language, as well as find the reading entertaining, whether you are looking for the standard uses of an ellipsis, difference between fewest and least, purposes of the past participle, or origin of "how come." 

You can also subscribe to the site to receive periodic email updates.

Giving Away the Store, Part 1: The Value of Reading Aloud

A fellow writing consultant once told me, "Don't tell your clients everything you know because then they won't need you." I never accepted such wrongheaded advice. I decided she was insecure, limited, selfish, and ignorant. Any consulting business built on such a model cannot succeed. 

Since I have been in this business, I have tried to use my education and knowledge to bring people in, not to keep them out; to lift them up, not to put them down; to move them forward, not to hold them back. How could I embody my mantra without giving my all to whomever I could whenever I could and wherever I was? I believe that the more you give, the more you get. The past three decades have proven me right. I am still here doing my thing.

In this spirit of giving, I will give away the store. I will dedicate all of 2025 to promoting sources other than my own to help people cultivate their writing craft. I start with this simple yet powerful suggestion from "Reading Aloud" by Melissa Kirsch writing for the New York Times. As far as I remember, I understood the benefits of reading to children. But this article also underscores the delights and rewards of being read to. By listening to a reader, we practice concentration, listen to the rhythm of a language, and build a bond with our reader. With a skilled reader, we also learn the meaning and pronunciation, or additional meanings and pronunciations of words. We also get insights into punctuation, hearing the slight pauses of commas,  longer pauses of periods, dramatic emphasis of dashes and colons, and minor interruptions of parentheses. This article is less than a five-minute read with a terrific reference to Harvard Sentences. It's definitely a worthwhile read.

Elmore Leonard's Tips on Writing

Elmore Leonard was a fiction writer and a wise guy. Many of his best-selling fiction novels became major motion pictures. His top ten tips on writing—and a surprising eleventh—appear in The New York Times article, "Writers on Writing; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle".

Enjoy his tongue-in-cheek approach, but take his suggestions seriously if you want to succeed as a writer. This essay is definitely worth a read.

Documentation Help Available at INSTRKTIV

Business and technical writers continually experience the challenge of creating understandable, reliable documentation standards for readers in their organization and across their industry. INSTRKTIV proposes to be a game changer in this endeavor by offering support in developing documents, such as user manuals, help files, procedures, and video instructions.

The advice this global organization renders on its website alone is legion. For instance, INSTRKTIV Director Ferry Vermeulen recently published "Technical Writing Tools: The Ultimate Choice of 83 Experts (2018 Update)". The article and video  provides insights from 80 industry experts responding to a question about their preferred technical writing tools. Hearing and reading about their responses will set newcomers to the field on the right course toward achieving writing proficiency. It will also validate the mindset of seasoned technical writers while offering them a fresh perspective in sharpening their craft.

Want to Sharpen Your Vocabulary?

Be suspicious of writing consultants who tell you which words to avoid using in business writing. Before long, you'll discover that they do not always practice what they preach. Nevertheless, since the business world is a breeding ground of buzzwords and jargon, reviewing lists of taboo words can prove a simple technique for maintaining a fresh writing style.

A Vocabulary.com post, Words to Avoid in Business Writing, covers author Bryan A. Garner's list of verboten words. After reviewing them, browse the Vocabulary.com website. Using its quiz features regularly will help you pick up fresher words to replace the dropped stale ones.

Update: Websites for Writers

Here is a long awaited update of useful websites for writers:

• Internet Public Library - This site is must if you are looking for information on a vast array of subjects, including arts and humanities; business and economics; education; law, government and politics; and a host of other topics.  You'll find the reference section especially helpful.
• Library of Congress - The ultimate institution dedicated to cultivating the knowledge of people worldwide, the Library of Congress makes available online an endless collection of digital articles, many of them otherwise rare. Check out its Global Gateway to connect to materials beyond the USA. The print and photograph catalog is quite a treat for capturing a writer's imagination. For instance, the Ansel Adams photographs of Japanese-American internment in California during World War II.
• MIT Writing Courses -  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers free writing courses through its OpenCourseWare program. For starters, download and study the materials of Communicating in Technical Organizations or Communicating in Cyberspace. 

If you don't find what you're looking for, you can always browse the writers' websites WORDS ON THE LINE has collected over the past eight years.

My Top 100 Movies

I noticed that two of the top ten films on the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies List would not make my own top 100. I also find myself recommending movies to others during informal conversations about sources of entertainment. So I decided to list my own top 100 movies in chronological, not preferential, order. I probably left out some great pics, which would push out some of the films listed, but here's a first draft.

You may be thinking, "What does this list have to do with my writing?" Here are two strong reasons.First, as storytellers, proposal writers, poets, or technical communicators, we often allude to movies to crystallize our points. In fact, I notice that my own teaching points are often best understood by learners when I refer to popular culture. With the exception of music, movies are an abundant resource for cultural references. The movies that made this list are rich in metaphors. Second, the movies listed here share a common bond: outstanding writing. They exude imaginative narratives. Just listening to these films offers deep insights into quality writing. 

See these movies, or see them again, with these thoughts in mind.

MY TOP 100 MOVIES (in chronological order)

    1. The Grapes of Wrath (American, 1940)

    2. Casablanca (American, 1942)

    3. The Ox-Bow Incident (American, 1943)

    4. All About Eve (American, 1950)

    5. An American in Paris (American, 1951)
    6. A Streetcar Named Desire (American, 1951)
    7. High Noon (American, 1952)
    8. Ikiru (Japanese, 1952)
    9. On the Waterfront (American, 1954)
  10. A Star is Born (American,1954)
  11. Twelve Angry Men (American, 1957)
  12. Inherit the Wind (American, 1960)
  13. Judgment at Nuremberg (American, 1961)
  14. A Raisin in the Sun (American, 1961)
  15. Requiem for a Heavyweight (American, 1962)
  16. The Miracle Worker (American, 1962)
  17. Lawrence of Arabia (British, 1962)
  18. Long Day's Journey into Night (American, 1962)
  19. America, America (American, 1963)
  20. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (American, 1966)
  21. Persona (Swedish, 1966)
  22. The Graduate (American, 1967)
  23. Shame (Swedish, 1968)
  24. Midnight Cowboy (American, 1969)
  25. Husbands (American, 1970)
  26. Patton (American, 1970)
  27. Death in Venice (British, 1971)
  28. A Clockwork Orange (British, 1971)
  29. Cries and Whispers (Swedish, 1972)
  30. The Godfather (American, 1972)
  31. Last Tango in Paris (Italian, 1972)
  32. Scenes from a Marriage (Swedish, 1973)
  33. Love and Anarchy (Italian, 1973)
  34. The Conversation (American, 1974)
  35. Lacombe, Lucien (French, 1974)
  36. The Godfather, Part II (American, 1974)
  37. Chinatown (American, 1974)
  38. Seven Beauties (Italian, 1975)
  39. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (American, 1975)
  40. Taxi Driver (American, 1976)
  41. Providence (French, 1977)
  42. A Special Day (Italian, 1977)
  43. The Deer Hunter (American, 1978)
  44. Apocalypse Now (American, 1979)
  45. Being There (American, 1979)
  46. Raging Bull (American, 1980)
  47. Breaker Morant (Australian, 1980)
  48. The Elephant Man (British, 1980)
  49. Pixote (Brazilian, 1981)
  50. Gallipoli (Australian, 1981)
  51. Sophie's Choice (American, 1982)
  52. Gandhi (British, 1982)
  53. Tender Mercies (American, 1983)
  54. El Norte (British, 1983)
  55. Paris, Texas (German, 1984)
  56. Amadeus (American, 1984)
  57. The Trip to Bountiful (American, 1985)
  58. Shoah (French, 1985)
  59. Cinema Paradiso (Italian, 1988)
  60. The Civil War (American, 1990)
  61. Barton Fink (American, 1991)
  62. 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould (French, 1993)
  63. Schindler’s List (American, 1993)
  64. Household Saints (American, 1993)
  65. The Shawshank Redemption (American, 1994)

  66. Shine (Australian, 1996)

  67. Ponette (French, 1996)
  68. Affliction (American, 1997)
  69. Shakespeare in Love (British, 1998)
  70. Central Station (Brazilian, 1998)
  71. Run Lola Run (German, 1998)
  72. Saving Private Ryan (American, 1998)
  73. Being John Malkovich (American, 1999)
  74. Hurlyburly (American, 1998)
  75. Calle 54 (Spanish, 2000)
  76. Pollock (American, 2000)

  77. The Hours (British, 2002)

  76. City of God (Brazilian, 2002)
  77. Omagh (Irish, 2004)
  78. The Motorcycle Diaries (Argentinean, 2004)
  79. Tsotsi (South African, 2005)
  80. Paradise Now (Palestinian, 2005)
  81. The Lives of Others (German, 2006)
  82. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French, 2007)
  83. Lust, Caution (American, Chinese, 2007)
  84. Hunger (British and Irish, 2008)
  85. Synecdoche, New York (American, 2008)
  86. The Hurt Locker (American, 2008)
  87. Doubt (American, 2008)
  88. Poetry (South Korea, 2010)
  89. Midnight in Paris (American, 2011)

  90. Margaret American, 2011)

  91. Carnage (French, 2011)

  92. Margin Call (American, 2011)
  93. Amour (French, 2012)
  94. 12 Years a Slave (British, American, 2013)
  95 Ida (Polish, 2014),
  96. Son of Saul (Hungarian, 2015)
  97. Fences (American, 2016)

  98. The Father (French, British, 2020)

  99. The Brutalist (American, Hungarian,2024)

100. Sentimental Value (Norwegian, 2025)

Videojug Short Videos for Writers in a Rush

Videojug is just the sort of website designed for people who want to learn in a heartbeat. Claiming over 60,000 free, professionally produced how-to videos to help viewers “get good at life,” Videojug offers videos on writing on specialized writing topics that run anywhere from one to five minutes. Topics include letters of apology, application, complaint, condolence, fundraising, persuasion, rejection, retirement, and sympathy.

These videos are worth a view if you are new to the business world because the videos are methodical and easy to follow.

Books by Philip Vassallo

• How to Write Fast Under Pressure


• The Art of E-mail Writing


• The Art of On-the-Job Writing


• The Inwardness of the Outward Gaze: Learning and Teaching Through Philosophy

Reverso a Helpful Website

I ran into another useful site: Reverso, a free translation, grammar, conjugation, dictionary, and thesaurus service. The site comes courtesy of Softissimo, a French-based publisher of linguistic technologies and multilingual solutions for corporations, governments, and consumers. It is easy to use and rich with practical advice. It’s definitely worth a look: www.reverso.net.

Books by Philip Vassallo

• How to Write Fast Under Pressure
• The Art of E-mail Writing
• The Art of On-the-Job Writing
• The Inwardness of the Outward Gaze: Learning and Teaching Through Philosophy

Moms and Dads: Make Your Kids Writers This Summer!

Do you need some practical tips to motivate your children to practice writing this summer? Read “10 Tips for Summer Writing” by Debbie Glade on Education.com, a clearinghouse for all sorts of articles on writing and reading improvement. You’re sure to find at least one of those tips useful in getting your kids to use their summer hours productively as serious learners, which they are never to young to be.

11 Rules a Worthwhile Read

JunketStudies.com provides a discussion forum on writing as well as a list of 11 rules of writing. Such lists of top 5, 10, 20, or whatever number tips seem repetitious after a while, but repetition is just what developing readers need to get into a groove and gain confidence to write every day. Check it out: www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/

Connecting Pen to Paper

Here is another vote for handwriting, this one from Lakshmi Pratury, an international marketer, who encourages the art of letter writing by sharing handwritten notes from her deceased father. You may find some inspiration to write someone you care about after hearing her four-minute talk: www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/lakshmi_pratury_on_letter_writing.html

Tweeting about Inspiration

Keep an eye on my Twitter updates to see a list of artists, musicians, composers, film directors, poets, dramatists, screenwriters, essayists, novelists, and public speakers who have inspired me throughout my life. All of the arts have an impact on the creative process, so I hope you'll think of your own artistic inspirations. (I've already posted the artists, musicians, and composers, and the other seven categories will follow.) I provide links to these influential contributors to our minds and culture, so you can judge for yourself whether you too would find them inspirational.

Are You a Storyteller? Join NSN!

Would you like to learn how the art of storytelling can improve your business? Do you need to sharpen your storytelling skills? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, then you should be a member of the National Storytelling Network (NSN), whose purpose is to advance the power of storytelling to enrich people's lives.



NSN serves the storytelling community in a number of ways:

• The National Storytelling Conference, which delivers material appealing to attendees' interests.
• Two events during The National Storytelling Festival, the annual storytelling gathering in Jonesborough, Tennessee: Stories Work, a series of storytelling workshops, and National Story Night, a concert of stories.
• Storytelling, the organization's magazine, published five times annually, reporting on trends, news, and special events.
• Grants to emerging storytellers, master yarn spinners, and storytelling projects
  

Check out NSN to see whether its programs might benefit you.

"Science and Technical Writing" an Important Reference

This week a participant asked me about whether I know of the Philip Rubens book, Science and Technical Writing: A Manual of Style, Second Edition (http://www.amazon.com/Science-Technical-Writing-Manual-Routledge/dp/0415925517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258839113&sr=1-1). Not only do I know of it, I have used it on many occasions, whenever I’ve wanted Rubens’s take on Global English, audience awareness, technical prose, and specialized terminology. This book is definitely worth a look.

"On Writing Well" Still Matters

Thirty-three years and seven editions later, William Zinsser’s On Writing Well is as relevant as ever. Zinsser divided the book into four parts (Principles, Methods, Forms, and Attitudes), so it’s easy to get just the ideas you’re looking for. The opening and closing sections are most instructive for the developing nonfiction writer, and the Forms section is generous in examples of descriptive writing from authors like Woody Allen, Alfred Kazin, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Eudora Welty. Here’s the link:

www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258828250&sr=1-1

Web 2.0 Tips, Part 7: Live Online

We all have heard about how Web surfing has contributed to breaking up relationships and production downtime, and how the Internet is little better than the new boob tube.

I don’t buy these notions for a moment, at least not if you’re trying to establish a serious presence for your enterprise.

The Web is where the work is. The available business, writing, and even living ideas to be had on the Internet supersede any potential drawback that comes with the territory. Whether you like it or not, this is the community where anyone in the know is a member. Hang out there. Read whatever you can at key sites. Follow whatever links seem worthwhile. You’ll come home better for it: more informed, thoughtful, and valuable to your endeavor.

Web 2.0 Tips, Part 6: Show Up Everywhere

Well, this tip speaks for itself. No matter what you search for these days, you’re bound to find it. This truth works both for and against you. While you can find virtually anything online, searching for something will not necessarily get you what you’re looking for on the first hit. That has happened to you, right?

What to do?

Be ubiquitous. Think of the Twelve Nations:

1. Alternation – Don’t be a one-hit wonder. Keep writing about contrasting applications to your idea.
2. Assignation – Hook your readers to your next post or to your next virtual or onsite meeting to extend the relationship.
3. Combination – Look for links among contrasting industries and disciplines to appear in all of them.
4. Consternation – Avoid this one! Don’t prophesize gloom and doom, and don’t write cryptically. You want to build an adience, not destroy one.
5. Culmination – Whatever you communicate, make it end on a note that brings readers to wherever else you want them to go or whatever else you want them do.
6. Domination – Be out there—always and everywhere.
7. Examination – Try not to appear shallow while keeping your message brief. Reading the concise genius of Confucius could prove helpful here.
8. Imagination – Know the trends in your field and write about all of them, however you can.
9. Recrimination – Don’t use your blog as a means of getting even. Always take the high road. People will respect you for this practice.
10. Rumination – Reflect wisely on your topic, respecting your readers’ intelligence, to draw a wider audience.
11. Stagnation – Of course, you don't want this! Keep it fresh by raising the new and not rehashing the old.
12. Subordination – Don’t let earlier posts die. If they’re helpful to understand what you’re commenting on now, then link posts.