Notes on Writing Style from George Orwell

Most people know George Orwell because they had to read his short novels 1984 and Animal Farm in high school. Orwell was an expert essayist as well, a master of the English language who had quite a bit to say about bad writing.

In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” he attacks pretentious, ambiguous writing by citing astounding examples of academic gobbledygook, political waffling, and technical jargon. He concludes with six tips:

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

You can read the article by clicking here: http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

Thanks, Neil Friedland, Coordinator of Writing Services for the School of Visual Arts and colleague, for recommending the article.


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Two Wild Writing Tips from Oates

No matter what you’re writing—an autobiographical book, a business proposal, a company newsletter article, an essay for a class, a letter to Mom, whatever—American literary giant Joyce Carol Oates offers for your consideration two seven-word sentences in the preface of The Handbook of Short Story Writing, edited by Frank A. Dickson and Sandra Smythe.

1. There are no rules to help us. Here she is talking about writing short fiction, but you could see this beautiful sentence as a free pass for unlocking your imagination regardless of the writing project. Forget about rules—just write! Rules can come later. Stop asking questions and get to it.

2. Writers write, eventually; but first they feel. This is the penultimate sentence of her essay. (The final one is this: A marvelous life.) Here Oates encourages daydreaming and then transforming that flight of fantasy into a gratifying rush of writing pleasure you’ll find difficult to stop. People who love writing write for that experience.


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New AMA Course: How to Write Fast …

I’m excited to be designing a new one-day course for the American Management Association (AMA): How to Write Fast When It’s Due Yesterday. The course will offer practical tips for jumpstarting the writing process, dealing with writing pressure at work, and taking a more proactive stance toward managing writing tasks.

I had a great time designing and delivering How to Write a Darn Good E-Mail, another one-day course for AMA in 2006 because I had a strong support team working with me. After attending today’s storyboard session for How to Write Fast, I am confident about an excellent outcome.

The course will launch on October 24 at the AMA New York City office, and then at its centers in San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington, DC, so keep your eyes open for it!


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Putting Your "Right" Mind to It

Will the MFA (Master of Fine Arts) surpass the MBA as a more desired higher education degree in the corporate world? Daniel H. Pink thinks so.

Pink, the author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, persuasively argues that technical know-how, the domain of left-brained thinkers, has already had its day. Left-brain thinking brought the technological innovations (laptops, handhelds) we commonly use; however, the amazing progress of automation has created a tremendous worldwide glut of technical skills. As a result, many information technology jobs are being outsourced to countries like India and the Philippines for a fraction of the cost.

In this well-written, fast-paced book, the author claims that more and more corporations are trying to get a step ahead of the competition by seeking right-brainers, creative people who see connections between apparently divergent ideas. In fact, Pink notes that some firms have actually hired poets and artists to breathe a cultural aesthetic into the company.

After introducing his premise, Pink turns to what he calls the six right-brain senses necessary to succeed in today’s business environment: design (sheer beauty—think iPhone), story (narrative powers), symphony (realizing the harmony of diverse elements), empathy (understanding and feeling for others), play (the ability to have fun and laugh at life), and meaning (understanding the greater significance of things). Portfolio sections at the end of each of these chapters provide numerous practical ideas to cultivate your right-brain leanings.

As a writer, I found this book helpful. If you’re often under the gun to write at work, you should enjoy this quick read. A special thanks for recommending the book to Marzena Ermler, Coordinator of Professional Development, Office of Staff Development, the New York Public Library.



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Facts Schmacts—What’s the Story?

In her thought-provoking book The Story Factor, author and consultant Annette Simmons drives home what I talk a lot about in my writing seminars when she writes:

"People make their decisions based on what the facts mean to them, not the facts themselves. The meaning they add to facts depends on their current story. People stick with their story even when presented with facts that don’t fit. They simply interpret or discount the facts to fit their story. This is why facts are not terribly useful in influencing others."

As I’ve said in this blog before, it’s not the content language that persuades people; it’s the context language—the interpretive information—that makes the facts relevant to them. If you’re thinking, “So much for bullet points, PowerPoint slides, and the like,” you may be overdoing it. After all, if the boss wants bullet points, you’ve got to deliver them. Just remember to set the reader up with a brief introductory statement about why the bullet points are relevant to your readers.

Simmons does a fine job of describing why storytelling is so essential a skill in influencing and persuading audience, and then she systematically lists the types of stories we need to tell and the situations that inspire them. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to be a better persuasive speaker—and with a little imagination, business writers will find how to apply her ideas to their composing process.


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You Can Always Ask Oxford

Just in case Dictionary.com and MerriamWebster.com are not enough for you linguaphiles out there, you’ll get plenty to browse at the Oxford online site. Bookmarking www.AskOxford.com is a sure way to get answers to a lot of your language questions. Once there, you can simply use it search engine Oxford English Dictionary to look up that puzzling word. You can also get tips on letter writing, grammar, spelling, and more on the Better Writing tab, and numerous links are available for the clicking on the World of Words tab. Parents of school-age children will find several helpful educational links at AskOxford as well.


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Countering Reader Indifference

In Mindmapping: Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving, author Joyce Wycoff explores the value of mindmapping as a creative tool in many endeavors, especially project management, meeting management, presentation planning, note taking, and writing.

Wycoff explains that since no one wants to read or will remember most business writing, writers of memos, reports, and proposals should develop a sound composing strategy, which includes:
1. determining whether the message should be written at all
2. using headlines (e.g., “Company Benefits,” “Action Plan”) for maximum impact
3. inserting visuals wherever helpful to the reader
4. preferring the short document, the short paragraph, the short sentence, and the short word


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