Category Archives: organizing writing
An Incredible Paragraph from Stanton Delaplane (Updated post)
This is San Francisco Chronicle reporter Stanton Delaplane (internal link) interviewing a rancher in 1941 about the poor roads in Siskiyou County, California. Delaplane quotes the farmer enough as needed for a newspaper article and then rephrases the farmer’s thoughts … Continue reading
Posted in art, editing writing, non-fiction writing, organizing writing, Poetry
Tagged Stanton Delaplane, writing
Leave a comment
Revising an Ontra White Paper
Revising an Ontra Whitepaper I rewrote an Ontra (external link) white paper recently to show them how I could write and edit for their company. I have over five years of legal content creation experience and that is what they … Continue reading
More on Writing for Machines
I’ve written many times on SEO (internal link) and how as a writer I feel compromised and sad that today’s most important reader is a machine. Humans don’t collect their thoughts and organize their tasks the way search engines do. … Continue reading
Problematic
Overly sensitive types at the start of the Snowflake Era began substituting the word “problem” for the word “issue.” Today, “issues” is everywhere. Your car no longer has any problems but instead a number of issues to be taken care … Continue reading
Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord by Gerad Manley Hopkins
EDITOR’S NOTE: REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR! The Reverend Hopkins has appeared at this site before, here (internal link) and here (internal link). The quotation is from Jeremiah 12:1. The King James version reads, “Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead … Continue reading
Writing Within Different Styles Part 1 (Repost – additions and corrections)
Writing Within Different Styles (Part 1) Little writing is more stilted or conforming to its trade than legal writing. Anything submitted to the court must sound legal, just as the IRS tax Code must sound like all that previously written … Continue reading
Let’s Return to Direct Lead Paragraphs
A Wandering Lead and Three Revisions Writers must compose direct lead paragraphs or risk losing readers. A wandering opening finds readers lost, wandering somewhere else. A direct opening can’t guarantee that a reader will continue but a clear, direct path … Continue reading
Revised Post on Revising
NB: I wrote this post last year and titled it “More on Revising.” (internal link) I noticed tonight that it needed more work so I have revised this post on revising. Argh. Editing never ends. More on Revising — Updated … Continue reading
CBS Claims Unbiased Reporting
CBS claims in their latest advertising that they offer unbiased reporting. How stupid do they think we are? Everyone knows that reporting is biased to a greater or lesser degree. Every reporter and every editor and every network CEO has … Continue reading
Fighting Wordiness
I once revised copy for a painter’s home page. The original text was only 250 words or so. These changes were the most important. It’s not just about reducing word count but making text more direct and impactful. Fighting wordiness … Continue reading
Posted in editing writing, non-fiction writing, organizing writing, revising writing
Tagged copy, editing, text, writing
2 Comments