Guide your readers better than this trail guided me
I got lost. A poorly marked hiking trail sent my husband and me in one wrong direction and then another before we found our way. This reminded me of how writing that lacks trail markers sends readers astray. The best trail markers for your writing are topic sentences. A strong topic sentence—the first sentence of […]
Please edit like a traitor
As a writer, your first loyalty should not be to yourself. Instead, you should betray yourself, as Donald Murray suggests in Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work. Here’s what Murray says: Effective writers turn traitor to their own copy, reading what they have written through the eyes of an enemy reader who has no […]
Blogging Q&A with advisor Richard Rosso
Richard Rosso, senior financial adviser for Clarity Financial in Houston, Texas, communicates with an enthusiasm that’s infectious. I tapped him as a guest blogger last year to discuss “The Fee Value Proposition.” When he mentioned his writing for MarketWatch Retirement when we met at my presentation in Houston in March 2014, I got the idea […]
Blogging with James B. Stewart of The New York Times
Looking for ideas on how to structure your blog posts? Newspapers like The New York Times can provide inspiration, as I’ve found with many articles by Floyd Norris and with the column by James B. Stewart that I discuss in this post. You can find a formula for introducing a blog post in Stewart’s “Why […]
Ouch, LinkedIn, why did you do that to me?
If you’ve ever doubted the value of hosting content of your own website or blog, I hope my story makes you reconsider. My problem? I am losing valuable recommendations from LinkedIn. A quick tip for you: Take screenshots of any of your recommendations that will be affected. Before you panic at the thought of losing […]