They’re not buying Twitter, they’re buying you

They’re not buying Twitter, they’re buying you

The bidding for Twitter is heating up. The Wall Street Journal is predicting a price of about $20 billion. What’s worth so much? You. Vanity Fair’s Nick Bilton painted a devastating portrait of the years-long dysfunction inside the company. Here’s a sample: But in between all of those reasons [that previous bids to buy it…

Taming your writing process in three stages (infographic)

Taming your writing process in three stages (infographic)

The typical business writing process is a disaster. I’ve seen it; I’ve lived it; I’ve picked up the pieces afterwards. And bad process creates bad results. For better quality with less angst, you need the discipline to work in three distinct stages. The 3 P’s will mess you up This advice is for writing projects that take a…

Top 20 reasons voters are still undecided

Top 20 reasons voters are still undecided

Undecided voters. Time Magazine polled a bunch after the debate. Florida is so close that undecideds might tip it, which might tip the election. Who are these people?? Who, after everything that has happened in this election season, is still making up their mind? If you’re wondering, you’ve come to the right place. After careful research, I’ve…

3 ways Google Docs and Google Sheets can make you a better writer

3 ways Google Docs and Google Sheets can make you a better writer

If you’re writing anything interesting, you’re collaborating. And if you’re collaborating, Google Docs and Google Sheets are indispensable tools. Most of you work in organizations where Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are standard. They’re comfy and familiar. If you send a file in those formats to somebody, you know they can read it. So why bother…

One tool will make all the difference in your writing: ROAM (infographic)
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One tool will make all the difference in your writing: ROAM (infographic)

The only purpose of business writing is to create a change in the reader. Create the change and you succeed; fail to make the change and you’ve wasted your time. Before you spend hours on a piece of writing, spend 15 minutes on the one tool that will make it most likely to be effective. Learn…

Donald Trump’s debate ramble was like an Abbott and Costello routine
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Donald Trump’s debate ramble was like an Abbott and Costello routine

I try to be balanced. But I admit that I am biased in favor of candidates who are coherent. By the end of last night’s debate, there was only one of those left on the stage. Donald Trump sounded like a conspiracy nut on speed. Because I analyze writing, I won’t talk about who “looked presidential.”…

The “Will It Blend” experience of a book index

The “Will It Blend” experience of a book index

The joy of BlendTec’s “Will It Blend” videos is that they take expensive, painstakingly produced items — like iPhones — and reduce them to an undifferentiated mess. And that’s just what a book index does to the content in a book. Writing Without Bullshit covers a wide range of content, because everything is fodder for a writer….