Talking about writing well
I was recently invited to go to Mildura to talk about effective writing - specifically about putting together a submission for the local business awards program. As I planned my presentation I realised how difficult it is to generalise about what is ‘good’ writing. And teach it - I have never attended a writing course that taught me much (especially those courses that claim to be able to set you up as a writer for the web in one quick session).
Of course, good writing appeals to its intended audience, tells them something, and perhaps converts, reminds, seduces, pleases, displeases, illuminates or causes some such altered state.
Anyway, I worried about explaining apostrophes (handy tip or overkill?), couldn’t resist condemning the contemporary (marketing/SMS-ing) trend towards over-use of punctuation and capped letters and included some points about style and process. The local business owners were an appreciative audience and if their note-taking was any indication I might have shared something useful.
Or perhaps they were busy writing a ‘to do’ list for the rest of the week!
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