Plain and direct
"Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them."C.S. Lewis, Letters to Children. C.S. Lewis offers several…
Leaders are writers
It's amazing how often you hear leaders advise leaders to write. To carve out time, to make it a habit--to keep trying to improve. Why?…
Musical words
Great writing has a certain musicality about it. It sounds pleasing to the ear when you hear it read aloud. Great writing is also delightful…
Most people pray
Human beings are religious. Study any culture from any time and you'll find people practicing some form of religion. Atheism is actually very rare, historically…
Simplify, Owl.
Every January our family participates in a Read-Aloud Challenge. Each person is supposed to read aloud for 10 minutes to someone else. If each person…
Proof out loud
I had a word omission in the very first sentence. And another one missing just a few lines later. How does this happen? Haste. I…
Listen, write, talk
It's frustrating to immediately forget what we read or hear. Especially if it was really good. Here are a few tips: First, I highly recommend…
Concretize
Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean "More people died" don't say "Mortality rose."C.S. Lewis, Letters to Children C.S. Lewis…
Translation
Long words save time because they carry the meaning of longer sentences, even paragraphs, of information. Can you translate yourself? Can you break it down…