100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Mentor Series) by Gary Provost Page B
Authors: Gary Provost
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to assume that that’s the only catch and that the gift is not costing you any money. But sometimes you lose money by taking the gift. In other words, you’re getting ripped off.
The above information lacks the facts needed to prove the author’s point. Look below at an article Barbara Gilder Quint wrote on the same subject in Glamour Magazine’s February 1981 issue to see how much more persuasive an author can be with facts.
In New York City one major bank recently advertised a ‘free’ 19 inch TV set to people who would deposit $3,000 into a 3½ year account that would pay 7% interest.
But at the same time, other banks were paying 12% on 2½ year $3,000 accounts —a difference of about $150 each year in interest on the $3,000, which raises the question of how ‘free’ that TV set is.
12. Put Emphatic Words at the End
Emphatic words are those words you want the reader to pay special attention to. They contain the information you are most anxious to communicate. You can acquire that extra attention for those words by placing them at the end of the sentence.
If you want to emphasize the fact that redwood trees are tall, you might write, “Some redwoods are more than 350 feet tall.” But if you want to emphasize the fact that one of the attractions in California is the redwood trees, you would write, “Also found in California are the 350-foot redwood trees.”
If you want to emphasize the amount of money that somebody owes you, you write, “By June first please send me a check for $107.12.” If you want to emphasize the due date, you write, “Please send me a check for $107.12 by June first.” And if you want to emphasize who the check is to go to, write, “On June first the check for $107.12 should be sent to me.”
This is a lesson best learned by ear. Listen to how the impact of a sentence moves to whatever information happens to be at the end.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him.
Ask what you can do for America, not what America can do for you.
Ask not what America can do for you, ask what you can do for America.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Eleven Ways to Make People Like What You Write
1. Make Yourself Likeable
2. Write About People
3. Show Your Opinion
4. Obey Your Own Rules
5. Use Anecdotes
6. Use Examples
7. Name Your Sources
8. Provide Useful Information
9. Use Quotations
10. Use Quotes
11. Create a Strong Title
1. Make Yourself Likable
In order to write successfully, you don’t have to become a great writer. But you do have to make yourself likable. If you are asking people to buy your product, take your advice, mail a check, or worry about the problem you present, you first want them to care about you. When you write well, you share a private moment with the readers. Present yourself to readers as someone they would welcome into their homes. Write clearly and conversationally, and strive always to present in your writing some honest picture of who you are.
Readers will like you if you edit from your work French phrases, obscure literary allusions, and archaic words that are known to only six persons in the world.
Readers will like you if you seem to understand who they are and what their world is like. If you write an article called “Getting Back on the Budget” for Woman’s Day, and you begin by advising the readers to go out and borrow $100,000, you will reveal your ignorance of the readers’ financial status. The readers won’t like you. (And of course the editors at Woman’s Day won’t like you and won’t publish your article.)
Readers will like you if you use humor in almost everything you write. Of course, there are times when humor is inappropriate (on a death certificate, for example), but don’t hesitate to bring humor into your business correspondence and articles.
Readers will like you if you show that you
The above information lacks the facts needed to prove the author’s point. Look below at an article Barbara Gilder Quint wrote on the same subject in Glamour Magazine’s February 1981 issue to see how much more persuasive an author can be with facts.
In New York City one major bank recently advertised a ‘free’ 19 inch TV set to people who would deposit $3,000 into a 3½ year account that would pay 7% interest.
But at the same time, other banks were paying 12% on 2½ year $3,000 accounts —a difference of about $150 each year in interest on the $3,000, which raises the question of how ‘free’ that TV set is.
12. Put Emphatic Words at the End
Emphatic words are those words you want the reader to pay special attention to. They contain the information you are most anxious to communicate. You can acquire that extra attention for those words by placing them at the end of the sentence.
If you want to emphasize the fact that redwood trees are tall, you might write, “Some redwoods are more than 350 feet tall.” But if you want to emphasize the fact that one of the attractions in California is the redwood trees, you would write, “Also found in California are the 350-foot redwood trees.”
If you want to emphasize the amount of money that somebody owes you, you write, “By June first please send me a check for $107.12.” If you want to emphasize the due date, you write, “Please send me a check for $107.12 by June first.” And if you want to emphasize who the check is to go to, write, “On June first the check for $107.12 should be sent to me.”
This is a lesson best learned by ear. Listen to how the impact of a sentence moves to whatever information happens to be at the end.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him.
Ask what you can do for America, not what America can do for you.
Ask not what America can do for you, ask what you can do for America.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Eleven Ways to Make People Like What You Write
1. Make Yourself Likeable
2. Write About People
3. Show Your Opinion
4. Obey Your Own Rules
5. Use Anecdotes
6. Use Examples
7. Name Your Sources
8. Provide Useful Information
9. Use Quotations
10. Use Quotes
11. Create a Strong Title
1. Make Yourself Likable
In order to write successfully, you don’t have to become a great writer. But you do have to make yourself likable. If you are asking people to buy your product, take your advice, mail a check, or worry about the problem you present, you first want them to care about you. When you write well, you share a private moment with the readers. Present yourself to readers as someone they would welcome into their homes. Write clearly and conversationally, and strive always to present in your writing some honest picture of who you are.
Readers will like you if you edit from your work French phrases, obscure literary allusions, and archaic words that are known to only six persons in the world.
Readers will like you if you seem to understand who they are and what their world is like. If you write an article called “Getting Back on the Budget” for Woman’s Day, and you begin by advising the readers to go out and borrow $100,000, you will reveal your ignorance of the readers’ financial status. The readers won’t like you. (And of course the editors at Woman’s Day won’t like you and won’t publish your article.)
Readers will like you if you use humor in almost everything you write. Of course, there are times when humor is inappropriate (on a death certificate, for example), but don’t hesitate to bring humor into your business correspondence and articles.
Readers will like you if you show that you
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