What you need to unlearn, learn and relearn

Presentation by Barb Sawyers toCentennial CollegeMarch 2012

What you need to unlearn formal, objectivestyle

Go back to your first and favourite way to communicate

What works in conversation?

Meet Patricia Davies, Report on Business

What gets Patricia up in the morning?

What keeps her up at night?

What is the personality of the organization you are writing for?

Pretend you are RIMWhat’s your personality?

Yoritex Inc., developer of the first medical diagnostics accessories for BlackBerry® smartphones, today announced the successful conclusion of its Medical Network HUB® prototype testing. Having successfully completed comprehensive hardware and software testing, Yoritex Inc. will commence manufacture of a pilot batch of Medical Network HUB® in October that accelerates development of its medical plug-in units line.

Rewrite this news release from Ms RIM or Rim Dude

to Patricia

Talk the release to Patricia.

How did it change?

Meet Sid Patel, hospital administrator

What gets him going in the morning?

What keeps him awake at night?

Yoritex Inc., developer of the first medical diagnostics accessories for BlackBerry® smartphones, today announced the successful conclusion of its Medical Network HUB® prototype testing. Having successfully completed comprehensive hardware and software testing, Yoritex Inc. will commence manufacture of a pilot batch of Medical Network HUB® in October that accelerates development of its medical plug-in units line.

Rewrite thisfrom Ms RIM or Rim Dude

to Sid

Talk your rewrite to Sid.How did it change?

Connect with 1

Attract many

Connect with one

What you need to learn write shorter

Why shorter?

How?

What you need to learnavoid two common flubs

1. Confuse possessive pronouns with contractions

It’s

Its

Its’

2. Other sound-alikes

accept                         except

affect                             effect

alternate             alternative

boarder                      border

cite               site            sight

complement     compliment

chord            cord        cored

council                      counsel

coarse                         course

discreet                    discrete

More in your handouts and in my book

What you need to relearnHow to tell stories

What made this story so compelling?

Why are these shows so popular?

How do you tell stories to friends?

Write like you talk only better

So

Read my book

Free download

link on your handouts