Words - I Know What I Want To Say - I Just Don't Know How To Say It

How To Write Essays, Reports, Blogs, Presentations, Books, Proposals, Memos, And Other Nonfiction

Mark Hanen

• Publisher: JustOneWord
• Year: 2013
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780987930712
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Scrittura per il business
• Index: Business

Words skillfully guides you, step by step, through your entire writing project. Written in a conversational style, Words explains how to shape, focus, organize, and polish your nonfiction writing. It coaches you through the process of discovering what you want to say, how you want to say it, and how you convey your ideas with precision, clarity, and confidence. Words is for born writers, aspiring writers, and for people who have writing thrust upon them. If you are a student, Words provides a step by step approach to writing that works across disciplines and will serve you well throughout your academic and professional career. If you write books, proposals, essays, memos, reports, blogs, manuals, presentations, memoirs, articles, journals, speeches, or creative nonfiction, Words is the book for you. Overview Section A, Knowing What You Want To Say, presents practical strategies for discovering your key word and your key idea, generating a title, and connecting with your audience. Thoughtful writing begins with a single word, a specific goal, and a well-defined audience. Section B, Knowing How To Say It, provides realistic techniques for writing your introduction, creating a shared context, conducting a guided tour of your ideas, and creating a satisfying ending. We all see the world through a slightly different lens because of our individual experiences and expectations. Writing is successful when readers see the world through your lens. Section C, Editing, offers common sense guidelines for editing your work and writing concise, confident, and credible sentences. It explains how the misuse of verbs is the leading cause of wordiness and how wordiness is the leading cause of poor writing. It also explains how the English language contains only four basic punctuation marks and three basic sentence types. Comments About The Book And The Author "No instructor has changed the course of my life more than Mark Hanen. His teaching style was a gift. . . . Words is chock-a-block full of many of the same crystal clear tips he taught in his classroom, and they are written in the same engaging style as when he presented them to his students. If readers take away even a smidgeon of his advice, they will be well on their way to becoming a better writer." Donna Kane's reviews, essays, poetry, and short fiction have been published widely as well as been aired on CBC and Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. She is the award-winning author of two collections of poetry, and her writing appears in several anthologies. "When I get positive comments from crown counsel or colleagues about my report writing I recall that many of the writing skills I possess are a direct result of the class I took with Mark. He was a teacher who truly enriched my education. He taught me to organize my thoughts and clearly articulate them in my writing." Beth Parslow is a Sex Crimes Investigator & Supervisor with the RCMP. With wisdom, clarity, and humour, Mark Hanen offers a

ONE - Discover Your Keyword

To see a world in a grain of sand.
– William Blake

In the 1991 comedy, City Slickers, a trail hardened cowboy named Curly (Jack Palance) shares his philosophy of life with a city slicker named Mitch (Billy Crystal):

Curly: “Do you know what the secret of life is? This.” [Curly holds up one finger.]

Mitch: “Your finger?”

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.

Mitch: But, what is the one thing?

Curly: [He smiles.] That’s what you have to find out.

Make the discussion about writing and words, and Curly provides us with the first step for writing nonfiction:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of writing is? This. [Curly holds up one finger.]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: “One word. Just one word. You stick to that and the rest falls into place.”

Mitch: But, what is the one word?

Curly: [He smiles.] That’s what you have to find out.”

That one word “you have to find out” is called your keyword. Knowing what you want to say, and knowing how to say it, starts with discovering this essential word.

Your keyword is not the same as your subject. Your keyword is the word that unlocks your subject and all of your other words and ideas. It expresses the idea that lies at the heart of your writing. Your keyword propels your writing forward.

Having run out of excuses not to write, you sit at your desk or kitchen table when someone asks, “What are you writing about?” You hastily reply, “luxury yachts,” or “Jennifer Aniston,” or “marriage.”

However, yachts, actresses, and marriage are subjects, not keywords. Thinking about a subject, your mind is full of words and ideas that dance and swirl in your brain like wind-blown autumn leaves. Making sense of all the data, for yourself and for your reader, begins with capturing the essence of your subject in a single keyword.

For example, if your subject is mutual funds, an overwhelming wealth of information presents itself. But once you discover that your keyword is risk, you have found your way forward. Similarly, marriage is a vast subject, but after determining that your keyword is thoughtfulness, you have discovered your focal point.

A precise example of the concentrating power of a keyword comes from a Canadian report studying how police investigated the disappearance of eighteen missing women in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A Missing Women Commission of Inquiry examined the response of police over a six year period, conducted 13 community forums, reviewed 385 written submissions, evaluated more than 200 exhibits, surveyed 20 other police forces, and produced a 1,400 page report containing 63 recommendations.

Commissioner Wally Oppal then communicated the full essence of the 4 volume, 500,000 word report in a single word: Forsaken. The missing women were forsaken by society and forsaken by police. The full title of the document is Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Wom...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Before You Write
• ONE - Discover Your Keyword
• 1. Make A Keyword List
• 2. Consider Quotations
• TWO - Determine Your Key Idea
• A. Identify Your Overall Goal
• Chapter Two Summary
• THREE - Understand Your Audience
• 1. Make The Audience Real
• 2. Acknowledge Their Point Of View
• 3. Speak Their Language
• Chapter Three Summary
• As You Write
• FOUR - The Introduction - Establish A Shared Context
• A. Start With A Descriptive Title
• B. Consider An Epigraph
• C. Set The Stage
• Chapter Four Summary
• FIVE - The Middle - Conduct A Guided Tour
• 2. Use Transitional Devices
• 3. Provide Evidence
• 4. Document Your Sources
• Chapter Five Summary
• SIX - The Conclusion - Create A Satisfying Ending
• Chapter Six Summary
• After You Write
• SEVEN - Write Concise, Confident, And Credible Sentences
• 1. Avoid To Verbs