Saved by RP and
Writing That Works
Had the copywriter written, “He always acted as if he knew what he was talking about,”
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
it would have seemed both natural and literate. The old rule is simple: Don’t use “like” in any case where “as if” or “as though” would fit comfortably.
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
What you write should sound just like you talking when you’re at your best — when your ideas flow swiftly and in good order, when your syntax is smooth, your vocabulary accurate, and afterward you think that you couldn’t possibly have put things any better than you did.
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
There are only 266 words in the Gettysburg Address. The shortest sentence in the New Testament may be the most moving: “Jesus wept.”
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
The only way some people know you is through your writing. It can be your most frequent point of contact, or your only one, with people important to your career — major customers, senior clients, your own top management. To those women and men, your writing is you. It reveals how your mind works. Is it forceful or fatuous, deft or clumsy, crisp or
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When God wanted to stop the people from building the Tower of Babel, he did not smite them down with a thunderbolt. He said: “… let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” He could think of no surer way to keep the tower unbuilt than to garble communications. While the Lord confounded langu
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Yet another advantage of the active voice is that it tends to push you to decide precisely what you want to say, to be more specific.
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
yourself whether if you were the reader, would you take action on the basis of what is written.
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
Effective means picking your spots, concentrating your