Archive: Editing
Storytelling: How to Elevate an Article to a Story
Corporate intranets contain many articles but fewer stories. Adding narrative elements can elevate a ho-hum article to an engaging story. The word story is loosely applied to almost any article, and for the sake of discussion we can use the term broadly, because...
Create Tight, Crisp Writing with a Semicolon
To make your writing a little tighter and more snappy, become friends with the semicolon. The semicolon is a misunderstood punctuation mark. Some people have a strange notion that a semicolon is for academic writing or that it is used by people trying to look...
Starting sentences with “and,” “because,” or “however”
People often sit at the keyboard, staring at the screen, hearing voices from the past. “You can’t start a sentence with and, because, or however,” old Miss Grumplebee cautioned them. Well, relax, folks. Such “rules” are mythical. We...
Improve Your Writing through Candid Feedback
People take writing criticism personally, but being receptive to criticism is the way you grow as a writer. It keeps you focused on what you need to work on. Because writing is a personal creation, people are sensitive to criticism, so they won’t ask others to...
Using Correct Punctuation with “because” and “however”
Where to use commas and semicolons can be challenging in many sentences, but how to punctuate around because and however can cause considerable head scratching. A comma before “because” Punctuation marks are not little black marks that we randomly sprinkle...By Ken O’Quinn
Focus on Them
Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill)
TD at Work — Business Writing for Managers
As a contributing author in this book on leadership, Ken offers insights and tips for managing difficult conversations, providing effective feedback, and being authentic. Order here.
Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill)
Provides the right words and phrases for any situation - quickly. The book was reprinted in Japanese because of high-volume sales there.
TD at Work — Business Writing for Managers
The Association for Talent Development invited Ken to write this 22-page booklet for the TD at Work series.
Current Blog Post
Persuasion: Make Your Expertise Known
If you are trying to persuade someone on a topic that you are knowledgeable about, convey your expertise up front. …