Blog Post 5

Dear blog,
Today I read a post from Dr. Heather Holleman, the author of “Writing with Flair.” She talks about 5 different methods that can be used to make writing more interesting to read. The first method they introduced is choosing verbs with flair. They explain that verbs such as am, is, are, etc. don’t actually describe a specific action, and can make writing more dull. Using more interesting verbs can better help readers understand and visualize what the writer tries to convey.

Their second piece of advice is to take advantage of the big five punctuation marks. The big five punctuation marks are the semicolon, colon, dash, parentheses, and comma. They explain the use of each punctuation mark to us and advise us to use them when necessary to add more variety to our writing. Using these punctuation marks may help writers to convey their tone and can also make writing look less monotone and boring. I found an article that talks about even more punctuation marks you can incorporate into your writing: https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/what-are-the-major-punctuation-marks/

The third method is to vary the length of our sentences. I definitely agree with using this method, because writing can sound repetitive when all the sentence lengths are the same. The fourth method stated is to use some clever word play. I am always a fan of a good play on words. It can add humor to your writing and keep the reader interested. This article lists three ways to incorporate wordplay into your writing: https://www.bing.com/search?q=incorporate+clever+play+on+words+into+your+writing&cvid=ed0a3aa4662f4ebba6a176250c450597&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDcxMTRqMGo0qAIAsAIA&FORM=ANAB01&PC=LCTS.

The last method is to engage the audience. This one should go without saying, a reader that is not interested most likely will not continue reading. These methods should all add up to keeping the audience engaged, because that is one of the most important ways to get your audience to actually pay attention to your point. This last article gives a lot more detail on how to keep an audience engaged with your writing: https://hoist.digital/content/blog/10-effective-tips-to-reach-your-audience.

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Dear Blog,

Today I read Jack Dorsey’s letter to his employees in which he announces he will be laying off over 330 employees. At the beginning of the letter, Mr. Dorsey states that he will “give it to us straight.” He then proceeds to give ‘it’ to us in a maze of vague explanations of plans to better the company and promises to reimburse these 330 employees with a “generous” exit package of about 20% of his annual salary. For those wondering, this equals out to about one day of pay for every five employees that are now out of work.

I have no issue with companies deciding to lay off workers. I understand that sometimes, it is necessary to let people go, so Jack Dorsey is not in the wrong on that front. However, I am ticked off that I was expecting a straight explanation from his announcement, and instead was given a page and a half of explanations and excuses that I am sure nobody cares about. I understand the need to soften the blow by coating the bad news with a dozen layers of good news, but if I was one of the employees losing their job, that letter would have made me feel much worse. If he really wanted to show respect to the employees that were being laid off, he wouldn’t have spent 70 percent of his letter describing what a great future he has planned and the other 30 percent explaining how generous he’s going to be to those employees.

I would prefer he just announce that they were being laid off, explain how he will reimburse them, and end the letter there. This article I found goes more in depth about why people shouldn’t use this method https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/24506/Sweet-talk-sugar-coated.  Too many people in positions of power fail at delivering bad news because they try to disguise it as a part of a bigger set of good news instead of just allowing it to be bad news. It makes it a lot harder to actually accept when there is actual good news because we become so used to good news being partnered with bad news and vice versa. This article talks about how sugar coating bad news can actually cause people to receive it in a worse way than if it had been delivered bluntly. This article explains how sugar coating bad news can cause someone to seem condescending and manipulative https://psychologycorner.com/why-sugar-coated-communication-is-bad-for-you-and-for-everyone-else/. I think CEOs and other leaders need to start actually giving it to us straight instead of trying to give us big clusters of positivity to distract us from the main point.

Blog Post 3

Dear Blog,

Today I watched an interesting video by Bill Taylor, the founding editor of Fast Company, about reading my writing out loud. I’ve been given this advice many times in my life but have only ever tried it a couple times. Previously, I was told to use this method as a way to check that my wording sounds right and that I do not have any grammar mistakes. I have also used it to make sure my writing is not too repetitive. This article talks more About how reading out loud can be used to make sure it sounds right when it is read by someone else: https://medium.com/the-writer-shed/five-reasons-you-should-read-your-writing-out-loud-90269464cfed.

Mr. Taylor advises use to use this method to see if our writing is memorable. He encourages us to think about whether our writing will stick with the reader. Are we using data in interesting and clever ways? Does our piece start out with an interesting attention grabber? Are we telling a story that compels people to feel something about our topic?

While reading aloud was immensely helpful when checking my grammar and sentence structure on the rare occasion I did it, I had never considered using it to see if my writing will actually grab the reader’s attention. It can be used to hear if your word choice is varied and interesting, or repetitive and monotone. It can be used to see if you are properly conveying the tone you want to convey in certain parts of your writing. It can even help you pinpoint areas that you think should have more or less emphasis! Standoutbooks even recommends reading it aloud to another person because it forces you to pay more attention to what you are reading: https://www.standoutbooks.com/reading-aloud-improve-writing/.

As I read this post aloud to myself, I have found multiple areas that sounded boring and monotonous, as well as several periods that I changed to exclamation points because, when reading them allowed, I said those sentences as an exclamation rather than just another sentence. I also decided to switch a few of my sentences around because they sounded out of order when reading them aloud, even though I did not mind keeping them where they were when reading silently. If you want to read more about this, ProWritingAid provides some additional information about the brain connection to reading out loud, as well as more details about how it can help you notice errors in your writing: https://prowritingaid.com/art/1464/why-it-s-important-to-read-your-manuscript-aloud.aspx.

Blog Post 2

Dear Blog,
I recently watch a video of a speech by Steve Jobs where he talks about writing a professional
email. I personally have not had to write many professional emails in my lifetime, so I have never
bothered to master professional email etiquette. As I start looking for internships and, later, a real job, I
know I will have to eventually learn how to properly construct a business email. Mr. Jobs’ speech gave
me a lot of good insight on where to start. The biggest part of his speech that stood out to me was that
we should have one purpose while writing a business email.
Thinking about how I’ve written in the past, I often try to cover two or more topics in the same
email so I can get everything out of the way. Oftentimes, the response to my email only addresses a few
of the topics I mentioned. I assume when I send multiple topics in one email, it would be easy to gloss
over a few of them. If I sent each topic as a different email, I would have a higher chance of getting a
response because it would be easier to keep track of which questions have already been answered. This
template I found is a good example of staying on top and keeping the email concise.

Another part of his speech that stood out to me was his advice to close our email with our
request. Much like sticking to one topic, this is another good way to make sure that the important part of
your email is received. I tend to end my emails on a topic that is completely different from what I
actually need to cover. Ending your email by restating the important part is a good way to be sure that
the lasting impression is related to what you need the reader to respond to.
Indeed.com has a lot of good extra advice on how to write a professional email. I read through
this article https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-a-professional-email and found a lot of advice that Steve Jobs does not cover, including the proper way to greet someone. I found a couple examples of informal greetings such as this one:

It reminds me a lot of how I used to write my emails. Harvard Business also provides some good
insight: https://hbr.org/2022/08/5-tips-for-writing-professional-emails. They address how to
tailor the subject line to properly summarize the email and to specify when things need to be
done so that you’re email is responded to in time. I also found an AI to generate a professional
email if anyone needs the extra help! https://www.grammarly.com/email-writer

Blog Post 1

Dear Blog,

Today I watched a very interesting lecture by Sheryl Sandberg about the importance of politeness in persuasive speech. It is very insightful, and I must admit I agree with a lot of what she says. She invites us to think about how important it is to be honest about what you believe in a debate while also being considerate of the fact that everybody else has their own beliefs, and you need to accept that you may not be able to change someone’s mind. She also speaks about how people need to consider how they present their arguments because regardless of whether you are right or wrong, nobody will feel compelled to agree with a person that uses vulgar language, speaks harshly, or raises their voice when presented with a counterargument. I believe there is one very important topic about arguments that she did not cover when it comes to persuading others: I believe that a person should enter every argument willing to change their own opinions or point of view, and willing to admit they are wrong. Nothing productive can come from a debate if everybody enters it fully convinced that they are right and unwilling to change their stance. I believe that there is too much focus on how to win a debate when debates shouldn’t be about winning, but rather finding the truth or the best solution out of a combined set of ideas.

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