This is the durable wisdom I have accumulated from twenty years of working with words, business problems and communication strategy. It is the core of both what I do and what I believe. 1. That which is boring is ignored.…
It’s old. It’s Greek. And, unsurprisingly, it involves geometry. But let’s save the history lesson for the appendix and jump right in. Fundamentally, there are three ways to persuade someone. These are called modes of persuasion or rhetorical appeals. Any…
The world is filled with other people. And if you want to get anything done, you’re going to have to persuade at least some of them to see things your way. Influencing people is especially important if you want to…
A self-closing proposal is written so that it is easy to say yes to. This means that after reading the first paragraph, or even just the first sentence, your case has been made. Saying ‘no’ is always easy. It is…
“Writing is how we define ourselves for someone we don’t get to meet.” — Richard Saul Wurman, Founder of the TED talks 1. In the job market, the better writer wins. In Rework, Jason Fried of Basecamp advises entrepreneurs to…
