andreweverett360 Book Review, Writing

The Little Book of Confusables

The Little Book of Confusables: Simple spelling and usage tips to help smart people avoid stupid mistakes

by Sarah Townsend

This book disambiguates 600 commonly confused words. Examples include: aggravated, agitated; a lot, allot; assume, presume; coherent, cohesive; discreet, discrete; enervate, innervate, innovate; faze, phase; feasible, plausible; flaunt, flout; fortuitous, fortunate; historic, historical; hoard, horde; indolent, insolent; literal, littoral; loath, loathe; sleight, slight; tack, tact; tortuous, torturous; unkempt, unkept; vain, vane, vein; and wet, whet.

I was happy to learn that French quotation marks are called « guillemet ». I’ll be careful not to confuse that with guillemot, “a sea bird that nests on cliff edges.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Writing

On Writing Well

On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

by William Zinsser (1922-2015)

William Zinsser taught nonfiction writing at Yale and he was editor of Book-of-the-Month Club. In a nutshell, the message is that good writing is clear, simple, and unpretentious. My father gave me a copy of the third edition of this book when I graduated from high school in the 1980s. While recently rereading it I was amused by Zinsser’s description of a new invention called a word processor—almost like someone describing their car as a horseless carriage. But otherwise the book stands up to the test of time (and there’s a newer edition available).

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andreweverett360 interview, Marketing, Uncategorized

An interview with Peter McGraw author of Shtick to Business

An interview with Peter McGraw
author of Shtick to Business: What the masters of comedy can teach you
about breaking rules, being fearless, and building a serious career.

October 15, 2020 — 38 minutes — Book Review — Amazon

  • [00:58] “that guy”
  • [03:53] behavioral economics
  • [06:59] group genius
  • [12:09] liminal spaces
  • [15:45] warm team and feature creep
  • [23:26] two paths to a creative solution
  • [26:18] writing is a cheat code for life
  • [34:19] where you find a lot of growth

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing, Writing

Copywriting Made Simple

Copywriting Made Simple: How to Write Powerful and Persuasive Copy that Sells

by Tom Albrighton

This is an excellent introduction to copywriting, offering general advice on the process as well as specific tips for print advertisements, audio and video scripts, sales letters, emails, brochures, and social media posts. The book is divided into three parts: plan your copy, write your copy, and improve your copy.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Writing

Federal Plain Language Guidelines

Federal Plain Language Guidelines

Although oriented towards helping U.S. government employees write clear regulations, the Federal Plain Language Guidelines offers great advice for any nonfiction writer. It includes a section on writing content for web sites.

Here are some highlights.

“Address one person, not a group. Remember that even though your document may affect a thousand or a million people, you are speaking to the one person who is reading it. When your writing reflects this… [it] has a greater impact.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Writing

The Elements of Eloquence

the-elements-of-eloquence

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase

by Mark Forsyth

The Elements of Eloquence is about “the figures of rhetoric, which are the techniques for making a single phrase striking and memorable… They are the formulas for producing great lines.” Mark Forsyth writes with a sense of humor and he quotes examples from The Beatles, John F. Kennedy, Shakespeare, and Yoda.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Writing

Everybody Writes

everybody-writes

Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

by Ann Handley

Everybody Writes is a catchy title, although a more accurate one would be Writing Tips for Content Marketing.

Here’s the secret formula: “The multiplication signs are important, because if the value of any one of these things (Utility, Inspiration, or Empathy) is zero, then the sum of your content is a big fat zero, too… Utility x Inspiration x Empathy = Quality Content.” I think she means product—not sum—but I like the idea.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Humor

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar

i-judge-you-grammar-280-200

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar: A Collection of Egregious Errors, Disconcerting Bloopers, and Other Linguistic Slip-Ups

by Sharon Eliza Nichols

This  collection of linguistically impaired signs includes dangling modifiers, apostrophe errors, misspellings, and other amusing misadventures. As a coffee table book, it is sure to get a few laughs.

Here are some examples:

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