Writing well, (to be a better writer) both for comprehension and for style and beauty is an art form that requires continuous improvement: improvement in form, style, learning the rules so you know when to break them, learning when to rely on the classical forms of rhetoric and when to seek to cut through the brush and find new and uniquely you ways of expressing yourself. Metaphors, synonyms, antonyms, similes. Beauty, ugly, honorific, soporific, deriding, motivating, cutting, seeking to find solace in the past or finding futuristic images to demonstrate your point.
Patterns, rhyme, reading, understanding, rephrasing. These skills are learned and honed and developed. With practice can come competency, but this can also require a willingness to acknowledge, accept, and build upon critiques offered.
Six questions George Orwell suggests you ask of every sentence you compose:
- What am I trying to say?
- What words will express it?
- What image or idiom will make it clearer?
- Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
- Could I put it more shortly?
- Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
To write means to acknowledge that it is a process of recognizing your failings and inabilities as much as improving and finding reasons to be self-congratulatory. It can be pretty frustrating to know where you are not succeeding; where you would do better if only you could do better.
Specialist content, especially content related to legal topic, or discrete areas of law, is something we produce for a number of our valued clients. Clients who want high quality publishable content for web and print – who are not looking for sales copy, but are looking for thoughtful, accessible, well researched and well written articles about complex topics, recent judicial decisions, and industry changing developments. We’d love to talk with you more if you are looking for specialist content for your law firm, socially engaged business, or non profit organization!
Speaker. Reader. Thinker. Writer. Traveler. Advocate
Anna Blanch Rabe, founder of Anna Blanch Rabe & Associates, has been working with Social Enterprises, socially-responsible businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations since 2006 to develop and effectively execute strategic, digital, and narrative initiatives to gain exposure, develop community capacity, attract talent, and reach new customers. Anna is an Australian-born speaker, writer and advocate. Connect with Anna on Instagram, facebook page, & Twitter.
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