Observed

“Hello.  My name is Doug, and I’m an art historian.”

“Hi, Doug.”

You may be wondering what makes me qualified to suggest in this blog or elsewhere how you might write better.  Much less to suggest how to run your business.

My defense is simple.  While I’ve never had a business course or any academic training in PR or communication, I have had plenty of exposure to the liberal arts.  First as a undergrad with a Liberal Studies major and then as a master’s grad focused on 19th-century American architecture.

So what? (more…)

Sometimes, I remember I used to be an historian.  Or, at least trained as one.

I caught myself thinking about the history of food the other day.  About what food tells us about ourselves.  Not so much nutritionally, but sociologically.

While I’m just guessing, it wouldn’t surprise me, for example, to learn that the ability to serve imported coffee or tea to your house guests in 18th-century Kentucky, my homeland, said a lot about your status way back then.  Out on the western frontier, you did whatever you could do to demonstrate your hegemony over the wilderness — whether it was by putting a Georgian mantle over your fireplace, Pekoe in your teacup, silk around your neck or some pepper on your taters. (more…)

Here’s one of the best bits of good-writing advice I’ve ever read…or heard.  She nails it.  While the context is cover letters for job seekers, it applies to just about everything written for business.

The only thing I suggest adding is to consider the visual.  I’m not talking about a cheesy mugshot.  Maybe a picture of an orchid, if you (try to) grow orchids, with an expository caption.  Or some other attention-getting image that arrests the eye and says something about you.  Could be a silhouetted standing pose…maybe with a voice bubble with you saying, “Hey!, look at me.”

When you’re a whole-brained writer, you’re being engaging.  And, when you’re engaging, you’re earning the right to be read.  And, when you do that, you’re improving your chances of reaching your reader and sticking.

This clip offers six best practices for client-satisfaction interviews and surveys. Doug Stern outlines how to get the most out of your investment–and how to really set yourself apart. (more…)

There are two things missing from this nice New York Times story about Katie Spotz, a spunky young Buckeye planning to row alone across the Atlantic this winter. The first may not be too obvious…unless you check Wikipedia or some other hard-to-find source; namely, that the story fails to mention Louisville’s Tori Murden.

Tori was the first woman to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat. She completed her journey Dec. 3, 1999. She was also the first woman and first American to ski to the geographic South Pole.

Anyway, writing 1115 words about a woman rowing across the ocean without mentioning Tori Murden is a bit like writing Moby Dick without mentioning the whale.

There is, however, an even more obvious omission from the story about Katie.  What is it?  A prize to the first person who responds correctly.