Words - I Know What I Want To Say - I Just Don't Know How To Say It: How To Write Essays, Reports, Blogs, Presentations, Books, Proposals, Memos, And Other Nonfiction

By Mark Hanen

Words skillfully guides you, step by step, through your entire writing project. Written in a conversational style, Words explains how to shape, focus, organize, and polish your nonfiction writing. It coaches you through the process of discovering what you want to say, how you want to say it, and how you convey your ideas with precision, clarity, an

• Language: English
• Publisher: JustOneWord
• Release date: Dec 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9780987930712

Book preview

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Before You Write

ONE - Discover Your Keyword

1. Make A Keyword List

2. Consider Quotations

3. Create A Working Title

4. Design A Poster

Chapter One Summary

TWO - Determine Your Key Idea

A. Identify Your Overall Goal

B. Choose One Genre

C. Link Your Goal And Genre

D. Understand the Conventions of Your Genre

Chapter Two Summary

THREE - Understand Your Audience

1. Make The Audience Real

2. Acknowledge Their Point Of View

3. Speak Their Language

Chapter Three Summary

As You Write

FOUR - The Introduction - Establish A Shared Context

A. Start With A Descriptive Title

B. Consider An Epigraph

C. Set The Stage

D. Outline Your Key Idea

Chapter Four Summary

FIVE - The Middle - Conduct A Guided Tour

1. Keep Your Promise

2. Use Transitional Devices

3. Provide Evidence

4. Document Your Sources

Chapter Five Summary

SIX - The Conclusion - Create A Satisfying Ending

1. Restate Your Key Idea

2. Create A Frame

3. Comment

4. Call For Action

5. Close With A Clincher

Chapter Six Summary

After You Write

SEVEN - Write Concise, Confident, And Credible Sentences

1. Avoid To Verbs

2. Avoid Too Many Verbs

3. Avoid Contractions

4. Consider Ownership

5. Write In The Plural Voice

6. Think In Terms Of Periods And Commas

The Period

The Semicolon

The Colon

The Comma

Special Cases: Dashes and Parenthesis

Punctuation Summary

7. Use Three Sentence Types

Simple Sentences: Making Sense

Transitional Words and Simple Sentences

Compound Sentences: Transitional Words and Connection Techniques

Complex Sentences: Transitional Words and Demotion Techniques

Sentence Type Summary

8. Use Parallel Structure

9. Use Precise Modifiers And Verbs

10. Verify Word Definitions

11. Simplify

Chapter Seven Summary

EIGHT - Use A Checklist

One Crucial Checklist

Acknowledgements

Words

I Know What I Want to Say

I Just Don't Know How to Say It

how to write essays, reports, blogs,

presentations, books, proposals,

memos, and other nonfiction

by Mark Hanen

©2014 Mark Hanen

howtosayit.ca

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner or by any means without written permission from the author.

This book is also available in print format. ISBN 978-0-9879307-0-5

All artwork is used with the permission of the original artists and may not be reproduced.

Cartoons copyrighted by Mark Anderson - andertoons.com

Cartoons copyrighted by Brent - thebadchemicals.com

Cartoons copyrighted by Randy Glasbergen - glasbergen.com

Cartoons copyrighted by Mark Parisi - offthemark.com

Edited by Charlie Burton and Terri Hanen

Page design and typesetting by Kim Hanen [e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Hanen, Mark, 1949-

Words: I know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to say it how to write essays, reports, blogs, presentations, books, proposals, memos, and other nonfiction / Mark Hanen.

ISBN 978-0-9879307-1-2

1. Authorship. 2. English language--Rhetoric. I. Title. PE1408.H36 2013 - 808’.042 - C2013-901715-1

JustOneWord Publishing Canada

13 14 15

"No writing is a waste of time –

no creative work where the feelings,

the imagination,

the intelligence must work.

With every sentence you write,

you have learned something.

It has done you good."

— BRENDA UELAND

Introduction

Some are born writers, some achieve writing, and some have writing thrust upon them.

Is This Book For Me?

Words skillfully guides you, step by step, through your entire writing project. Written in a conversational style, it explains how to shape, focus, organize, and polish your non-fiction writing. It coaches you through the process of discovering what you want to say, how you want to say it, and how you convey your ideas with precision, clarity, and confidence.

Words is a clear, concise, well-organized book that quickly builds your skills and your confidence. It presents practical strategies, realistic techniques, and common sense guidelines for writing; it even sprinkles in a little humour. If you write books, proposals, essays, memos, reports, blogs, manuals, presentations, memoirs, articles, journals, or creative nonfiction, Words is the book for you.

Words is for writers who know what they want to say but do not know how to say it. It is for writers who do not know what they want to say. It is for born writers, aspiring writers, and for people who have writing thrust upon them.

If this is not the book for you, please note that it makes a thoughtful gift for all writers of nonfiction.

What Will I Learn?

Sometimes, you do not know what you want to say.

Thoughtful writing begins by discovering a single word.

Organized writing creates a single path and follows a single goal.

Establishing context is crucial because we all see the world in a slightly different way.

Nonfiction writers are like tour guides.

Balance, parallelism, and symmetry make writing accessible and enjoyable.

Using unnecessary words obscures your ideas.

The English language contains only four basic punctuation marks and three basic sentence types.

Common grammatical errors spoil your credibility.

A checklist is a writer’s friend.

What Makes This Book Different?

This book explains the entire writing process from formulating your initial idea to reviewing your punctuation. It not only explains how to write, it explains how to think about writing.

The language is conversational; the approach is straightforward; the writing is concise; the ideas are fresh. Examples of effective writing come from diverse sources.

The book consolidates complex systems of grammar, punctuation, and usage into eleven simple rules.

The paragraphs are short.

Why Is The Book Called Words?

Imagine yourself living in 17th century England. The afternoon sun warms your skin as you hurry past stalls selling fish and fresh baked pies. You join thousands of boisterous theatregoers gathered outside The Globe theatre for a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Standing at the foot of the stage, crowded together with friends, pickpockets, and prostitutes, you see Hamlet on stage reading a book. Hamlet’s cousin approaches and asks, What are you reading, my lord? Hamlet replies, Words, words, words.

Everything we think, know, say, read, and write involves words. Words make us human. Writing expresses our common humanity.

Line drawing of a directional compass labelled Section A

Knowing What You Want To Say

Before You Write

Before you start writing do three things: discover your keyword, determine your key idea, and understand your audience.

Your Keyword

Your keyword captures the heart, soul, and character of your subject. It is the one word that summarizes the essence of your thinking. Your subject might be the true meaning of family, but your keyword will be a single word such as loyalty, or trust, or friendship. Discovering your keyword concentrates and defines the core of your thinking.

Your Key Idea

Your key idea consists of your goal and your genre. Your goal is your purpose for writing expressed as a single action verb. Your genre is a recognizable framework such as comparison, classification, or definition. Together they form your key idea: This report arguesthat organic apples are superior to non-organic apples by comparingtheir taste, nutritional value, and texture. Determining your key idea organizes and unifies your writing.

Your Audience

Always express your ideas with honesty and integrity, but always respect your audience. Communication begins by acknowledging that we all see the world in a slightly different way. Understanding your audience is the beginning of communication.

Conclusion

Once you have identified your keyword, key idea, and audience, writing flows. Your keyword focuses your writing and determines, in part, your title. Your genre provides your organizational framework. Explaining and expressing the link between your goal and genre forms a large part of your introduction. And, acknowledging your audience informs your choice of vocabulary, supporting evidence, and overall approach. Writing in a coherent, logical, and organized manner depends on what you think about before you start writing.

ONE - Discover Your Keyword

To see a world in a grain of sand.

– William Blake

In the 1991 comedy, City Slickers, a trail hardened cowboy named Curly (Jack Palance) shares his philosophy of life with a city slicker named Mitch (Billy Crystal):

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? This. [Curly holds up one finger.]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.

Mitch: But, what is the one thing?

Curly: [He smiles.] That’s what you have to find out.

Make the discussion about writing and words, and Curly provides us with the first step for writing nonfiction:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of writing is? This. [Curly holds up one finger.]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One word. Just one word. You stick to that and the rest falls into place.

Mitch: But, what is the one word?

Curly: [He smiles.] That’s what you have to find out."

That one word you have to find out is called your keyword. Knowing what you want to say, and knowing how to say it, starts with discovering this essential word.

Your keyword is not the same as your subject. Your keyword is the word that unlocks your subject and all of your other words and ideas. It expresses the idea that lies at the heart of your writing. Your keyword propels your writing forward.

Having run out of excuses not to write, you sit at your desk or kitchen table when someone asks, What are you writing about? You hastily reply, luxury yachts, or Jennifer Aniston, or marriage.

However, yachts, actresses, and marriage are subjects, not keywords. Thinking about a subject, your mind is full of words and ideas that dance and swirl in your brain like wind-blown autumn leaves. Making sense of all the data, for yourself and for your reader, begins with capturing the essence of your subject in a single keyword.

For example, if your subject is mutual funds, an overwhelming wealth of information presents itself. But once you discover that your keyword is risk, you have found your way forward. Similarly, marriage is a vast subject, but after determining that your keyword is thoughtfulness, you have discovered your focal point.

A precise example of the concentrating power of a keyword comes from a Canadian report studying how police investigated the disappearance of eighteen missing women in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A Missing Women Commission of Inquiry examined the response of police over a six year period, conducted 13 community forums, reviewed 385 written submissions, evaluated more than 200 exhibits, surveyed 20 other police forces, and produced a 1,400 page report containing 63 recommendations.

Commissioner Wally Oppal then communicated the full essence of the 4 volume, 500,000 word report in a single word: Forsaken. The missing women were forsaken by society and forsaken by police. The full title of the document is Forsaken: The Report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.

A keyword is like a single grain of sand on a beach; but, in that single grain is a world of ideas.

Here are four techniques for discovering your keyword:

1. Make A Keyword List

2. Consider Quotations

3. Create A Working Title

4. Design A Poster

1. Make A Keyword List

Making a word list is the best technique for discovering your keyword.

Make two columns. In the first column write all the potential keywords related to your subject. Do not censor yourself.

When the first column is complete, write the opposites of your potential keywords in the second column. The list strategy works with all forms of writing and with any subject, goal, and audience.

A cartoon by Randy Glasbergen with the following caption: My Term Paper is almost finished. I updated my software, defragmented my hard drive, bookmarked an online dictionary, and installed new ink cartrdiges. Now all I need are some words and a topic.

Here is a partial keyword list for the subject Wind Energy.

Keyword List

Subject: Wind Energy

Possible Keywords and Their Opposites

wind farms / wind factories

present / past

more / less

conservation / waste

infinite / finite

jobs / unemployment

sailing / rowing

society / individuals

sustainable / unsustainable

corporations / cooperatives

taxes / private funding

benefits / costs

healthy / unhealthy

popular / unpopular

ecological footprint / environmental footprint

beautiful / ugly

support / blowback

survival / extinction

harvest / manufacture

controversy / agreement

replace / supplement

quiet / noisy

environmentally friendly / environmentally harmful

NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) / NIABY (Not In Anyone’s Backyard)

Generating a list of twenty or thirty words with their opposites takes only a few minutes. Trust your instincts. Somewhere in the list lies your keyword. Try building your lists using single words, but do not be too hard on yourself. Sometimes