My Talk to College Writing Students

This week, I am speaking to a college class. A friend who teaches business communication wants a “real live” writer to speak to make the point that writing well is important. I will also be Exhibit A that someone can indeed make a living with her words and her wits.

It’s been a while since I taught (which I really enjoy), but not that long since I’ve worked with young people and colleagues on developing their writing skills.

Still, I’m a worried about holding the class’s attention, especially since it doesn’t start until 8:15 p.m. 

Will they be awake? Will I put them (or myself) to sleep?

Here’s the gist of my remarks. Let me know what you think. Fellow writers and educators, am I on or off the mark?  Is there anything big I’ve omitted? 

All comments are welcome.

Here goes:

I’m here in your classroom – instead of watching “How I Met Your Mother” – because there are three points I want to convey about writing and the world of work.

1. Writing can be fun.
2. Writing is hard.
3. Writing can make you popular.

Writing can be fun.  You can be creative.  While you may not think a memo can be creative, a well-crafted memo that is clear, uses relevant examples, and leads the reader to the point that you want to make is creative writing.

Other forms of business writing, such as press releases, blog posts, articles, presentations, and speeches, allow even more creative freedom with themes, metaphors, use of language, and much more. Writing well also involves deciding what to put in and what to leave out. Often I’ve had great lines – clever and with great imagery – but I left them out because they didn’t support the main idea or they interrupted the flow.

Business writing can also be fun because of the places you will go and the people you will meet.  My career of writing speeches, running magazines, and putting together financial presentations, among other assignments, got me to some amazing places, including the White House, a London interview with the head of British Airways, Sir Colin Marshall (travel courtesy the Concorde), and the back seat of a limousine for a four-block meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

As a business writer, you may write for smart and influential people. I’ve written for CEOs and heads of government agencies. When you’re writing for leaders like this the pressure can be intense, but you can also get a seat at the table when strategy is being discussed and developed. And, what is written – your words – may become policy.

Now, that is really fun.

What’s even more gratifying is the difference your words can make. As one colleague used to say to me, “Words mean things.” Yes, they do.  And words can often make a life-or-death difference.

At my last stop before retirement, I wrote for National Transportation SafetyBoard Chairman Deborah Hersman. My words helped promote measures to address key safety issues, such as distracted driving and alcohol-impaired driving, which are responsible for killing thousands of people every each year.

As a ghostwriter, I drafted op-ed articles on these topics for major newspapers. And, yes, it’s a big kick to see your words in print. More importantly, these opinion articles about how to address thousands of annual traffic fatalities may have helped save lives. 

But, to my second point, writing can be hard. Yet, we all know that lots of things are hard.

Right now, I am trying to learn to knit. While I have a great teacher, I cannot begin to think that I can make a scarf or a sweater, much less any of the other fantastic things on display at the yarn shop.

Is that how you feel about writing?

It is work.

Let me share some tips that I’ve picked up along the way on how to make writing well less difficult.  I won’t say easy, since good writing is not easy.

Tip number one:  Structure is paramount. When it’s done well, the writing will flow. I surely learned this the hard way. In 5^th grade we were told to write a book report.  A half-century later it still feels traumatic.  Having no idea how to do the assignment I filled countless index cards. I think I recopied the entire book.

Today, I outline. 

My children were taught the writer’s web.

What do you use?

If I’m really stuck, I write down all the key points I’ve learned about a topic, then I back into an outline.

However you do it – outline, writer’s web, or some other method – it’s important to have a logical structure, with a well-stated theme, and then make the case for it with facts (Caution:  not too many facts or you’ll lose your readers) and vivid examples.

It can help to start the outline with your conclusion and then go back to the beginning to work up to it.

Tip two has to do with that blank screen or empty sheet of paper staring at you. Sometimes it can be a challenge to get started.

That’s when you just start writing. Anything.

Writer John McPhee says his trick is to type “Dear Mother.” That takes care of the blank page. Then, you just keep going. And, stop for the day before you run out of gas or ideas. That makes it easier to get started the next time.

Tip three:  Read good writing. When my older daughter was in 2^nd grade her teacher cringed that she read the Babysitter’s Club books. Mrs. Bonner said the books were “bubblegum for the brain.” Okay, I agree.

If you want to write well, read good writing, such as The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times and read well-edited magazines and books by acclaimed authors. You’ll get to where you recognize good writing and maybe even to where you prefer it. 

           

Reading good writing also helps with grammar.  I read The New Yorker magazine. It is well edited and I know the grammar and punctuation will be correct. There are also good reference books. My favorite is The Elements of Style.

Tip four:  Do your research; know your topic.  I call the final product the “tip of the iceberg.” The article or speech is what everyone sees but I know it takes reading, interviewing, outlining, writing, fact checking, and approvals. Accuracy is so important to your credibility and to the credibility of your boss and your organization. 

My fifth, and final, tip:  Rewrite and edit ruthlessly. 

One high school English teacher said nothing would be good if it went through fewer than five drafts. She was right. Many times I’ve gone much higher than five drafts.

I was lucky with high school teachers. Another one had us write an essay every day. So, 180 school days meant 180 essays. Practice may not make you perfect. But, like any other activity, practice makes you better.

Writing will get easier the more you do it and the harder you work at it. I’m hoping the same is true for knitting.

Those are my five tips to make writing less hard.

Now, to my third and final point:  Writing well can make you popular.

Honestly, if you are a good writer you will have more friends … who will want your help with resumes, job applications, letters, and a host of assignments.

I have helped co-workers with all of these. This assistance has gotten me coffee, lunches, adult beverages, and fancy dinners.

More than popularity, the ability to write well makes you an authority. If you can articulate an idea – state it clearly – and present a well-reasoned and logical case for the idea and its implementation…then, you must be someone who knows what you are talking about.

You will also be someone who can be a valuable member of a team or a department or an organization.

That value, in turn, makes you more employable and more promotable.

I’ve seen too few people in my 40 years of work who can write well. If you can, that can only help your career, whatever you choose to do. 

Okay, it’s 2014. The world is swarming with new media. Yet, even with texts and Tweets, business and the world of work requires well-thought-out plans and strategies and marketing programs.  These all start with ideas, which need words and order and logic to explain them, share them, and support their adoption.

If you can write well, then your organization – and you – will be more successful.

Years from now you may thank your teacher, just like I wrote Mr. Johnson 20 years after high school and thanked him for those daily essays. They were hard, but they gave me a craft and a career.

Now, if I could only learn to knit.

Traveling with a Large Dog ... Then and Now

More than a half century ago, American writer John Steinbeck (if you were awake in high school, you may remember The Grapes of Wrath) took off on a road trip with Charley, his middle-aged French poodle. A bit past middle age himself, age 58, Steinbeck said he wanted to recapture America.

In Travels With Charley you can read about his trip, the people he met, and the three-quarter-ton truck on which Steinbeck built a house-like cabin, much like you would find on a small boat. He named his truck Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse. The idea was to stay in campgrounds. There were no big box stores in 1960, much less Walmart parking lots where so many of today’s RVs adventurers find a place to spend the night.

Photo courtesy National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, Calif.

It wasn’t long after Steinbeck’s trip that my husband and I took our first cross-country road trips. My husband and his college friends rambled between Portland, Ore.’s Reed College and New York City in his Rambler American. As for me, in 1962, our family moved from southern Virginia to southern California in our Dodge Coronet. I wasn’t yet a California girl, but I knew enough to be mortified of our family car's pink and white color scheme.

They don’t make ’em like that any more. And, road trips, whether with poodles, friends or family, are far different than when Steinbeck and Charley criss-crossed the nation.

What’s different?

For one, the 47,000-mile Eisenhower Interstate Highway System is completed. Authorized just a few years before Steinbeck and Charley left Long Island, Steinbeck likely navigated Rocinante on blue highways and state roads, which gave him a closer view of people and places.

Two, motor vehicle travel is much safer now, by a factor of five. (Full disclosure:  My pre-retirement job was writing for the National Transportation Safety Board.) Today, the fatality rate on U.S. highways is about 1.1 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled compared with 5.1 when Steinbeck and Charley were traveling.

Motor vehicles remain the riskiest form of interstate travel, but today’s cars and highways are better designed and built and include seat belts, air bags, anti-lock brakes, and many other safety advances. Today’s drivers…well, that’s another story.

Three, there are now many more places where Charley could rest his head instead of getting his middle-aged bones up to Rocinante’s cabin.

Today, there are thousands of hotels, motels, lodges, inns, B & Bs and more that are pet friendly. There are also a growing number of restaurants and retail establishments that recognize that welcoming Fido is good business. Americans spend up to  $60 billion annually on their pets.

I’m paying close attention to these trends as we plan our cross-country trip with Piper, our middle-aged (I’m being kind; she’s 12) Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Just tap a few keys and you’ll find great resources for pet-friendly travel, including:  

http://www.pet-friendly-hotels.net

http://www.petswelcome.com

http://www.bringfido.com/lodging/

When you’re looking for a place to hang your heads, as well as your pet’s, it’s important to read the small print. Pet friendly doesn’t mean all pets or all shapes and sizes. At the vet last week Piper weighed in at 63.8, which makes her, say, 63.5 lbs. without her collar. That is still way over the 20-lb. maximum some hotel chains stipulate. There’s also a range of non-refundable fees, ranging from about $25 to $75. And, you need to travel with papers – I’m not talking toilet training or AKC – but a record of current vaccinations.

There are great resources available from pet bloggers. I’ve found several; these two offer great tips on traveling with pets (somewhere in the middle of southwest Texas Piper will be glad I read these):

http://blogpaws.com/bloggers-resource/travel-safety-tips-for-your-pet/

http://www.dogjaunt.com/guides/travel-check-list-and-packing-list/

As I research the options on our proposed route, I’m encouraged by IHG’s Candlewood Suites, both its locations and its pet policy. 

Piper doesn’t need to slim down to meet Candlewood’s 80-lb. maximum.

Fifty years after Steinbeck’s trip, journalist Bill Steigerwald retraced Steinbeck’s trip to match people and places with what Steinbeck chronicled in his book.  Steigerwald’s fact checking found that Steinbeck stayed in motels a lot, sometimes at fancy hotels.

That’s okay, it’s still a great book. But, what about Charley? He was along for the ride in a less pet-friendly period.

Where did Charley sleep when Steinbeck was at the Spalding Inn?

I don’t know about Charley, but I do know about Piper.

Thanks to the increasingly pet-friendly travel industry, Piper won’t be sleeping in the Subaru. She’ll be on her own bed near us. Now, that’s progress.

Have bed, will travel.

You Can't Go Home Again ... Or Can You?

Who needs a road map when you go home?

Last week, I went back to Washington, DC, where I lived for 41 years.  I drove by the house where my husband and I raised our two daughters.

Thomas Wolfe was right. Well, he was literally right. You cannot go home again, especially if you’ve sold the house and no longer have the keys.

I felt few emotions seeing the house. It’s just a structure.  I experienced many more feelings seeing old friends and from how sweetly and sincerely I was welcomed.  Nothing warms the heart more than a teenager flinging herself into your arms. I must have feared that my move would make me gone and, if not forgotten, possibly replaced by other people more conveniently located and more present in their lives.

Yet, I know that good friendships, important and valued friendships, can weather the storms of distance. But, somehow after so many years of living in one area I needed to be reminded that valued friendships can last. This trip did that for me.

The trip was helpful on another count:  It highlighted the positives of our new hometown. Here, we also have friends, but we have no Beltway. We have far less traffic and far more quiet and space. We no longer live among 5.8 million other people. My new county’s population is about 3 percent of that.

Here’s something else I realized about going home again. It’s harder if you’re, shall I say, getting long in the tooth and have a sleep disorder.  Home may be where the heart is. It’s also where the familiar bed and bedding are.

Maybe you can go home again, but you should take your mattress, pillow, book, and other nighttime routines.

Then, you’ll be more rested and resilient and have the strength to say all those goodbyes all over again.

Minding My Ps and Q

I’m late. Again. The 2013 year-end accounting was due yesterday, at year’s end. 

Yet, now that I’m retired, who can be upset if I’m late with an assignment? However, I did dream early this morning that my last, and best, boss was displeased with my work. (Sorry to disappoint, Kelly, even in my sleep.)

But, I digress from the 2013 accounting. Last year was the Chinese year of the snake, but we did not slither south to North Carolina. Mark and I came on four wheels with great anticipation, some apprehension, and a lifetime of possessions, memories, and friendships.

Yes, we were anxious, but also anxious to start the next phase of our lives and marriage.

I, of course, had a list of what I was looking forward to in retirement. That long-ago year in library school wasn’t totally lost on me.  I have a classification system. It’s based on the letter “P” as I wrote about in an earlier post (Oct. 3, 2013).

The diminishing Backyard Mountains

Five months into retirement, here’s the scorecard:

People.  We followed good friends to our new hometown. They, and other friends, are steps away. We like the town and the area. We like our friends even more. As our neighbor says, “People are more important than place.”

Puppy. Our 12-year-old dog is thriving here with her large yard, small number of stairs, and newfound freedom with a dog door. She also has a nearby swimming hole and a neighbor she adores.

Physical fitness.  I’m swimming (pool), riding my bike (pedaling), going to yoga (Pilates is close), and working with a personal trainer to get in shape to live long and actively. For another P – paddling – my husband gave me a kayak for Christmas (a sweet Santee 116 Sport). I’m also enjoying the freedom from being in an office five days a week and the newfound physicality of living on an acre. For one, I’m shrinking our backyard mountains and creating my first woodpile. It certainly is satisfying – no blazing insight here – to see visible evidence of your labor.

What about this year, the year of the horse? Are there more Ps ahead? My husband and I will focus on people and places as we take our “A to Z” road trip, with stops at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge 

and Zion National Monument as we travel to see family and friends in Texas and California.

Photo courtesy Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

And, yes, we will see the Pedernales River on our way to Palm Springs.

Purpose. That’s a P that I want to add in 2014. I miss doing work that matters – contributions that make a difference in the well being of others. Now that we’re more settled, and healthier, it’s time to find volunteer opportunities in our new community.

As for that Q, I wrote before that “P is for Pause.”  I need to get much better about pausing and appreciating and about being quiet and calm. I have much to learn about living in the moment. Moments may just be all we have. If I can do that, well, for this list-making type-A individual that would be momentous. 

Here’s to moments, and many more fun, loving, and special ones with family and friends in 2014.

Happy new year and happy trails.