Table of Contents
Foreword Nancy Duarte xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction 1
PART I WRITING RULES: HOW TO WRITE BETTER (AND HOW TO HATEWRITING LESS) 11
1 Everybody Writes 15
2 Writing Is a Habit, Not an Art 17
3 Shed High School Rules 20
4 Regard Publishing as a Privilege 23
5 Place the Most Important Words (and Ideas) at the Beginning ofEach Sentence 25
6 Follow a Writing GPS 27
7 The More the Think, the Easier the Ink 33
8 Organize. Relax, You’ve Got This 36
9 Embrace The Ugly First Draft 41
10 Swap Places with Your Reader 44
11 Humor Comes on the Rewrite 46
12 Develop Pathological Empathy 47
13 ‘Cross Out the Wrong Words’ 51
14 Start with Dear Mom . . . 54
15 If You Take a Running Start, Cover Your Tracks 56
16 Notice Where Words Appear in Relation to Others around Them59
17 ‘A Good Lede Invites You to the Party and a Good KickerMakes You Wish You Could Stay Longer’ 61
18 Show, Don’t Tell 65
19 Use Familiar Yet Surprising Analogies 69
20 Approach Writing Like Teaching 71
21 Keep It Simple—but Not Simplistic 72
22 Find a Writing Buddy 74
23 Avoid Writing by Committee 76
24 Hire a Great Editor 77
25 Be Rabid about Readability 79
26 End on an I-Can’t-Wait-to-Get-Back-to-It Note 84
27 Set a Goal Based on Word Count (Not Time) 85
28 Deadlines Are the WD-40 of Writing 87
PART II WRITING RULES: GRAMMAR AND USAGE 89
29 Use Real Words 91
30 Avoid Frankenwords, Obese Words, and Words Pretending to BeSomething They’re Not 93
31 Don’t Use Weblish (Words You Wouldn’t Whisper toYour Sweetheart in the Dark) 95
32 Know the Difference between Active and Passive Voice 96
33 Ditch Weakling Verbs 97
34 Ditch Adverbs, Except When They Adjust the Meaning 98
35 Use Clichés Only Once in a Blue Moon 101
36 Avoid These Mistakes Marketers Make 103
37 Break Some Grammar Rules (At Least These Five) 107
38 Learn Words You’re Probably Misusing or Confusing withOther Words 109
39 Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy 117
40 Limit Moralizing 119
PART III STORY RULES 121
41 Tell How You’ll Change the World 123
42 Tell the Story Only You Can Tell 128
43 Voice and Tone 130
44 Look to Analogy instead of Example 135
PART IV PUBLISHING RULES 139
45 Wait. What’s Brand Journalism? 141
46 Tell the Truth 145
47 See Content Moments Everywhere 146
48 Post News That’s Really News 149
49 Biased and Balanced 150
50 Nonobvious Interview Tips 152
51 Fact-Check 156
52 Approach Content with ‘Mind Like Water’ 158
53 Seek Out the Best Sources 160
54 Be Aware of Hidden Agendas 161
55 Cite as You Write 162
56 Curate Ethically 166
57 Seek Permission, Not Forgiveness 170
58 Understand the Basics of Copyright, Fair Use, and ForAttribution 174
59 Ground Content in Data 178
PART V 13 THINGS MARKETERS WRITE 181
60 The Ideal Length for Blog Posts, Podcast, Facebook Posts,Tweets, and Other Marketing Content 183
61 Writing for Twitter 188
62 Writing with Hashtags 196
63 Writing Social Media with Humor 202
64 Writing for Facebook 206
65 Writing for LinkedIn 210
66 Writing Your LinkedIn Profile 215
67 Writing for Email 219
68 Writing Landing Pages 225
69 Writing Headlines 234
70 Writing a Home Page 238
71 Writing the About Us Page 244
72 Writing Infographics That Won’t Make People MockInfographics 249
73 Writing Better Blog Posts 254
74 Writing Annual Reports (or Annual Wrap-Ups) 257
PART VI CONTENT TOOLS 263
Research and Knowledge Management Tools 264
Writing Tools 265
Productivity Tools 266
Editing Tools 268
A Few Great Style Guides 269
Non-Text Writing Tools 271
Blog Idea Generators 271
Google Authorship 272
Image Sources (Or, Stock That Doesn’t Stink) 273
Acknowledgments for Tools 277
Epilogue 279
Notes 280
Index 291
