[vc_row row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" text_align="left" css_animation=""][vc_column][vc_column_text] You’ve had lots of advice about how to write an essay. You’ve been given templates and organising principles. You’ve seen formulae for the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. The advice has been sensible and specific. So why, when you sit...
We know that connectedness is vital to us as human beings, We also know that stories are powerful ways of feeling connected – both in the telling, and the listening. The Connected project began with a series of conversations between three of us: Daniel Betty,...
You’re preparing an important Powerpoint in your office (or twirling your chair and throwing rolled up paper at the bin) when a new email pings onto your screen. You open it and have to read it twice before you can believe it. The writer, a...
Someone’s getting married! It’s wonderful – you’re celebrating a relationship with a party. There’s just one thing that’s getting in the way of having a good time. That’s right. You’re going to have to (Jaws music please…) deliver a speech, to all to those people...
Here to Help - We’re sheltering from the COVID 19 storm here in NZ, but that doesn’t mean we’re not hurting....
Punctuation is wonderful. It makes your meaning clear. On a page, we don’t have access to all the extras we use when we speak - our eyes, our voice, our gestures and stance. What we use instead is – you guessed it – punctuation. There...
Improve your writing by including sensory detail whenever you can. Imagine you’re selling a house, and want to emphasise the view. You could say, “Enjoy the wonderful view from all rooms in the house.”...
Writing coaches are like archaeologists. We excavate the treasure of your words. A good coach will unearth what’s good about your writing, and help you scrape away what’s not. They’ll help you find your voice – that is, a way of writing that sounds like you,...
Simplicity is beautiful. Or, as Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, “Less is More.” Just look at that statement. With 10 letters, in three words, van der Rohe makes a complex assertion, using contrast as a tool: ‘Less’ and ‘more’ are opposites, paired by the strong, assertive...
I remember my grade school librarian Miss Peabody…She was very tall and very thin and there was always a ribbon or scarf tied around her head from which bubbled lots of silver-gray curls. (Joe Brainard, I Remember) A memoir is a personal history: the past from your...
