#NFPWORKSHOP

It would be nice if we all

could produce a brilliant

piece of writing with a

snap of the fingers.

Everything that needs to be said

Nothing that doesn’t

Inform

Request

Record

Instruct

Persuade

Communication

Build rapport

Accuracy of instructions

Productivity

Credibility

Read more

Write more

Get feedback

A // Work from a plan.

B // Use correct grammar.

C // Pay attention to punctuation.

D // Polish your prose.

A // Work from a Plan

Start with your goal.

Organize in bullets.

Start with your goal.

Organize in bullets.

Freewrite.

Eliminate the obvious.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

- Plato

Start with your goal.

Organize in bullets.

Freewrite.

Eliminate the obvious.

Be yourself.

Cut a third.

Make sure the readerknows what you want.

B // Use correct grammar

Sally wrote a flawless proposal.

NOUN

Tell Sally her proposal is flawless.

PRONOUN

Personal

Possessive

Indefinite

Interrogative

Demonstrative

The doctor wrote the prescription.

VERB

The speaker arrived early.

ADVERB

Please put the old documents

in the shredder.

ADJECTIVE

The eagle soared above the clouds.

PREPOSITION

It is a small but practical kitchen.

CONJUNCTION

Oh, that is a surprise.

Good! Now we can move on.

INTERJECTION

Remember the great eight.

Be specific.

Homophones: sound alike

Homographs: look alike

Homonyms: sound and look alike

The owner asked how the construction will AFFECThis customers.

I am EAGER for the weekend to arrive.

Please ASSURE your readers that you meant well.

There seem to be FEWER people at the picnic this year.

Please take my ADVICE.

Shelley ADAPTED quickly to her new job.

That was quite a COMPLIMENT you gave her.

THEY’RE going to be here after lunch.

They're is short for they are.

Their shows possession.

There is a place.

1 | They're not leaving on Saturday at all.

2 | More than 20 people left they're coats in the cloakroom.

3 | Can you show the guests to their cabins?

4 | Their all leaving.

5 | There are two apples.

6 | They should have completed the assignment while they were their.

Too means as well or in excess.

To is a preposition

1 | I can do it too.

2 | This cat is too chubby.

3 | I want to run around the planet.

4 | Did you tell her what to think?

5 | I am going to the park.

It's is short for it is or it has.

Its is the neutral, possessive

form of it.

1 | It's been raining for a week, and now it’sstarting to snow.

2 | It's one of the hardest courses in it’s

history.

3 | I think the company wants to have its

cake and eat it.

4 | The reef shark chases it's prey through

the coral.

Be specific.

Avoid subject-verb

disagreement

Each // everyone //

everybody // anyone //

anybody // someone // somebody

“A slate of capital improvement

projects, estimated at $200 million,

includes a new community center and a

rebuilt recreation complex, as well as

several sewer upgrades.”

The Salvation Army is one

organization.

The Salvation Army is celebrating its

150th anniversary in 2015.

Remember the great eight.

Be specific.

When you catch an

adjective, kill it.

Unique // interesting //

boring // good // bad //

important

A Salvation Army officer

stood on the new basketball

court, excited by its

potential.

C // Pay attention to punctuation

“In the midst of all the whirling noise of that supreme moment,

Pollard [the jockey] felt peaceful. Seabiscuit reached and

pushed and Pollard folded and unfolded over his shoulders and

they breathed together. A thought pressed into Pollard’s mind:

We are alone.

Twelve straining Thoroughbreds; Howard and Smith in the

grandstand; Agnes in the surging crowd; Woolf behind Pollard,

on Heelfly; Marcela up on the water wagon with her eyes

squeezed shut; the leaping, shouting reporters in the press box;

Pollard’s family crowded around the radio in a neighbor's house

in Edmonton; tens of thousands of roaring spectators and

millions of radio listeners painting this race in their

imaginations: All this fell away. The world narrowed to a man

and his horse, running.”

(Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand)

THE PERIOD“The silence of the theater behind

him ended with a curious snapping

sound, followed by the heavy

roaring of a rising crowd and the

interlaced clatter of many voices.

The matinee was over.”

(This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald)

THE SEMICOLON“Outside, Conrad threw the newspaper away in a

receptacle on the corner. He now had two $20 bills, a five,

a one, two quarters, a dime, and a nickel. He started

walking again. Over there—a telephone. He deposited a

quarter. Nothing; dead; it was out of order; he couldn’t get

the quarter back; he jiggled the lever; he pounded the

machine with the heel of his hand. A panic rose up in him,

and now his extremities seemed to shrink and grow cold.

He walked all the way back to the first telephone he had

found. His heart was beating much too fast. Gingerly he

deposited his last quarter—and placed another collect call

to Jill—and told her the whole sad story.” (A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe)

THE QUESTION

MARK

THE

EXCLAMATION

POINT

UPPERCASE“In Paris on the Champ de Mars, France opened the Exposition

Universelle, a world’s fair so big and glamorous and so exotic that

visitors came away believing no exposition could surpass it. At the

heart of the exposition stood a tower of iron that rose one

thousand feet into the sky, higher by far than any man-made

structure on earth. The tower not only assured the eternal fame of

its designer, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, but also offered graphic

proof that France had edged out the United States for dominance

in the realm of iron and steel, despite the Brooklyn Bridge, the

Horsehoe Curve, and other undeniable accomplishments of

American engineers.” (The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson)

D // Polish your prose

SUBJECT // VERB

//

OBJECT //

The Queen, my lord, is dead.

(Macbeth, William Shakespeare)

Prefer the simple.

Make every word count. (Strunk & White)

Avoid clichés like the

plague.

ACTIVATE YOUR VERBS“Bond climbed the few stairs and unlocked his door and locked

and bolted it behind him. Moonlight filtered through the curtains.

He walked across and turned on the pink-shaded lights on the

dressing table. He stripped off his clothes and went into the

bathroom and stood for a few minutes under the shower...He

cleaned his teeth and gargled with a sharp mouthwash to get rid

of the taste of the day and turned off the bathroom light and went

back into the bedroom… Bond gave a shuddering yawn. He let

the curtains drop back into place. He bent to switch off the lights

on the dressing-table. Suddenly he stiffened and his heart missed

a beat.”(From Russia with Love, Ian Fleming)

Jill loves Jim.

Jim is loved (by Jill).

Passive verbs can save

the victim.

sort of // seemed to //

tend to // could have //

kind of // used to //

must have // begin to

#NFPWORKSHOP