BANG! WRITING WITH IMPACT
Get
readers to pay attention - write with power -
make your point
with a bang
Over 100 strategies for powerful, persuasive writing with impact
Writing instruction from the communication specialists at Precise Edit
Practical,
easy-to-understand advice for making your words
shine and get
noticed
by David Bowman
Introduction
Welcome to BANG! Writing with Impact. This writing guide will provide you with strategies for making your words stand out and your readers pay attention. It is a great companion to our Precise Edit Training Manual, 300 Days of Better Writing, and “Writing Tips for a Year,” although each of these writing resources can be used independently.
Who is this book for?
This book is for all writers. A writer is anyone who communicates in writing, not just novelists, journalists, etc. This book is for any person who desires to
Change the reader’s mind about a topic,
Convince the reader that he or she is right,
Convey the importance of an idea, action, or belief,
Make the reader respond or act in a desired manner,
Influence the reader’s behavior,
Propose or set policy,
Establish credibility and leadership,
Write with power, or
Make an impact.
Whether you are writing a letter to a client, preparing a proposal for funding, developing technical manuals, or publishing a book, you need to write with impact. BANG! provides the tools you need.
About the author
David Bowman is the owner and chief editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editorial service provider helping authors, students, business professionals, and other individuals communicate well in writing. Core services include content editing, copyediting, and document analysis.
Mr. Bowman is an editor with over 18 years of experience. He has advanced degrees in both comparative literature and business administration. He is a popular writing instructor for the University of New Mexico. His articles on writing strategies have been distributed broadly across the Internet and have received much praise. His satisfaction in life comes from working with clients to meet their communication goals.
You can read more information about Precise Edit and the author at http://PreciseEdit.com.
BANG! Writing with Impact
© 2009, David Bowman
All rights reserved. No
part of this document may be copied, sold, or distributed,
in
either printed or electronic format, without the written permission
of David Bowman.
For more information, contact
dbowman@PreciseEdit.com.
http://PreciseEdit.com
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Training yourself to use strategies for impact
114 Strategies for Writing with Impact
Impact with Increasing Emotional Build-up
Impact with Positive Characteristics and Qualities
Impact with Negative Characteristics and Qualities
Impact with General Characteristics and Qualities
Impact with the First Word in a Sentence
Impact with Focus on a Specific Idea
Impact with Multiple Points and Parts
Impact with Personal Stake in a Topic
Three great strategies with no fancy names
Summary of the strategies by category
Other writing and editing resources from Precise Edit
How to use this book
Use this book any way you want to use it. This is your book.
On the other hand, I do have some recommendations for using these strategies productively.
Write your document. Get the words on paper. Don’t do more than very light editing as you write.
Identify your main points, action steps, concluding arguments, controversial statements, and other ideas that are critical to communicate. These are things you want your reader to do, understand, and believe. Underline them.
The words you underlined in step 2 are the places to apply these strategies. Take a look at how you wrote them, and peruse the strategies found in this book.
Ask yourself these questions:
What am I trying to accomplish?”
What strategies have I already applied?
Am I using a variety of strategies?
What strategies have I not applied?
If you used the same strategy three times in a row, replace one with a new strategy.
If you have not applied a strategy to one of the underlined sections, do so. Find the strategy that produces the effect you need or accomplishes your purpose.
You might not use all the strategies in this book. Actually, I would be surprised if you did. You will make choices based on your purpose, writing style, and habits.
You didn’t buy this book so that you can use every possible strategy. You bought this book because you have a purpose to accomplish. Find the strategies that you need.
Training yourself to use strategies for impact
Using new strategies will bring greater variety to your documents. More variety means more impact because using any strategy repeatedly reduces its effectiveness. Also, more variety in your strategies allows you to make new forms of impact to accomplish specific purposes. This is similar to having more tools in your toolbox. You can perform more tasks, and you can perform your tasks better.
Format for the strategies
Each strategy is formatted this way:
Short description of the strategy and purpose. academic name (only useful for impressing your colleagues)
Description / explanation / use / instruction
Caution(s), if any
Sample(s)
What’s not in this book
This is not the book for learning to write clearly or using grammar and punctuation correctly. This book has a very specific purpose: learning how to make an impact with writing.
Those other issues are also important. If you want help writing clearly and correctly, take a look at our other guides, which are described on the final page of this guide. They are available at http://PreciseEdit.com and http://HostileEditing.com.You can get a sample of all three books, and a sample subscription to the writing instruction series.
Precise Edit Training Manual: a comprehensive examination of the 28 most common editing strategies we apply and errors we fix.
300 Days of Better Writing: 300 easy-to-use strategies for writing clearly and communicating effectively. (300 strategies from our Writing Tips for a Year service)
“Writing Tips for a Year”: Daily writing instruction for an entire year—one tip, strategy, or resource for 365 days—delivered by e-mail.
114 Strategies for Writing with Impact
Impact with Actions
Use these strategies to emphasize the significance and impact of actions. Use them when you need to show why an action is important and to provoke the reader to act as you wish.
1. Add the implied “do” to verbs to emphasize the significance of the action you are about to describe.
pleonasm
Generally, the word “do” is not needed with a verb. However, as with any redundancy or additional words describing an action, adding the implied “do” will add emphasis to the importance of an action. Using the word “do” indicates that the next action is significant in some way. It will demonstrate that the action is important to you, and, therefore, it should be important to the reader.
Cautions: If you do this often, your writing will become tedious to read, and you will lose the ability to point out specific actions for emphasis. Basically, if every action is significant, then no action is more significant than the others. Also, because you are adding in an implied (i.e., unnecessary) word, you risk making your writing weak because it will be less concise. Save this strategy for only those cases where it adds real value.
This only works in the present tense for positive actions; it has no value for “do not” phrases. (Of course, you will not want to add the implied “do” to the verb “do.”)
“If you do read this, keep the information to yourself.”
“We will have a fight on our hands when the officer does retire.”
2. Emphasize the outcome of an action by referring to some well-known event.
allusion
Use this strategy when you want your reader to understand the impact and importance of some current or proposed action. First, determine what the outcome will be, and then compare the action to a similar, well-known event. For greatest impact, refer to a similar, but more extreme, example. Here, you are not using an obvious comparison, such as by using “like” or “as,” but leaving the reader to make the connection.
Because this requires reader involvement, it can very powerful. Be careful that you don’t choose an event that is unknown to the reader or an event that is so extreme that the reader can easily reject the similarity.
“When the auditors come, should we be Branch Davidians or Uncle Toms?”
“Giving external auditors an office at our facilities is no better than letting a Trojan Horse inside our walls.”
“Unless you want to repeat World War II, leave his family out of your discussion.”
3. Use redundant language to emphasize the significance, uniqueness, or personal importance of an action.
pleonasm
Adding words that describe an action, how the action was performed, who performed the action, etc., is generally a good idea. With this strategy, you describe the action again, i.e., twice. This is redundant writing. Why would you want to do this?
This strategy produces impact in three ways. 1) Using redundant words, phrases, and concepts to express an action can help the reader understand the importance of that action. 2) This can help the reader realize that the action was performed in a unique manner, which also makes it seem more important. 3) Using redundancy well indicates that the issue is important to you. The redundant words and phrases won’t add content, but they may add value because of their effect on the reader.
Redundant writing, by definition, is saying the same thing two or more times. Adding extra words will always reduce the directness and conciseness of your writing. Normally, we remove all cases of redundant writing from client’s documents because they weaken the overall writing. Use this strategy when no other strategy is appropriate.
“This company, and this company alone, is responsible for creating new energy sources.”
“We saw it with our own eyes.”
“I am personally responsible.”
4. Substitute a descriptive word for an action or thing to emphasize its characteristics
catachresis
This is a form of implied metaphor inasmuch as it implies that one action is a different, more graphic, more extreme action. To use this, take out the action you want to describe and replace it with a graphic verb signifying the thing to which you are making a comparison. What makes this interesting is that you can substitute different parts of speech for increased emphasis (e.g., using a noun as a verb).
This is a risky strategy. It tends to sound very dramatic and poetic, potentially making you seem as if you are trying too hard to be creative at the expense of the point you are making. It probably doesn’t have a place in formal business writing. Use with caution.
“My rationalization will dagger her misgivings.”
“She machine-gunned her keyboard when typing her letter of complaint.”
“We whirlpooled into this state of disorganization.”
Impact with Alternatives
Use these strategies when you want your reader to realize that alternatives exist. A reader may have only one idea, or one understanding, of some issue. If you want to make the reader question his or her ideas and realize that other options are possible, these strategies will help.
5. Emphasize alternatives by adding the conjunctions “or” or “nor” between all items in a series.
polysyndeton
Adding “or” or “nor” between all words in a series emphasizes their differences. This is especially useful when you want to show a string of options or alternatives that cannot be combined. Also, by adding “or” or “nor,” you place individual emphasis on each item in the series. This strategy helps the reader to pay attention to and remember each item. The final items in the series will carry the most emphasis by nature of their placement, so think carefully about which items to place there.
“We could buy or lease or rent or steal our office equipment, but we could not own or build it.”
6. Emphasize the existence of other points of view to demonstrate the possibility that you are right.
procatalepsis
Not everyone believes, thinks, feels, or understands in the same way. Some people will disagree with your ideas. By pointing out that your critics do not represent all points of view, you diminish the impact of their ideas and promote your own. The concept behind this is making the reader have reasonable doubt about others’ ideas so they will be open to considering yours.
“Some social researchers claim that people are driven by a need for belonging. While this viewpoint is common, it is not the only viewpoint espoused by serious social researchers. Others agree with us that people have a basic need for security, which includes having the power to direct others’ actions.”
7. Repeat a phrase in reverse order to emphasize a contrasting idea.
antimetabole
Repeating a phrase adds emphasis to the words in the phrase; repeating them in reverse order catches the reader’s attention and places even stronger emphasis on the second occurrence. This provides a good opportunity to counteract a different idea or opinion. State the other opinion / idea in the first occurrence of the phrase. Then counter the idea by some means using the same phrase or key words in reverse order. This will stress your counter-argument, diminishing the importance or value of the other idea.
“We could let the enemy come to us on our soil, but I would rather we go to the enemy.”
“Will you give no answer, or is your answer no?”
Impact with Increasing Emotional Build-up
One very effective way to create impact is to build up to a final emphatic statement or word. In this way, you lead your reader into the emphatic point. This increases the likelihood that your reader will respond as you wish, whether by understanding some concept or by acting in a particular manner. In many ways, this is superior to hitting your reader with an impact statement that is not supported by prior development. With these strategies, your reader creates his or her own emotional impact.
8. Create an emotional build-up by adding conjunctions between all items in a series.
polysyndeton
By adding the same conjunction between all items in a series, you create increasing emphasis for each subsequent item. This only applies to the conjunctions “and,” “nor,” and “or.” The strategy creates an emotional impact through repetition, and it stresses the importance of each item, with more emphasis on the final items than the first items. Order the items from least to most importance to get the most benefit from this strategy.
This strategy tends to create a dramatic feel, so use it carefully and purposefully. Also, this strategy will be most effective when being used to introduce a topic because it establishes an emotional context for the discussion that follows.
“Drunkenness creates hardship and pain and terror.”
9. Emphasize a concept by leading up to it with a series of increasingly emphatic statements.
gradatio, parallelism
Write a series of phrases, sentences, or statements around a particular topic and arrange them from least to most emphatic. The final item should be the critical point you are trying to make. You can increase the effectiveness of this strategy with parallelism (a series of phrases or sentences with identical grammatical structures).
This strategy gradually increases the reader’s emotional response to your ideas, instead of trying to create a strong response from the start, which can turn off the reader initially and then make the other points seems anti-climactic. This approach is also useful for overall document organization.
“Learning to read is difficult. Learning to apply what you read is more difficult still. Most difficult, though, is learning to live without the ability to read.”
10. Emphasize a logical progression by repeating the last word of one sentence or phrase in the beginning of the next sentence or phrase.
anadiplosis
This strategy shows your reader how one idea connects to, or logically leads to, the next one. This is useful for emphasizing the rationale or the conclusion for an argument, as well as for creating a smooth flow of ideas within a paragraph. The first part introduces the topic and prepares the reader for the impact statement occurring in the second part.
“Freedom is the right of all men, and all men desire it.”
“The automobile is our most important technology, a technology that has changed the life of so many people”