Business Writing Exercise

I’ve talked before about finding topics to write about, and mentioned then that a great source of blog posts is other blog posts, or specifically other items on the internet. Link to a page, give some context and some personal value, and you’ve got a legitimate article of your own. Then last week we talked about accurate descriptions, and if you squint a little, you can see an overlap between those two that makes for excellent posting material.

That’s your assignment this week: squint a little. Actually, no, your assignment this week is to provide me detailed feedback and practice borrowing others’ inspiration, all at one go. I want you to pick an article on UnstressedSyllables.com and critique it on your blog. Write 300-900 words analyzing the presentation, the content, the readability, the skimmability, the applicability, even the statistical distribution of non-E vowels. Go back to my advice in “What Should You Write About?” and figure out what you should write about, when you’re describing my blog.

Because, ultimately, that’s what a good critique is: an accurate description of something you’ve read. Pick an article, that I’ve written (with my background, and my purposes, and to my imagined audience), and then describe that article as it strikes you (with your background, and your purposes, and to your audience). You don’t have to be nice, but you should be specific. Say something useful.

Then link it here. Don’t be shy. I’ve spoken again and again about the value of good feedback, and this week’s exercise is absolutely a sneaky trick on my part to get some free feedback. Put a link to your blog post in the comments, and you’ll be making Unstressed Syllables better, even as you’re adding a free post to your blog. Everyone wins.