Creative writing

‘This isn’t dessert, it’s a diabetic coma on a plate’

“The thing about food writing is that there are only about fifteen adjectives you can use — ‘delicious,’ ‘delectable,’ ‘unctuous’ …”

— Tom Parker Bowles, the food writer at Tatler, the British society magazine and author of The Year of Eating Dangerously

The problem with modifiers — delicious, delectable, unctuous — is that they don’t paint pictures in your readers’ minds.… Read the full article

Engage your readers’ senses with metaphor

In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor described a character as “a young woman in slacks…

“… whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage.”

… Read the full article

Analogy sharpens your message

When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency in the wake of Watergate, he wanted Americans to know they were getting a simple, plain-spoken leader.… Read the full article

Rob Kapilow makes Mozart meaningful through metaphor

I don’t know an adagio from an allegro. (Although I have been told that my andante needs to accelerando if I want to keep up with my husband in the airport.)… Read the full article

Need your audience to ‘get’ your point? Use analogy

“The rewards of learning how to handle metaphor go beyond a style that is merely a bit more mannered than usual.

… Read the full article

Name names; number numbers

When it comes to interest and understanding, Countertop Gadgets are better than Domestic Devices.

Favorite Junk outperforms Preferred Items. How a Plane Flies beats The Laws of Lift.… Read the full article

PNNL science writer shows how to communicate complex concepts

When Pacific Northwest National Laboratory science writer Tom Rickey wrote a release about the lab’s work “Making dams safer for fish around the world,” he didn’t get lost in the scientific gobbledygook.… Read the full article

Examples prove the rule

Illustrate your point with for instances

You could say that in Cleopatra’s time, women had few legal rights. Or you could say, as Stacy Schiff does in Cleopatra: A Life:

[I]n a city where women enjoyed the same legal rights as infants or chickens, the posting called upon a whole new set of skills.… Read the full article

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Use metaphor, not modifiers

‘This isn’t dessert, it’s a diabetic coma on a plate’

“The thing about food writing is that there are only about fifteen adjectives you can use — ‘delicious,’ ‘delectable,’ ‘unctuous’ …”

— Tom Parker Bowles, the food writer at Tatler, the British society magazine and author of The Year of Eating Dangerously

Go beyond description

Engage your readers’ senses with metaphor

“… whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage.”

Bring power to your points

Analogy sharpens your message

Analogy makes him great

Rob Kapilow makes Mozart meaningful through metaphor

Metaphor makes the difference

Need your audience to ‘get’ your point? Use analogy

“The rewards of learning how to handle metaphor go beyond a style that is merely a bit more mannered than usual.

Paint concrete word pictures

Name names; number numbers

Master of metaphor writing

PNNL science writer shows how to communicate complex concepts

Examples prove the rule

Illustrate your point with for instances

Creative writing

‘This isn’t dessert, it’s a diabetic coma on a plate’

“The thing about food writing is that there are only about fifteen adjectives you can use — ‘delicious,’ ‘delectable,’ ‘unctuous’ …”

— Tom Parker Bowles, the food writer at Tatler, the British society magazine and author of The Year of Eating Dangerously

Engage your readers’ senses with metaphor

“… whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage.”

Analogy sharpens your message

Rob Kapilow makes Mozart meaningful through metaphor

Need your audience to ‘get’ your point? Use analogy

“The rewards of learning how to handle metaphor go beyond a style that is merely a bit more mannered than usual.

Name names; number numbers

PNNL science writer shows how to communicate complex concepts

Illustrate your point with for instances

Reach more readers with our writing tips

Reach more readers
with our writing tips