Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Companies will often request a writing sample from potential writer hires. Without adequate notice, the companies have a license to steal. I am writing a few posts about copyright. I am compelled to do so by recent interviews with employers who seem ignorant of copyright basics. There is much good information on […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Words written in the employ of a company belong to the company. Still, others will ask for them. Beware as you could be an accomplice to theft. I am writing a few posts about copyright. I am compelled to do so by recent interviews with employers who seem ignorant of copyright basics. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips These are my most recent and most favored proposal-writing tools. In the past few years I have spent some of my time writing proposals for companies seeking government contracts. There are a lot tools available to proposal writers and all other types of writers. Here are my most favored and most productive […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A look at the Lenovo Yoga Book. This look concentrates on writing with a pen. Lenovo may have reinvented the portable computer with their new Yoga Book. A previous post tested the Halo Keyboard for typing. This post examines how the Yoga Book captures handwriting. The flat plastic panel on the Yoga […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Contrary to famous success stories, writing comes one step at a time. The writers most of us know are exceptions. I advise everyone else to take things one step at a time. Write a story (fiction) or an essay (non-fiction). Start to finish. Done. Good. We got that out of the way. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sorry, the title of this post is true. Several years ago, I managed a West Coast project from the East Coast. Every day I would send several faxes to the other coast to ask and answer questions. (I wrote that this was several years ago and faxes were the best means of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips All writers should read. This goes for technical writers, too. Writers should read. Writers should read good material. Writers should read several hours a day. Fine. What about the technical writer? That is all non-fiction. There are plenty of good non-fiction books to read. I recommend the Pulitzer prize winners. I also […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When writing about technical subjects, use the correct nouns and verbs as synonyms don’t work. In various forms of writing about technical subjects, synonyms don’t work. For example, when describing electric current, flow—as in the flow of electrons or current—can’t be replaced by drift or glide, which are otherwise perfectly good synonyms […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Not sure what you want to say? Start writing about the topic, and you will probably learn what it is you want to say. William Zinsser once wrote a book with the same title as this blog post. That book is better than this blog post, and the two have slightly different […]

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by Dwayne Phillips In an attempt to go back to reality, adults are returning to coloring books. Everyone has a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, or all of these. You move the mouse, the cursor moves, and lines and colors and all that appear on the screen. Press control-P and the printer produces the paper […]

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