Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

Working Up header image 4

Success Breeds Suspicion

June 30th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Success leads to different things. One disturbing trend is that it leads to suspicion. Google is a rather successful business. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google. Why is it that (2) often follows (1)? Google offers a free service to Internet users. Come to our site and search the Internet. I […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government · Success · Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 3 – Internet References

June 27th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Writing students at George Mason University teach me how to cite Internet references using APA Style. I continue to work with students at George Mason University on their writing. And they continue to teach me. A recent student had questions about citing references from Internet sources according to the APA Style Guidelines […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Learning · Wikipedia · Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 2 – Smaller Concepts

June 2nd, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 2. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

Tutoring Writing – Part 1 – Big Concepts

May 30th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here are some items I see often when working with college engineering and science students – part 1. For the past couple of years, I have been working with engineering and science students at George Mason University on their writing. I found myself spending the vast majority of the time discussing a […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

The Curse of the First Draft

May 16th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Avoid asking an engineer or some other non-writer to write a complete first draft of a document. The result will be bad, but the non-writer will love it more than himself. There are few anguishes known to man as that experienced when a manager tells an engineer or some other professional who […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Management · Writing

Writing Just Because

April 14th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I like to write. I am rarely paid for writing, but that doesn’t stop me. There has been some chatter on the Internet recently about people churning out content for big web sites for zero pay. The post linked here is part of that chatter. Guess what? A lot of people write […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

Becoming a Writer

April 4th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here are some thoughts from the 1934 classic “Becoming a Writer” by Dorothea Brande. I recently read Ray Bradbury’s book on writing. In it, he referred to a book written by Dorothea Brande in 1934 titled “Becoming a Writer.” I bought a used copy ($5 with shipping) and finished reading it. Here […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

The Five-Paragraph Essay

March 31st, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips After many years, I finally learn what a five-paragraph essay is. Every now and then I learn something that embarrasses me. It is something that I feel like I should have learned a long time ago. Such is the case with the title of this post. I was stumbling around the Internet […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

Providing Feedback to Writing

March 15th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One of the more difficult tasks is reviewing something written by someone else and providing feedback that will help both the writer and the reader. Here are some things I learned from Jerry Weinberg. In 2004, I attended a writing workshop led by author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. A large part of […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Writing

Short Stories on Sale Now

February 22nd, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Short stories I have written are on sale at Smashwords.com under the name Dwayne Phillips. In 2008 I wrote 53 short stories. It was a great experience. I am now moving these stories to smashwords.com. They are on sale for 99 cents each. I am posting a few each day. See my […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing