My Writing Punch Lines

‘Shed the ego’ is the punch line in third eye reviews.

• Let go of your ego and ask questions wherever you think you do not understand. This may make you look uninformed and unaware, but it will definitely help the article become a better one for the readers when it is published.

‘Give a hand’ is the punch line in language edits.

• Your goal is to help the writer write better. Be helpful in making it easy for the writer by giving in graceful and gentle comments, that are more suggestive where required and assertive where you have a grammar book to cite a reference.

‘Chisel it right’ is the punch line in self-reviews.

• Be ruthless when you are reviewing your own work. Often self-reviews are best done after taking a good break from the subject because the obvious will surface better after your mind has wandered a bit. Be strict with the document when you do a self-review but be surely polite to yourself.

‘Be nice’ is the punch line in emails.

• Always be nice to the reader when you write emails. Even if your message is not exactly going to make her day, your words should appear a gentle breeze where it tells the point in a nice note; unless you do not want any action taken on the task at hand or you do not care about the reader or the product that is being discussed. When you do not have the chance to sit and face a person straight in the eye, your words must be readable and nice enough to stand in for you.

‘Believe in the best’ is the punch line in drafts.

• When the white paper faces you, point-blank, it is difficult. Just believe in the best when you write and ‘Better than the best’ it will be, most times. Well begun is half done, so write with confidence that is one level higher than your yesterday’s workday. If you do not feel confident, come back to it later. Never start your document when you are out of your confidence quotient.

Now that’s how I have been doing my job and writing practices. Some click and others do not.

Click or Flop is not my judgment to make, so I can go on strong, sometimes wrong too…

On to year 17 of writing…..Thankful to all those experiences and people that brought out the best in me. I dedicate this post to people who have been in my career path, directly or indirectly… or have had the patience to handle my head whenever I could not handle my own. Thank you!