Tom Johnson offers a great writing tip especially for tech writers and others who write instructions. This method also works well with Web content and forms. Watching people use a Web site, a product, a service — anything is a superb way to get insight on how others use the product or service.

Those involved in the creation of the product or service — whether a little or a lot — see too much and know how to find what they need. So where do you find this user especially if you’re a freelancer? Ask family and friends. While they might not be the target market, they have one important thing in common with the target market: They haven’t seen or used the product or service. It’s better than nothing.

In writing the Brilliant Outlook Pocketbook, the editors assumed the role of the users. While I didn’t watch them read over the chapters — they identified areas where the instructions or tips didn’t make sense. By the time the proofs came to me giving me fresh eyes, I could see why they had questions.

Books on writing often reiterate the same advice we learn over time, the reader sometimes lucks out in using a tidbit or two. Realistically, no one has time to study the advice and put it to practice. Thus, it’s not a bad thing for a book on writing to cover the things we’ve read before. The more we read about it, the more it sinks in.

But you can’t read A Writer’s Coach in the same way you read any other writing book. This one goes deeper meaning a reader may absorb the information better by reading one chapter at a time to understand and practice the concepts. Coaching an athlete to improve at something doesn’t happen overnight. Thus, this book targets the serious writer who needs to move beyond the basic books on writing in order to take writing to the next level.

I try to avoid writing general reviews that tell the reader nothing, but Hart is a master in explaining the concepts of method, process, structure, and everything else he covers. It’s difficult to capture them into a little review when I try to avoid long reviews.

Business and life coaching grows more popular because they’re effective in helping people change behavior and improve. In thinking about coaches, I reflected on my childhood years when I played sports. The best coaches point out the right way to swing a bat, serve a volleyball, or shoot a basket. They also help players review their weaker moves so they can fix their form rather than let them continue using bad form, which will hurt them in the end. “Coach” is a fitting word in the title because Hart takes the coaching approach in showing the writer the right form for taking an idea from start to finish.

The book speaks more to journalists and non-fiction writers. However, much advice works across all writing genres — so those who thrive on telling stories can glean a few valuable lessons from Hart. Expect to find high quality content that you find in the best college textbooks — except subtract the stiff and convoluted writing. Hart’s writing style makes the reading easy. A Writer’s Coach contains smart, clear and logical guidance that will take a writer’s writing skills to the next level.

Title: A Writer’s Coach: An Editor’s Guide to Words That Work
Author: Jack R. Hart
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0375423273
Date: August 2006
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides excellent resources and support for small businesses as does SCORE, an organization made up of retired volunteers who advise small business owners.

This Escape from Cubicle Nation blog entry suggests that every entrepreneur needs the following four professionals:

* Lawyer
* Banker
* Accountant
* Insurance specialist

The entry also provides suggestions on where to find these four professionals. One thing I’ve learned from others as I don’t want to learn the hard way: Stay on top of your money even if you have an accountant. People have seen their trusted accountants steal from them because they didn’t watch the books. I’m not sure those with a spouse who has health benefits covering the family need an insurance specialist.

Those with no children may want to investigate insurance because it could be cheaper for the spouse to not add you to the insurance plan as adding a spouse can up the numbers for some health plans.

Freelancers and small businesses, what professionals do you use and how?

Lifehack had me thinking about handling criticism. As a one-person business with no manager to meet with me to discuss performance goals and progress, I must rely on my clients for feedback. They’re essentially my managers.

On occasion, I e-mail a client requesting feedback. I explain that I want to serve him or her better in future assignments and the only way I can do that is ask for feedback. Even though I asked for feedback, I gulp when I see an e-mail from that person. Something about human nature forces us to feel jittery about feedback though we tell ourselves that we’re always growing and improving. Feedback in e-mail — which takes away some of that personal touch — doesn’t soften the message.

AbsoluteWrite‘s article lists one thing that works for me: “Not everyone will like your writing/work.” This is no different than putting out one food dish for everyone to try. How likely will everyone like the dish? We have our likes and dislikes, so there will always be someone out there who doesn’t like the work we do simply because they have a distaste for it.

Example. I attended a fantastic week-long management class where at the end of the class, we sent evaluation forms to people we’ve worked with. Nine out of the ten responses came with positive feedback. That one negative had opposite scores and comments. Despite nine good ones, that one hurt. I hadn’t yet learned that not everyone will like my work. The negative feedback turned into a learning experience as I worked on the areas needing improvement.

Jonathan and Lisa Price have a nice article on writing FAQ and covered many points that we may not think about. For instance, if you have a large site — you might want to show the FAQ or Help that’s relevant to the page users are on rather than give them the whole thing to dig through. Many software applications do this — give you the Help based on the window you’re viewing.

I believe FAQ are best served when all of the questions and answers appear in one page — unless it’s ridiculously long and neds breaking up. The reason for this is because some users will use their own browser’s search instead of a site’s search — they want to find a keyword on the current page instead of browse the whole site.

Add items to the FAQ as you get e-mails from users, see questions popping up in the forums or on the Internet — don’t assume people will find their way to the other sites that answer the questions… do people a favor by offering everything in one place. Users appreciate it and it never hurts to go the extra mile… actually, they expect you to have complete answers. Hey, it saves you time as people won’t contact you if they can find the answers on their own. Of course, not everyone thinks to check the FAQ — but every bit helps.

Notice I never used the “s” in FAQ as in FAQs? Skipping it was hard, but I learned to just write “FAQ” because “Q” means “questions.” Why write an FAQ if you only list one question?

CNN.com quotes the State Examination Commission, which said, “The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates.”

Apparently, students write short sentences using simple tenses and a limited vocabulary. Maybe my experience doesn’t apply since I was an adult before I started instant messaging or text messaging. But I treat texting/im’ing as a separate language from writing and speaking.

My daughter frequently uses texting and instant messaging, and I’ve yet to see any problems with her writing and vocabulary. She started texting and im’ing around 10 or 11. All I think educators can do is continue with the curriculum and mark any misspelled words as wrong. They also should give lower grades to assignments with limited vocabulary and simple sentences. I hope this isn’t the start of bad writing habits.

Must blog fast. Finally got go ahead on a project with about 150 written pages due before May 1. Best thing to do is just type it all out. Don’t worry about being perfect. Once the content is on paper… it’s easier to modify and beautify. This material has sidebars/boxes. Those I’ll fill in after doing an initial draft.

Just started reading A Writer’s Coach last night. Writers struggle with coming up with that dreamy opening sentence in a book. The author recommends coming up with a tagline that sums up the book. Once you write the chapter, story or whatever… delete the tagline. You should have something solid by now.

What do you do when you have a short writing deadline?

Pick the Brain nicely abstracts George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing and provides the link to the original essay. I just came across this tool that helps you eliminate cliches from your writing. This helps with Orwell’s first rule of avoiding the use of metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that you’ve seen in print.

Rule #2, use short words instead of long — “use” works better than “utilized.”

Rule #3: Cut out a word. Less is better. So eliminate “very,” “really,” “so,” and “much.” Really, the sentence sounds better without them.

Rule #4: Active not passive voice. Came across another tool to help with this: The Passivator.

Rule #5: Use everyday English instead of jargon, foreign words or scientific terms. Many of us had the flu works fine. Using “influenza” won’t go over well.

Unless you’re following specific rules for a college paper or a technical paper, keep it simple. No one thinks less of you for using simpler words and shorter sentences. These rules help smooth the reading experience.

As if the daylight savings time change wasn’t enough to contend with, Microsoft picked a bad page to have a typo. A page that many people have been accessing. What’s verion? What happens when you get two verions?

Also found this typo on a kids sports program information page. Do we get to take two classes for free? What class complements this one?

Two simple writing tips

**Stop with the Overdone Modifiers**

On Writing Well taught me to cut the use of modifiers such as “really,” “very,” “so,” and “quite.” I save those for when I *really* mean something It’s amazing how many articles I’ve edited that abused these words that they lose meaning.

**Using Only in Sentences**

An Ode to Only shows how the placement of “only” in a sentence can change meaning. For example:

She was the only child who sang in the talent show.

She was the child who only sang in the talent show.

The first one indicates no one else sang in the talent show. The second one implies others did more than sing. The advice is to “place ‘only’ as close as possible to the word or phrase it modifies. The article cites examples of reputable newspapers misuse of “only.”

Imagine how different the James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only would be had it been “For Only Your Eyes” or “Only for Your Eyes.” All three say the same thing with the sentence having one phrase to modify. But these two don’t “sound” as good as the original title.