Rob Biesenbach
Communications pro, actor, author
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Recent Posts
- How a Story Can Save Lives
- 5 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat
- 5 Lessons from The Great Gatsby School of Writing
- The Art of the Bad Apology (And a Lesson from Bill Clinton)
- To Be a Better Writer, Accept Edits with Grace (5 Steps)
- Sterling’s Gold: 7 Lessons for Success from Mad Men
- The Myth of Body Language
- I’m Not Angry
- 3 Quick Tips for Presenters and Public Speakers
- The Secret to Being a Better Editor (Plus 5 Essential Tips)
Categories
- Audience (29)
- Book (17)
- Communication (44)
- Crisis Communication (3)
- Editing (13)
- Emotion (14)
- Grammar & Usage (11)
- Language (16)
- Leadership (11)
- Listening (7)
- Management (7)
- Media Relations (4)
- Messaging (2)
- Obstacles to Communication (5)
- Presentations/Speeches (50)
- Promotion (1)
- Proofing (1)
- Quotes (5)
- Relationships (2)
- Review & Approval Process (13)
- Show, Don't Tell (20)
- Social Media (8)
- Storytelling (27)
- Uncategorized (5)
- Using Humor (9)
- Video (7)
- Visual Communication (6)
- Web (11)
- Working with Lawyers (7)
- Writing (36)
My Other Stuff
Tweets
- Death at the Grand Canyon: How a Story Can Save Lives bit.ly/17YKLwE Latest blog post #storytelling 2 hours ago
- Regarding Apple and taxes, don't hate the player, hate the game. Reform the system. 2 hours ago
- If Mad Men episodes were created by committee, last night's show would never have been seen. And that's why committee suck. 22 hours ago
- Can't wait to read the anti-yahoo Tumblrs nyti.ms/17RD1g4 Yahoo pays $1.1 billion for Tumblr 1 day ago
- Among the terrible things presidents have asked marines to do over the past decade, holding umbrellas ranks pretty low. 2 days ago
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Category Archives: Language
5 Lessons from The Great Gatsby School of Writing
If you should ever fall out of love with writing, read a little F. Scott Fitzgerald. That will surely rekindle the flames. I’ve been reading The Great Gatsby in preparation for this week’s film premiere. There’s nothing like re-reading a … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Presentations/Speeches, Writing
Tagged F Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, Great Gatsby, writing
3 Comments
Where I Have the Temerity to Copyedit Sir Winston Churchill
I came across an excellent article in a little journal known as the New York Times about the “music” of language. It really spoke to me, as I’ve always said that while I have no actual musical talent, I do … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Presentations/Speeches
Tagged New York Times, rhetoric, speechwriting, Winston Churchill
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How to Spot the Words You Abuse and Overuse
I talked the other day about how writers squander their most powerful words and ideas by burying them. Just as bad is the opposite problem: growing overly fond and even dependent on certain words to the point we repeat them … Continue reading
Is Your Writing Missing the Element of Suspense?
Writers constantly struggle to find just the right words. But then we go and squander them by burying them somewhere in the middle of a sentence, undermining the strength of the point we’re trying to make. The issue is captured in … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Writing
Tagged periodic sentence, Robert McKee, sentence construction, Shakespeare
5 Comments
10 Everyday Words You’re Misusing (Including ‘Everyday’)
Certain word pairs that look or sound alike cause a lot of confusion. I’m not talking about the ones you hear about all the time, like there and their, it’s and its and to and too. Or even the more recently … Continue reading
Correct Use of ‘Obviously’ Not So Obvious
Practically everyone makes this mistake. I used to make it myself, which may be why it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. We’re talking about where to put the word “obviously” in a sentence when you’re expressing disappointment. As … Continue reading
