Open Book Critic

Talking and Listening
- If you are presenting an idea to a mixed group of men and women, it is safer to use a male speaking structure to make your points. Both sexes can follow ‘man-talk’ but men have difficulty following a woman’s multitracked conversations and can quickly lose interest.
- Women, they multitrack!
- ‘Get to the […]

This book can teach you how to write for the Web. Besides just being a tool that will help you to improve your writing, however, it also gives you tips on writing your resume, corresponding with editors, getting paid work, and loads more.

The way it’s written is very easy to understand and any writer should be able to apply its principles. While it can be a lot to take in, I feel that I’m a better writer for having read this book.

Now, let’s briefly go over the contents. There is a lot to cover, so I’ll keep it short. The book is broken into five areas that loosely reflect the writing process.

Here’s the long version: I shudder at the very thought of just how cumbersome, boring, confused, and plain unbearable a book about ” ideas” can be… It’s the perfect topic for long-winded authors who aspire to write into existence a prescription sleep aid of a book. But Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” is none of that: It’s a tour de force; powerful, compelling, and reader-friendly! You’ll be astonished at how many portions of this book you’ll think one of your family members, friends, coworkers (superiors and subordinates alike) would be well-advised to read, and fast! What makes some ideas triumph and others die an ugly death is not just a matter of curiosity; it’s actually something you can use on both a personal and professional level.

Jill Konrath’s “Selling To Big Companies” could become the tool that all professional sales people turn to when they want to improve their skills. Konrath, who is a seasoned and practiced sales professional, says in the books’ introduction, “It’s a whole new world out there right now. New approaches are required for success in today’s crazy marketplace. Doing more of the same old thing won’t get you anywhere - - especially not into a large corporation.” That hooked me…I had to read farther.

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser. Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like. Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in an idealogical battle, a corrections officer of any kind. Never, never (John Aldridge, Norman Podhoretz) try to put the author “in his place,” making him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers. Review the book, not the reputation. Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.”