Art of Public Writing, The , livre ebook

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159 pages

English

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Today’s professionals recognize the need to elevate written communication beyond argument-driven pedantry, political polemic, and obtuse pontification. Whether the goal is to write the next serious work of best-selling nonfiction, to develop a platform as a public scholar, or simply to craft clear and concise workplace communication, The Art of Public Writing demystifies the process, showing why it’s not just nice, but necessary, to connect with those inside and outside one’s area of expertise. Drawing on a diverse set of examples ranging from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics, Zachary Michael Jack offers invaluable advice for researchers, scholars, and working professionals determined to help interpret field-specific debates for wider audiences, address complex issues in the public sphere, and successfully engage audiences beyond the Corner Office and the Ivory Tower.

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Publié par	Parlor Press, LLC
Date de parution	28 octobre 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781643172194
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0050€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Selected Nonfiction by Zachary Michael Jack
The Haunt of Home: A Journey through America’s Heartland (2020)
Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the Long March for Women’s Rights (2020)
An Education in Place: On Higher Education, Home, and the Necessity of Local Learnin g (2019)
Country Views: The Essential Agrarian Commentaries of Zachary Michael Jack , (2019)
Wish You Were Here: Love and Longing in an American Heartland , (2017)
March of the Suffragettes: Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the March for Voting Rights (2016)
Liberty Hyde Bailey: Essential Environmental and Agrarian Writing (2016)
The Midwest Farmer’s Daughter: In Search of an American Icon (2012)
Love of the Land: Essential Farm and Conservation Readings from an American Golden Age, 1880-1920 (2012)
Let There Be Pebble: A Middle-Handicapper’s Year in America’s Garden of Golf (2011)
The Green Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt in Appreciation of Wilderness, Wildlife, and Wild Places (2010)
Participatory Sportswriting: An Anthology, 1870–1937 (2010)
Inside the Ropes: Sportswriters Get Their Game On (2008)
Uncle Henry Wallace: Letters to Farm Families ( 2008)

The Art of Public Writing
Zachary Michael Jack
Parlor Press
Anderson, South Carolina
www.parlorpress.com
Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, USA
© 2021 by Parlor Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on File
Names: Jack, Zachary Michael, 1973- author.
Title: The art of public writing / Zachary Michael Jack.
Description: Anderson, South Carolina : Parlor Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “Offers invaluable advice and examples for researchers, scholars, and professionals determined to share field-specific debates, address complex issues, and engage readers”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021026629 (print) | LCCN 2021026630 (ebok) | ISBN 9781643172170 (paperback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781643172187 (pdf) | ISBN 9781643172194 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Rhetoric. | Written communication. | Authorship.
Classification: LCC P301 .J26 2021 (print) | LCC P301 (ebook) | DDC
808--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021026629
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021026630
978-1-64317-217-0 (paperback)
978-1-64317-218-7 (PDF)
978-1-64317-219-4 (ePub)
978-1-64317-217-0 (paperback)
978-1-64317-218-7 (PDF)
978-1-64317-219-4 (ePub)
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Cover image: Photo by Mark Boss on Unsplash. Bates Hall, Boston Public Library
Copyeditor: Jared Jameson.
Cover design: David Blakesley
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, cloth and eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at https://parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email editor@parlorpress.com.

Contents
Preface: Calling All Public Writers
1 Going Rogue, Staying Grounded
2 Changing Your Lens
3 Finding Your Topic, Growing Your Audience
4 Telling Smart Stories
5 Writing Like We Teach
6 Crafting Personal Commentaries
7 Minding Your Tone
8 Knowing Your Audience
9 Getting Rid of Gobbledygook
10 Establishing Ethos, Embracing Inclusivity
11 Navigating the Politics of Public Writing
12 Writing Grants
13 Analyzing News, Weighing Evidence
14 Publishing Opinion Pieces
15 Blogging for Bigger Audiences
16 Writing to Change the World
Afterword: On Becoming a Public Writer
About the Author

To my teachers,
fellow disciples
of this difficult
and necessary art
Jim,
Chris,
Diane,
Bill,
Janie
& Tom

Preface: Calling All Public Writers
T he advent of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 reminded the world of the urgent need for clear communication with the public. In the initial stages of the pandemic, global citizens looked to their governments for best practices. Sometimes they found useful guidance from national health institutes, centers for disease control, and world health organizations. At other times they encountered a litany of mixed messages, political grandstanding, alleged data manipulation, and even mock advice delivered with sarcasm.
The unsparing round-the-clock nature of the pandemic quickly led to the identification of public officials who connected well with concerned citizens, including the likes of NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci and US Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy Dr. Deborah L. Birx. Lacking Fauci’s and Birx’s medical training, however, chief executives on both sides of the partisan divide found themselves faced with exigencies that relied not on the charismatic rhetoric that had helped them win elections but on the need for cogent communication about math and science, in particular. The national emergency left the nation’s elected leaders with little choice; though most had been trained as lawyers, circumstances now required that they become skilled translators of epidemiology and immunology.
Coronavirus wasn’t about picking political winners and losers among hard-pressed public officials tasked with disseminating its difficult data sets. Still, the crisis ultimately exposed those who lacked the requisite communication skills or the willingness to engage. In a global pandemic, clear, concise communication on technical and scientific matters mattered more than ever. “Messages aimed at a mass audience during an emergency should be clear, as concise as possible, consistent with other messages, and suitable for repetition or multiple exposures over time,” warned James Kimble, Professor of Communication at Seton Hall and an expert in government messaging. “If a message is confusing, contradicts other messages, or receives limited exposure, it is unlikely to have the intended effect.” 1
And it wasn’t just scientific and mathematical literacy that the emerging crisis required of public servants but also the ability to put into words the ineffable fears and hopes of a people yearning to feel safe.
Long before the outbreak of COVID-19, corporate America clamored for better communication skills. According to an influential study conducted by Hart Research Associates, nearly ninety-three percent of employers surveyed agreed that a candidate’s capacity for the kind of critical thinking and clear communication that helps solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major. Meanwhile, eighty percent of those same employers flagged broader writing and communications skills as needing much greater emphasis. Research labs across the country reported the need for better writing among their new employees and recent graduates. On the political front, public writing gained crucial momentum with the passage of the Plain Writing Act in 2010. On January 18, 2011, President Barack Obama doubled down, issuing Executive Order 13563 mandating that government regulations be “accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand.”
Meanwhile, a generation of visionary public intellectuals and scholars have made public writing the currency of the realm. Many, like Steven Levitt, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, have become household names and best-selling authors. Freakonomics , Levitt’s book of public writing, spent more than two years on The New York Times Best Seller list, selling more than four million copies worldwide. Other public intellectuals, such as physician and New York University professor of neurology Oliver Sacks, have had their far-reaching scholarship used as fodder for major motion pictures. Indeed, Sacks has been called the “Poet Laureate of Medicine” by the New York Times . Similarly, Daniel J. Levitin, James McGill Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, effectively translates the often mysterious world of his home discipline to the layperson. Levitin’s book This Is Your Brain on Music achieved best-seller status, propelled in large part by public writing’s trademark balance of rigorous scholarship and accessible writing. And trained journalists-cum-public intellectuals such as Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Pollan help interpret field-specific debates for wider audiences while articulating complex issues in the public sphere.
While high-profile practitioners like these demonstrate public writing’s ability to shape popular debate and discourse (concepts like the tipping point and freakonomics have entered the popular vernacular), few textbooks exist to help others achieve similarly powerful effects. As a generation of educators, scientists, business leaders, and communication specialists seek to elevate the art of writing beyond argument-driven pedantry and pontification, apprenticing writers determined to expand and update their skill set need an accessible manual suitable for students and professionals writing in academic, corporate, scientific, and other professional settings.
The Art of Public Writing aims to serve would-be public writers working within the public and private sectors as well as graduate and undergraduate students determined not to perpetuate the exclusionary and sometimes elitist practices baked into academic writing. The need for better more accessible language is