Pat Iyer’s Blog
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How Passive Are You?
Active Voice Attracts Readers Passive sentence construction drains the power and focus of your writing. and for many of us, it is so natural that we don't realize we are doing it. Engage your readers with active voice and reduce your use of passive voice. Passive...
Effective Emails: Communicate With a Client or Colleague
Do you know how to send out effective emails? You might bristle at the question. "Of course! I email all day long." Have you changed your email techniques since the beginning of the pandemic? On a functional level, most businesses responded quickly to the demands for...
Attract and Keep Readers with How-To Blogs
We are driven by our need for answers to solve common problem and turn to how-to blogs and videos for help. A how-to blog can strengthen your relationship with readers and potential customers and clients. Take advantage of one of the Internet’s primary benefits: the...
Does Your Email Header Fail?
A few words can determine the success or failure of your email campaign. Are your headers making your email header fail? Email Headers That Lose You Subscribers “Do You Hate Me?” I got a message with this header in my inbox a few days ago. It didn’t come from anyone I...
How to Define the Benefits of Your How To Book
"What will my reader get from my how to book?" Don’t begin writing your book without answering this question. If you’re writing a how-to nonfiction book, you’re not writing to entertain your readers. They’re looking for information. They want answers to their...
Use Quotations to Enliven Your Writing
Sprinkling quotations into your writing is a very effective way to improve it. Doing this serves a number of functions. Quotations summarize a point you’re making in your work. They also emphasize this point. A quotation by someone both famous and respected gives...
Writing Practice Makes Perfect
If you want to have a successful business, you need to either get comfortable with writing practice or have deep pockets to hire a writer. Even if you do have a large surplus to invest in your business, you could probably think of a dozen better uses for it. You’ve...
Write With Your Own Voice
Many beginning writers make one mistake that dooms their books to failure. The don't write with their own voice. They avoid putting themselves into their writing, thinking that an objective, personality-free tone will make them sound more professional. Instead, they...
Difference between Content Curation and Content Creation
As a blogger, you don't always have to create content from scratch. Content curation helps busy readers - and you. The more comfortable you get with blogging, the more you can focus on providing value for your readers. Here’s an area where readers will greatly...
Writing Tips: How to Polish Your Writing
These basic writing tips help you become a better writer. People are writing more now than ever before. Whether it’s writing emails, stories, books or blog posts, you must know the basics of writing. Don’t show your writing inexperience by making rookie mistakes....
Recent Posts
Make the Most of Your Writing Time
One of the most frequent complaints of my writing students and clients is “I don’t have enough time. How do …Read More »
Inner Critic or Inner Guide: Who is Talking
At any stage of my writing, I may hear an inner critic, a voice that says things like, “No, that …Read More »
What’s Your Type?
When I write about errors in manuscripts, I usually focus on punctuation, spelling, and grammar because those are my favorite …Read More »
Readers Make Better Writers
I always loved reading more than almost any other activity. It’s no coincidence that my siblings are also avid readers. …Read More »
Why Do You Need a Good Vocabulary?
Writers, especially those who are just beginning to write regularly, think that having a good vocabulary means knowing a lot …Read More »