Mark Tredinnick - The Little Red Writing Book-University of New South Wales Press (2006)

pressure and lead you to write something less than plainly,
in something other than your voice? Make a list. It’s good
to get clear about these things. Ask yourself which of those
factors are the most important; which are material; and
which are personal issues. Ask yourself how you can better
conform with the legitimate constraints without compromising
the vernacular clarity of your prose.
2 Think of some technical task you know how to perform—
changing a nappy, stripping down and rebuilding a car
engine, saddling a horse, running a restaurant, mending a
fence, loving a difficult man. There’ll be something. Make
it something, ideally, not everyone knows how to do. Now
describe what you do when you perform that task so that
anyone could understand.Write three hundred words.
3 You are going speed dating tonight. You’ve been told you
have to speak about your work.You’ll have a total of two
minutes with each prospective partner.Write the script of
what you will say tonight about the work that you do.
Imagine that it will really count—there will be that one
person you really want to connect with. Don’t lie; don’t be
dull; don’t imagine you can use the same kind of language
I’d find in your job description.
Thrift and grace
It’s the first morning of a business-writing workshop. Twenty-six
students and I are sitting in a room at the Grace Hotel. Good name,
I’m thinking, for a place to study writing in.The air-conditioning is
already too cold, and the jackets are coming out. I’ve spent half an
hour introducing the ideas we’ll be working with, and now we’re
going around the horseshoe, telling each other who we are, why
we’re here and what we hope to learn.
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