Monday I gave my first workshop on Effective Writing and Editing for Publication at ICETE C15. About forty people. A nice size for participation and dividing into small groups to discuss literature needs regionally. One of the things that drives me nuts in academic writing is: This is what I am going to tell you. Now I am telling you. This is what I have told you. Now I will tell you this. Here I am telling you. This is what I have told you. In parts one and two I told you this and that. Now in part three I will tell you ... Yeah, yeah. I think you get what I mean. Lots of smiles. My writers knew exactly what I meant. I tried to get them to focus thier ideas and consider the appropriate audience that most needs to hear about that idea. What language will be most effective for communicating that idea to the target audience? And by the way, the point of writing is to CO-MUN-I-CATE, NOT to sound important. Short effective words in simple understandable sentences.
Tuesday I taught the same workshop again. Lots of people are running out of energy. None of the workshops was full. We had about fifteen, but a couple who want to stay in contact. I even have an invitation to teach in Korea next time we are there. Both times I forgot to get someone to take a picture. Sorry not to have any illustrative material here.
One of these evenings we had dinner with one of the top leaders in South Asia. I was so proud when he said a major turning point for him was when Overseas Council asked him to make a presentation at one of the institutes. Afterwards, Steve Hardy said, "That was brilliant. You need to get it published." It became his first published paper. Wouldn't have happened, but Steve Hardy (and some others) believed in him.
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