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How to Increase Integrity in Your Writing

When it comes to business, having integrity is critical. If clients donā€™t believe youā€™re true to your word, your business suffers.Ā 

But how does integrity play a role in your writing?Ā 

Hereā€™s my take: If you wouldnā€™t say a particular word when speaking, you shouldnā€™t use it in your writing, either.Ā 

Just as it does in business, a lack of integrity in writing can come back to bite you.Ā 

When I was still teaching at the college, I once participated in a plagiarism case. Iā€™ll never forget the student whose work was examined.Ā 

After reading her essay, our committee was unanimous that it couldnā€™t have been her own work (her regular teacher was very familiar with her in-class writing, and this wasnā€™t it). Still, we gave her the benefit of the doubt.Ā 

As the student sat across the table from us, we each asked a question about the essay. When it was my turn, I said, ā€œIn this sentence, you write: ā€˜the underlying proclivity of the dominant sector highlights the abysmal decrepitude of the s...

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An Important Distinction to Help Your Writing

[Image: Chen on Pixabay]

I remember the first time I was asked to speak at a conference. My immediate thought was, ā€œBut Iā€™m a writer, not a speaker! Who will want to listen to me? I've got nothing worthwhile to say. . .ā€

Far too many of us fall into this trap of ā€œIā€™m not good enoughā€ when we consider what weā€™ll write, too. The problem is, weā€™re comparing ourselves to the A-listers out there, the famous writers--and we see ourselves falling short.Ā 

For instance, I thought about all the great TEDx talks Iā€™d watched on YouTube and how wonderful those speakers were. Or the keynote speakers Iā€™d observed online, where I listened to big names like Tony Robbins, Brene BrownĀ  or Simon Sinek.Ā 

Well, compare yourself to those guys, and no wonder it's hard to measure up.Ā Ā 

But hereā€™s a different perspective. I learned this from my mentor in university, and have found it really useful over the years.

When I started sending out academic articles for publication as a Masters student, I couldn...

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She Wouldn't Share

When I was 15, I had a great summer job as a motherā€™s helper (similar to what the French call an au pair, or basically a glorified babysitter-cum-housekeeper).

It was in a suburb of Boston with two well-behaved kids that I knew well. I also got to spend time with a group of kids I knew, one of whom was around my age. Plus, the job offered a private bedroom, amazing food and even the occasional restaurant meal included.Ā 

You see, my employers were my second cousins, both in their 30s and, as I saw them then, two of the coolest people on the planet (actually, I continued to think of them that way right through to the present).Ā 

On weekends, weā€™d visit the home of my cousinā€™s mother, Aunt Irene (I still donā€™t know if she was actually my aunt, or my great-aunt, or maybe my second aunt once removed?).Ā 

Irene was a formidable matriarch, at the time already in her late 80s, still living alone and doing all the work to keep her house in order. She cleaned the place herself, k...

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