Writing -- Contents

• Stories and Essays

• Narrow Road to the Deep Bush -- Life in Carp

• Assimilation
• Lost Civilization on the Terry Fox Extension
• A Song of Love is a Sad Song
• How far can you drive on $2.00 worth of gas?
• Cecil and the Snow Plow
• Short Drive

• At the Agency at Arms Length

• McTavish Building
• Meeting of Experts
• Working Lunch

• College Life

• Systems Approach to Training
• Calibrating the Microscope

• Double Solitaire -- the Great Estonian-Canadian Novel

• Boat People, Then and Now

• Other Pastimes

• Writing for Job Search

Put in links to job search writing

• Learning about Writing

• Writing for Education

• Three books I found helpful

• Writing I admire (at this point)

For thirty years I have been involved in teaching and, well, writing, business and technical documents:  correspondence, reports, presentations; letter writing strategies (scenario-based business writing); the basics of technical writing:  definition, description, process and instructions; formats for email, memos, letters, reports, résumés, presentations; communication strategies in business with employees, leaders and customers.  I am always interested to find new opportunities to apply this experience, so contact me if your would like to talk about something.

Writing for Education:  Examples

• For a College Student audience:
• Effective Reading
• Memory and Recall
• Using Evernote to Manage Your Studies
• Program Quality Review Reports for programs undergoing cyclic review at Algonquin College
• Online Learning Needs Assessment for Health Canada, Compliance, Monitoring and Liaison Division (CMLD)
• Canadian Overseas Mentorship Experience for ACCC and Algonquin College -- Design of Online Courses for Mentors and protégés.
• E-Learning Strategy for Department of National Defence (HR-Civilian) Director General Learning and Professional Development (DGLPD)
• New Manager Orientation Checklist for Algonquin College, Centre for Organizational Learning and associated SharePoint Site with just-in-time resources for managers
• Business Writing and Presentation for the Information Technology Professional Program (funded by SSHRC)
• Leded Hi-Test: 26 Interviews with Adult Learners  Oral history project around returning to school for trades retraining.

Learning About Writing

As I try to learn to write well, I try to focus on my sentences: they give meaning to the words and to think about the writing process. Most of my documents go through a brainstorming stage, then drafting, then revision, sometimes for specific format requirements, often as a result of feedback from my friends. I use inspiration to brainstorm, even when I'm not feeling very inspired and I still like E.B.White's essay about writing well at the end of Elements of Style. Here are some thoughts about that. Document Development Cycle

Mind Mapping

I got started with mind mapping after reading Tony Buzan's Use Your Head, and have not looked back.  As a writing teacher, I found Gabriele Rico's Writing the Natural Way very useful.   Now there are online tools, such as Inspiration, which was used to create the mind maps on this website, and Mindmeister, a collaborative online mind map tool with built-in mobile support and chat, which I now use when I'm planning and writing with collaborators as in this example:

If you're interested in learning how to mind-map, you may be interested in notes that I have written about taking notes:

• Note-Taking for Beginners
• Examples of Mind-maps
• Applying Mind-Mapping Techniques to Reading Your Textbook
• Chapter Reading Example
• An Overview Approach to Reading Online Materials

Three Books about Writing that I find helpful

Gallery of Writing I admire (as of 15 June 2015):