Hi Sandy,
This question is not related to
B-schools so much, but I hope you’ll still answer it!
I think so much of your
amazingness comes from the way you communicate. I think intelligence and articulation go hand-in-hand, and you have this incredible skill of saying just
what you mean, leaving no room for doubt, and saying it in a precise,
hard-hitting, or funny/flamboyant way, just whatever you are trying to make it.
My question to you, as
half-a-native speaker of English that i am, is this:
How can one learn to write
better? And I mean writing everything
better: from grant proposals, to business emails, to reports, to articles like
those in The Economist (their super
crisp style. They really economize on
words!), to powerful essays, and stories, and dialogue, and non-fiction.
How can one be informative and
imaginative? And How can one write in a way that’s inspired?
Which degree will help with this?
Can one go to school for it? I visualize a Phd Degree in English as being
rather passive. A huge chunk of time spent on reading what you fancy. Granted,
some interesting French philosophers, and granted that can invigorate the
language, but I don’t know if such a degree could create the drive and energy
and urgency necessary for shorter pieces of writing. Other than taking off time
for Phd for such an extended period of time, what else can one do?
Where can I learn little
guidelines like: a sentence’s quality can be improved by starting with a verb.
For Eg. “Focussed on encouraging women, this project is run by….” Is better
than “This project is run by …and it
focuses on …..”
A communications program? A
masters in English? In Journalism? In ESL?
Have you mastered the art of
writing to the extent that now you write without editing?
Do you ever edit your responses
here, for instance? This has always fascinated me for s some reason: how edited
are things that people write.
Thank you very much and I hope to hear your thoughts.
PS: On the same note: are there things like MBA (focus on communications/marketing - not in the sense of getting business, but in the sense of managing org's PR etc.