writing tips – DK Consulting of Colorado

Turn Your Keynotes into Content Gold: Writing Tips for Speakers

March 31, 2025July 31, 2025Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

I recently collaborated on an article with a colleague whose ability to speak extemporaneously impressed me. Not a skill I have ever had. Her delivery was confident, and her knowledge of the subject matter was deep.

But she was intimidated by a blank page.

Even when I drew up an outline for our collaborative article, she seemed to stumble through sentences and lose her way. Who knew?

Professional speakers know how to engage a live audience—but translating that spark into writing? That’s a different craft. The good news? By implementing a few golden strategies, your writing can carry the same power and authority as your voice on stage.

The key is to know what to keep from your speaking style and what to change.

The Art of the Unsaid: How Negative Space in Writing Boosts Engagement

January 31, 2025October 10, 2025Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

What if your writing could be more powerful precisely because of what you don’t say? I’m not talking about redacted content, though that seems to be a popular topic these days. I’m talking about methods to inform and engage without drowning our readers in excess. I’m talking about leveraging negative space—not in the sense of page layout or white space, but rather in the sense of what’s implied, unsaid, or suggested rather than explicitly stated.

When used judiciously, negative space invites your readers to leverage their own expertise and imagination, ultimately deepening their connection to your message. The tricky part is to allow your audience to apply their experiences to your conceptual piece without causing them confusion or frustration.

Thistle-Tomes

December 30, 2024March 31, 2025Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

The following are my 2024 short takes on all things content in life and work:

No one is an expert on AI yet. Take everything with a grain of salt.
Sustainability should be part of every content strategy and content project.
Lack of specificity on websites can be both a friend and an enemy. Vagueness can leave room for negotiation but also misinterpretation.
Jargon in customer-facing content can be a significant barrier to understanding and engagement.
Something I like to call “name theory” says that what you call something matters. And it doesn’t have to rhyme with “oom.”

A Most Sophisticated Error in Technical Writing

July 31, 2024November 20, 2024Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

While writing plainly with clear terminology is always the goal in technical communication, sometimes we must create a complex sentence (like this one!) to convey our meaning. Or we find that we must include a noun clause (like this one!) or even (shudder!) a modifying phrase or clause.

First, the good news. Complex sentence patterns reveal intelligence and a tendency to write in a sophisticated way. Most experienced technical writers fall into this category.

The bad news is that these sentence patterns are easy to screw up. Let me explain why and provide some tips on how to avoid clouding the meaning of your sentences.

A Call for Plain Language in Medicine: My Story

June 30, 2024October 31, 2024Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

Lack of plain language can lead an audience down the wrong path. That’s at best. At worst, it can endanger the audience. Somewhere in between, a lack of clear, plainly stated communication can cost both the conveyer and the receiver time and money.

My recent breast cancer scare shows how poor communication from otherwise compassionate, dedicated professionals can have negative effects. Their lack of clarity strained my family’s resources and relationships. The circumstances under which I received that information left me traumatized.

No, I don’t have breast cancer—as far as I can determine.

But for an excruciatingly long time, I haven’t known for sure. Here’s what happened, what I learned, and what could have helped.

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