Writeability

I looked at my alarm clock this morning at 7:45 and thought to myself, "Right now Barack Obama is sitting down to his first day at the office...the Presidential office. I'm still in bed. He attended 10 inaugural balls last night. I went and saw Marley and Me with my mom. Perhaps I don't deserve to hit the snooze button after all."

As a matter of fact, I think the new President of the United States was responsible for getting a lot of people out of bed this morning and equipping them with a renewed sense of purpose. What I appreciate most about his message - "a new era of responsibility" - is that it can be applied to everything we do on a daily basis. In other words, whatever it is you choose to spend time doing today, from brushing your teeth to minimizing your ecological footprint, do it with integrity.

This is the approach we are taking to the written word. Whenever I put pen to paper, or, truth be told, finger to keyboard, I want whatever flows onto the screen to carry with it a sense of purpose and intention. What better example of this than Obama's inaugural address? Take five minutes to humour me and read the transcript. To see the words on paper allowed me to process his speech in an altogether different way than listening to him speak. It proved that, while his impact as an orator cannot be denied, the foundation of this speech was built from a seamless composition of language, metaphors, and imagery, none of which is possible without the right words.

So although you may not be Obama's speech writer, artful means of communication need not fall by the wayside. In our attempt to lead by example, the wordsmiths at Writeability will use this blog as a forum in which to flex our linguistic muscle, bringing to light different topics of interest in a way that highlights our passion for the written word. And if you are one of many for whom the semi-colon remains a mystery to be unraveled, tune in on Monday when we post our first of many daily tips and tricks to use when tackling your own writing projects.

Until then,

Cecily
Chief Executive Wordsmith
writeability.ca