Thursday, October 16, 2014

Anecdotes and personality (blog #8)

I just started reading Jessica Alba's book titled "The Honest Life, Living Naturally and True to You." This book is about how Jessica decided that she wanted safe and natural products that she could use at home and with her family. She includes anecdotal stories throughout the book that really showcase her personality.  Everything is told in her voice, and she doesn't leave anything out of the story.

At the beginning of the book, she describes the impetus of wanting to start her own company. She was about to have her first baby, and when she washed all of her newborn's clothing, Jessica broke out in hives from the detergent she used. She explains her fear that if her skin reacted that way, she worried what it could do to her newborn's skin. Throughout the retelling of this story, she adds anecdotes and the thoughts that went through her head as she figured out what was best.

This is just a sample of her thought process on wanting to find safe products for her family.

The textbook emphasizes the importance of expressing content in a vivid and real manner. This includes using anecdotes, quotes, and story-telling. This brings the audience a clearer picture of what happened. Using anecdotes will make the story interesting. Jessica frequently includes quotes that reflect her personality and livens the story. Injecting more personality into writing will capture an audience and make your writing unique. 


I didn't find an editing mistake this week per se, but at work today our editors told us that they have been frequently seeing the wrong use of the words insure and ensure. Because we are an insurance company, I'm sure they see this mistake all too often. Insure should only be used when speaking of insurance coverage. 


1 comment:

  1. I didn't know Jessica Alba wrote a book, that's cool. I new she had company for natural and green products. It's cool that she found a way to make herself and her baby feel comfortable with the products they use and start a company out of that.

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