MR Solution

Whether you're writing a memo, a letter, an article or a full-length book, there are a few basic rules to keep in mind that will help your message first to be read and then to be better understood and accepted.

1. Never Be Boring
Your reader will forgive almost anything except you being boring. Your reader doesn't have to agree with you, but he or she should at least be intrigued. Make the reader care. Don't be afraid to be "edgy." Look at every sentence and ask yourself, "Why will the reader care about this?"

2. Write in Short Sentences
The reader shouldn't have to work hard to understand what you're saying. If he or she has to go back over a sentence because of poor structure it's not his or her fault, it's yours. Read what you've written aloud or have someone else read it aloud to look for sentences that are too long or convoluted.

3. Write to the Reader
Use "you" often. Look for ways to eliminate or reduce "I" and "me." Present tense, second person is always best. It feels more to readers like you're talking to them.

4. Go Active
Use active verbs as much as possible. They're more engaging. They move the reader along and take fewer words to get your message across. "John loves Mary" is much more powerful than "Mary is loved by John."

5. Keep it Simple
The front page of The Wall Street Journal and all of USA Today is written for the eighth grade reading level. Why should we be any different? People aren't interested in things they don't understand. Make your points quickly and succinctly. Make your words work and use as few of them as possible. Use the right word, not just to show off your vocabulary (or your new thesaurus), but to convey your message clearly.

6. Tell Stories
Facts tell and stories sell. The best writers and speakers of the world have always been good storytellers. Your own stories are the best. What you are sharing is wisdom from your point of view and stories can illustrate this better than anything else.

7. Know Your Subject
Write on things on which you've earned the right to write. The more you know, the more confidence and credibility you'll have.

8. WIFM
This is the radio station that everyone listens to. The call letters stand for "What's in It For Me". People want to know what they'll get out of what you're writing, so appeal to what they want.

9. Write Like You Talk
Often I see people who are good verbal communicators trying to put on a different air in their writing. It doesn't work. It's much better to be conversational.

10. Paint Pictures
We think in pictures and should write in ways that create these pictures in the mind of the reader. Be descriptive. Use examples. Describe the unfamiliar by using some of the familiar. For example: "Jennifer's first day at her new job reminded her of the freshness and unfamiliarity she experienced on her first day of school."

11. Sleep On it
It's a rare individual who can sit down and write something well at the first attempt. Any writing of import should be written and then reviewed later, preferably at least a day later. Some things should be edited several times over an extended period of time in order to properly convey a clear understandable message.

12. Write and Read Extensively
This advice is from Stephen King, a prolific writer. If you want to be a good writer you have to do two things … read a lot and write a lot. Enough said.

13. Break it Down
Where appropriate use bullet points. Use them for summaries or outlines. Think about someone who may only start out by scanning your text. Let your bullet points draw the reader in.

14. Keep Paragraphs to no more than Six Lines
Short paragraphs provide white space to the text. They break up the page and make it appear less formidable to the reader. Like in music, the space between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

15. Avoid using Capital Letters to make a Point
Capital letters are harder to read than upper and lower case. They also can be perceived as SHOUTING! A little uppercase usage is OK but regular use of words with every letter shown as a capital doesn't work and it looks amateurish.

Writing can be a happy and rewarding experience. If you follow these tips, you will find it easier to convey your written communications to others.

Police psychic Marlon Michaels-Richter says a nightmarish vision of nationally reviled tot-mom Casey Anthony snuffing the life of 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony with a witch’s brew of homemade chloroform and bug killer “shook me to my soul.”

And in an emotional appeal to prosecutors in Orlando, Florida – where Casey Anthony, 23, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the June 2008 disappearance and subsequent death of baby Caylee - Michaels-Richter says:

“Don’t be fooled by her cold-hearted lies and calculated deceptions … in a chilling vision, I watched tot mom Casey Anthony murder baby Caylee with bug killer and homemade chloroform.

“She soaked a cloth in a bucket of the liquid and then clamped the cloth over the baby’s mouth and nose with the palm of her hand. Caylee struggled and batted with her arms at first, and then she went limp.

“Then Casey wrapped silver duct tape around the baby’s head. I’m not sure what happened next – I was in a deep trance, meditating on the murder in the hope that I could help police solve the crime.

“I remember coming back around as if I were waking from a deep sleep and realizing that I was in my office in New York City. Then, for a few seconds that seemed like hours, I was back in the trance.

“The images were fuzzy in my mind and everything was in slow motion. But I saw someone who looked like Casey Anthony getting out of a car. Her face wasn’t visible to me, but her body shape and hairstyle were just like hers.

“She was lugging a garbagebag into a wooded area, and she was whispering in a sing-song, ‘I’m going to paaaar-ty … I’m going to paaaar-ty.’

“She was laughing, cackling like a crazy person. That’s it. That’s when I regained consciousness. I couldn’t bear to see any more. It was horrifying. It shook me to my soul.”

Cops would neither confirm nor deny that they have in their possession evidence to corroborate the accuracy of Michaels-Richter’s vision, although numerous legal observers have painted similar pictures in unrelenting speculations on cable news shows, notably that of Nancy Grace.

And, in fact, a source close to the case says the psychic “is dead on. Forensic evidence suggests that the chloroform used by the murderer was homemade and just not potent enough to kill Caylee.

“It is believed the killer used pesticide as a kicker.”

Casey Anthony is presumed innocent of any wrongdoing until she is proved guilty in open court and convicted by a jury of her peers. Mitchell-Richter’s vision, though compelling, does not in and of itself prove anything.

Police and prosecutors will present the evidence that accomplishes one of three things:

- Condemns Casey Anthony to a lifetime behind bars.

- Puts her on Death Row to await her execution by lethal injection.

- Sets her free to pick up the pieces of a life that was shattered beyond comprehension the day her daughter went missing and, days or weeks later, became the victim of cold-blooded murder.