The Scripted Podcast: Writing Without B.S. with guest Josh Bernoff
Channel: Scripted.com
Date: 26/10/2021

The Scripted Podcast is a show created for content marketers and content writers featuring real Scripted writers. We'll talk about best practices in content and SEO, our favorite marketing tools, how to find and hire writers, and all the fun and misadventure that comes with being a professional freelance writer.

Our guest on The Scripted Podcast today is Josh Bernoff. Josh has co-authored three books on business strategy, including the bestseller Groundswell. He studied mathematics in the Ph.D program at MIT, was the Senior Vice President in Idea Development at Forrester Research and He’s here today to talk about his book Writing Without Bullshit, which is a guide to clarity and concision in writing. 

Podcast Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:00:24] Hello and welcome to the Scripted Podcast.
[00:00:34] Our guest, Josh Bernoff. Josh has coauthored three books on business strategy including the bestseller, Groundswell. He studied mathematics at the Ph.D. program at MIT; was the senior vice president in idea development at Forrester Research; and he's here today to talk about his book, Writing Without Bullshit, which is a guide to clarity and concision in writing. I suppose here is where we should mention that if you are particularly sensitive to the non-acronym form of the word BS. This episode may be a non-starter, we won't be censoring from here.
[00:01:47] Welcome Josh!
[00:03:42] Can you expand on that and on what brings us to this point where we begin kind of creating filler in all of our writing.
[00:05:41] Did you find that these approaches were kind of met with any resistance? What kind of turnaround time did it take to start seeing these results when applying them?
[00:06:56] How does a professional newsletter or aspiring professional newsletter writer, kind of fix that habit, and change the way they write?
[00:09:57] What would you say to writers who are capable of writing concisely but are scared they won't be taken seriously, if they deviate from this societal norm?
[00:11:27] Do you think that long-form writing even has a place in today's on-the-go society? And do you think that we're headed more and more towards a change to more concision in writing?
[00:13:39] Right, but no one thinks of their own writing that way, right?
[00:14:42]  Is there a danger of being too no bullshit in a corporate setting? Are we as employees conditioned for a certain amount of both?
[00:16:33] What do you think about trends like white papers, which are starting to take over and have been increasingly becoming more popular? What are your thoughts there?
[00:18:20] Do you think the obsession with objectivity in media, particularly the news media can lead to both sides is on the approach that can actually have a reverse effect on the audience- make it harder to understand what's true and what's not?
[00:22:30] Given the candidates, do you have any thoughts about the current situation and how that lack of concision might impact voters?
[00:23:18] Do you think that subconsciously, whether vocally or in print, do you think that readers sort of subconsciously pick that up, that the pronouns being used are communicating sort of a different message?
[00:25:15] You talk about using "I, we and you" in professional communications as a plus, right?
[00:26:37] You have some strong opinions about the third-person bio. Can you tell me a little bit about why?
[00:28:13] Who are the biggest offenders in using weasel words company-wide like business-wise? And who is the opposite? Who's your favorite as far as clarity and direct communication?
[00:30:20] So what would be your main three ways to cut out the bullshit for our writing audience?
[00:31:48] All right, the ROM method. Yes. Well is there anything else that you're working on these days? 
[00:33:43] The Scripted Podcast TakeAways
[00:39:18] We hope that you liked the podcast. Be sure to like us on Apple. Subscribe. Hit the bell. Hit that notification. Do it all and we’ll catch you on the next podcast.


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