Author Archives: Robert Basil

Academic Blogging

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Robert Basil

My new favourite blog is by a Ukrainian-born scholar of Hispanic Literature named “Clarissa” – she doesn’t reveal her surname or some other would-be identifying information, like her university’s name – whose work I first encountered on Jonathan Mayhew’s Stupid … Continue reading →

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It’s Usually Not Mother’s Day

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Robert Basil

Are there any people other than mothers who ever truly know that they have been the most important person in the life of someone else? I like this question, and ask some variant of it in most of my professional … Continue reading →

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Complex Communications Solutions vs. Perhaps a Simpler One

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Robert Basil

From Paul Constant in The Stranger today: Chris DeRose published an article at Business Insider addressing the fact that McDonald’s is failing at customer service, with a vice president of the company openly talking about the “rude or unprofessional employees” … Continue reading →

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No More Memos

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Robert Basil

Delivered to my house this week was the instructor’s edition of Daniel G. Riordan’s stalwart textbook Technical Report Writing Today, 10th edition. I was thrilled, I have to say, having used the 9th edition of Riordan’s text in my upper-level … Continue reading →

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Make Room for Working

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Robert Basil

“Of the three goals to which all aspire – success in love, in society, and in profession – only two are plausible simultaneously: you can’t have a smooth love life, a rich social life, and still get your work done. … Continue reading →

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Students Look at Digital Media

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Robert Basil

Students in my “Marketing in a Digital World” class at Kwantlen Polytechnic University have been keeping one another up to date on developments in digital and social media with their blogs and their classroom presentations. This class would be impossible … Continue reading →

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“Scholarly Writing and How to Get It Done”

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Robert Basil

That’s the subtitle of my favourite blog on academic writing, “Stupid Motivational Tricks,” authored (primarily) by Jonathan Mayhew, a Professor of Spanish at the University of Kansas, who is a friend of mine and has been since our days in … Continue reading →

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CMO.com: A very useful resource

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Robert Basil

Last week I gave a presentation to the Vancouver chapter of Construction Specifications Canada. It was called “Twitter? LinkedIn? How to Use Social Media Professionally.” The room was filled with architects, engineers, landscapers, contractors, and one or two marketers: an … Continue reading →

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Stopping the Page from Being Blank

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Robert Basil

In the mid-1990s, shortly after I moved to Vancouver, I got a job doing Investor Relations for a public company drafting news releases, presentations, brochures, and the like. I would put drafts of these items together and present them to … Continue reading →

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“Acquaintances would be lost. The question is whether that would matter.”

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Robert Basil

No form of online experience more quickly insinuated itself into my life than Facebook, which I joined at the insistence of a rambunctious, third-year technical writing class back in the summer of 2007. I loved how Facebook “extended” me not … Continue reading →

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