Author Archives: Robert Basil

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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“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 →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Stanford: Resources for Writers

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Robert Basil

Stanford University’s Program for Writing and Rhetoric is renowned both for its truly interdisciplinary approach to writing as well as for its adherence to, and study of, formal rhetoric in numerous sectors: forensics, advocacy, public affairs, the arts, technology, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Digital Media Governance

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Robert Basil

As an educator at a Vancouver-area university, I helped fashion the digital-media and online-privacy procedures for its School of Business. My goal was to show how teachers and students could avail themselves of the many dozens of digital-media platforms – … Continue reading →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Feedback

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Robert Basil

When interviewing candidates for teaching positions at my university, I often ask them how they provide and receive feedback in the workplace, to get a quick, vivid picture of their character and initiative. When you give clear and useful feedback … Continue reading →

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment