Author: Stuart Horwitz

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Perhaps Partisan Rancor Isn’t The End…

It is certainly tempting to retreat into the fear that our democratic institutions are failing us. But as wintry as these political times are, there are always signs of a spring of cooperation. And, as with most such things, they usually occur on the local level first.

In Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back into Politics (Oxford University Press, 2020), by our clients John Gastil and Katie Knobloch, the authors introduce new tools for tamping down hyperpartisanship and placing citizens at the heart of the democratic process.

They showcase the Citizens’ Initiative Review, which convenes a demographically balanced, random sample of citizens to study statewide ballot measures. These regular ol’ citizens are the ones to ask questions of advocates, opponents, and experts and then write an analysis that distills their findings for voters.

John and Katie reveal how this process has helped voters better understand the policy issues on their ballots. In the larger context of deliberative democratic reforms, Hope for Democracy shows how citizens and public officials can work together to bring more rationality and empathy into modern politics. Are we ready for that? Will we be soon?

Remembering an afternoon spent in John’s office on the Penn State campus, where he holds a joint appointment as professor of communication arts & sciences and professor of political science, I can report that when you are around him and Katie, you can imagine a better, saner world to come.

About Book Architecture, the authors say, “A whole host of individuals have provided editorial feedback . . . most notably, Stuart Horwitz, who helped us think through the narrative arc of this book and shepherded us through the task of writing for a nonacademic audience.”

The Myth of Whiteness

One of the things we all have to face is how divided our country is. A common observation, perhaps. But when we dig into just how divided it is, and along what fault lines, the situation gets more and more disturbing. You can read about my personal experience with this topic here (Instagram) or here (Facebook).

To help clear away our collective stupor, along comes one of our clients, Christina Proenza-Coles, with a dose of reality to administer. In her book, American Founders, a 2019 Foreword INDIES finalist, Christina reminds us that whiteness is a myth that was invented to rationalize New World slavery and that obscures the seminal contributions of four centuries of men and women of African descent. Synthesizing massive amounts of scholarship, she details these people who were key protagonists in the story of American democracy: defending New World settlements, undermining slavery, and championing freedom throughout the hemisphere.

 

 

Our conventional founding narratives fail to recognize that Africans and their descendants preceded the English in the Americas by a century and arrived in numbers that far exceeded those of European migrants. African-descended people contributed to every facet of American history as explorers, conquistadors, settlers, soldiers, sailors, servants, slaves, rebels, leaders, lawyers, litigants, laborers, artisans, artists, activists, translators, teachers, doctors, nurses, inventors, investors, merchants, mathematicians, scientists, scholars, engineers, entrepreneurs, generals, cowboys, pirates, professors, politicians, priests, poets, and presidents.

In other words, multiculturalism is not politically correct; it’s historically accurate. American history and African American history are fundamentally intertwined.

About Book Architecture, Christina says, “American Founders was a labor of love, decades of research, and a lifetime of questions, but the first draft read like an encyclopedia with a somewhat ranting introduction and a rambling conclusion. Book Architecture was therapy for my book. Stuart refused to let me settle for an academic compendium of facts and continually challenged me to explain why these facts are meaningful. Because I trusted Stuart, I could answer his thoughtful prompts with honesty and finally—yes, I’m going to use the cliché—find my voice. If you don’t believe me, check out this clip of Wynton Marsalis reading from American Founders, which he selected as one of his top ten ‘compelling works on the subject of freedom.’”

The Most Famous Person

 

It takes a certain kind of organization to make money and develop its people in equal measure. The national PR agency, InkHouse, recently created Hindsight 2020, a book of essays written by the team about moments of consciousness that opened them up to new points of view. According to CEO, Beth Monaghan, such moments of clarity are important in PR because new connections are the essence of stories; they are what allow someone else’s experience to exist next to our own. That is the very job of PR, to bring people and ideas together.

I was honored to write the Afterword to InkHouse’s Hindsight 2020, and to close the book launch with a reading of it. Here is me describing my moment of clarity—occasioned by having a drink with the most famous person I have ever met. In less than 600 words, because clarity also needs brevity.

 

Personal Essay Writing

It takes a certain kind of organization to make money and develop its people in equal measure. The national PR agency, InkHouse, recently created Hindsight 2020, a book of essays written by the team about moments of consciousness that opened them up to new points of view. According to CEO, Beth Monaghan, such moments of clarity are important in PR because new connections are the essence of stories that allow someone else’s experience to exist next to our own. That is the very job of PR, to bring people and ideas together.

As the coach and developmental editor for Hindsight, I oriented prospective writers to the judging criteria. This criteria would be used to select the top 20 entries for inclusion in the book—and eventually the top three winners as well. Each essay was scored in four categories, with a maximum amount of 25 points per category: VOICE, STRUCTURE, PROFICIENCY, and IMPACT.

VOICE, or: How well the writer’s unique voice comes through in content and expression.

  • Since this was a work setting, the first thing to tackle was how comfortable authors felt to liberate their voice. Wasn’t this work, after all? How close did they want to allow their co-workers to get? I encouraged them, wherever appropriate, to get personal. This was the kind of workplace in which people really did want to get to know each other, and not just use inside information to seize a weakness and climb past someone else on the corporate ladder.
  • Trying too hard is an inherent turnoff for audiences in both PR and in essay writing, so I tried to steer writers away from trying to impress. At the same time, it wouldn’t do to go to the opposite pole and try to shock anybody on purpose, to put the chip on the shoulder on full display.
  • Rather, they were encouraged to consider who their true audience members were. Was there one person at work who got them? Who can you tell your truth to? Who raises your frequency? Who calls you to account? Who loves you at your best?
  • Because see, here’s the thing: There is no such thing as voice in the abstract—there is only tone of voice. Or to put it another way, you don’t look for your voice; you find your audience. And then the tone you take to ring some bells for them, that is what delivers a great sentence. And another one…

STRUCTURE, or: How well the piece evolves around its theme, balances digressions, and creates links and repetitions.

  • For readers of this blog, it will come as no surprise that I recommend honing in on one’s theme as the key to structure. The overarching theme of Hindsight was a moment of clarity that opened the author up to another point of view, a new perspective, or a new curiosity. It could be a historical event, a moment in their life, or their work. Writers then chose a personalized embodiment of that theme.
  • When presented with such a topic, you may have more than one possibility floating around your head. If that was the case, I recommended trying out several possibilities—and being honest about which one really had your heart and mind. Where the writing goes, the writer needs to go after it.
  • Once a moment of clarity was chosen, it was examined; when examined, it was seen to be actually a series of moments. Scenes, if you will. I ran through the five definitions of scene to help generate first draft material, select second draft material and hone third draft material.
  • Finally, we discussed placing those scenes in either chronological or narrative order. We took it as a matter of aesthetic faith that there was a perfect order for one’s chosen scenes that would best relate a moment of clarity that had stayed with its author.

PROFICIENCY: Or, Proper sentence and narrative structure; capable handling of facts and research where necessary.

  • Since we were exploring writing within a public relations environment, it was important to place the essay in the wider context of the world. Such “data” could include findings from a study, a quote from an expert, or statistics that would bring in a degree of objectivity.
  • We didn’t cover topics like grammar or consistency of stylistic usage, but we did touch on how to use the drafting process to bring out clarity in their work. Earlier drafts sometimes can only ask a question that the later drafts will answer. Working on an essay five times will make it stronger than working on it once. That sort of thing.

IMPACT: Or, Effect on the reader in terms of opens up a new point of view/curiosity.

  • I loved this criteria for judging. At the same time, an author will never know that. Or rather, the only way to assess what topic and approach will move others is to assume if it really relates to you, it will relate to us.
  • The question then becomes: What’s in it for me? Which topic, which aspect of that topic will lead to greater self-knowledge? What are you still trying to understand? If you ask yourself a key question, readers may ask it of themselves.
  • To get the answer, of course, you have to open yourself up. You have to allow yourself to be changed. What space do you want to move into? Where is the energy coming from that needs to be liberated? Or to put it another way, in order to make something interesting to other people, you may have to scare the shit out of yourself first.