Gary Blake

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Gary Blake (born July 25, 1944-died March 12, 2019, DelRay, Florida) is a writer on the subject of humor, writing, and teaching. He is also the director of The Communication Workshop, a company dedicated to helping business and technical professionals improve their writing. [1] [2] [3] He is an author in the field of technical writing.

Contents

Biography

Blake grew up in Bronxville, New York. He received a B.S. degree in speech and theater in 1966 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a M.S. a year later. Blake received a Ph.D. from City University of New York in 1973. [4]

While teaching at Hunter College in New York and Baruch College, Blake wrote his first book, The Status Book (1978) [5] and began writing for Travel and Leisure, Glamour, Family Circle, and other magazines.

Blake has presented writing seminars at organizations in the U.S., UK, Bermuda, and Canada. His clients include The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Siemens, CNA, Liberty Mutual, Motorola and the US Department of Agriculture. He has written 11 books including The Elements of Business Writing and The Elements of Technical Writing, both published in 1993 and written with Robert W. Bly. [6] [7]

His most recent book, published in July 2012, is A Freudian Slip Is When You Say One Thing but Mean Your Mother: 879 Funny, Funky, Hip, and Hilarious Puns. [8]

Blake has written articles in the insurance industry for Claims Magazine [9] and other insurance periodicals; he has developed a course in claims writing for Claims Adjusters and Examiners.

He lives in Great Neck, New York.

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References

  1. Blake, Gary. "The Communication Workshop". Business Communication and Writing. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
  2. Mark Crawford, How Engineers Can Improve Technical Writing. ASME, September 2012.
  3. S. W. Delchamps and A. J. Grant, Department of Finance Writing Handbook Archived August 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine . Northern Illinois University Department of English, January 1998.
  4. Dr. Gary Blake Archived August 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine at The Communication Workshop.
  5. Blake, Gary (1978). The Status Book. Doubleday. p. 178. ISBN   9780385135498.
  6. Blake, Gary; Bly, Robert W. (1992). The elements of business writing (1st Collier Books ed.). New York: Collier Books. p. 140. ISBN   9780020080954.
  7. Blake, Gary; Bly, Robert W. (1993). The elements of technical writing (1st ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishers. p. 173. ISBN   0020130856.
  8. Blake, Gary (2012). A Freudian Slip Is When You Say One Thing but Mean Your Mother: 879 Funny, Funky, Hip, and Hilarious Puns. Skyhorse Publishing. p. 272. ISBN   978-1616087340.
  9. Blake, Gary. "Claims Magazine articles by Gary Blake". Insurance Writing. Claims Magazine. Retrieved June 26, 2012.