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To better understand . . . Or to understand better?
Has anyone given you grief over splitting an infinitive in your writing? If so, they would claim “to better understand” is wrong because the adverb better appears between to and the verb understand....
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A simple way to test your reader’s response before document delivery
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. Nothing signals your status as a pro workplace writer as much as testing an important document with representative readers before you deliver it. But reader...
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Why your document can’t be fast, cheap, and good
Matthew Stibbe, a marketing writer, inspired this post with his Fast, good or cheap? Choose two. Anyone who manages the process for creating a product can use this mantra to describe their constraints....
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What do your format choices mean to readers?
Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz summarize the implications of some recent psychological research on format this way: Any variable that facilitates or impairs fluent information processing can...
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The genre of business proposals: Getting readers to buy what you’re selling
So you’ve got an idea or service to promote? You’ll do much of that selling face-to-face. But you’re likely to need a written proposal in many cases. This post provides some basic guidance for writing...
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When should you delay stating your bottom line message?
Rarely. That’s how often you should delay when writing to readers from Western cultures. Our attention span is short. We value efficiency. We want to know your bottom line first. Then we’ll decide...
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I need your help . . .
. . . to understand what influences writing quality in the workplace. Everyone has an opinion. And it usually focuses on blaming someone else. The public, through their legislators, blames educators....
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What is outstanding business communication research?
About a year ago, I posted Kitty, ABC, and beautiful locations when I learned that the Association for Business Communication (ABC) chose me as the winner of the Kitty O. Locker Outstanding Researcher...
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The genre of white papers: What we do (and don’t) know
One of my colleagues recently asked me for resources on writing white papers for a corporate friend who is confident in his ability to write short recommendation reports, but believes longer ones —...
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A good example of bad customer service writing
I recently discovered Leslie O’Flahavan’s Writing Matters blog and thought I’d share her analysis of some bad writing. Follow the link to see how she re-wrote the email. I look forward to reading more...
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Grades for plain language at US agencies
Check it out. The Center for Plain Language just released this 2013 report card for plain writing done by federal agencies. Details are available from their website. Two related media articles appear...
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Here’s a tool for calculating the costs of writing at work
If you need to make business case for creating higher quality documents in your workplace, check out the cost calculators from Eclectic. You can calculate the daily and annual costs of ineffective...
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Do you know what you’re saying about grammar?
Do you offer grammar advice to others? I urge you to read 12 mistakes nearly everyone who writes about grammar makes to insure you’re not repeating common mistakes. Jonathon Owen, blogger at Arrant...
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Cut your email into three chunks for better digestion
Travis, a former student who now works as an IT consultant, asked for a summary of what we taught him about developing and organizing content in emails ’cause he wants to share it with his project...
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3 lessons from great performers for workplace writers
Because documents are performances and great performers can teach us what it takes to deliver a great performance, I have used that theme to create a short (3:48) cartoon. My goal is to get people,...
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What (else) do we know about writing white papers?
A couple of months ago, I summarized the available evidence on writing white papers. I’ve done more digging and want to provide a follow-up with a few more details on developing content, organizing it,...
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Who is responsible for the quality of workplace writing?
I’m in the early phase of a research project designed to describe what influences writing quality in the workplace. Everyone has an opinion. And it usually focuses on blaming someone else. The public,...
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If content is king, then usability is queen
You’ve heard me say how important reader testing is when you truly care about meeting the needs of your audience. The Before and After Gallery hosted by the DigitalGov User Experience Program provides...
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Persuade readers with an appeal to logos
People who have influence at work know how to write persuasively. Persuasion is how you successfully lobby for resources from your boss or win funding from an investor. Research found that persuasion...
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Learn to write like a secret agent!
Thanks to the folks at Bridging the Unbridgeable, I learned that the CIA style manual is now publicly available. As the Director of Intelligence wrote in the foreward to the 8th edition, The...
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