You may have heard (from others or from me) that, in business writing, it’s a good idea to break up large blocks of text with bulleted or numbered lists. It makes the writing look less like homework, creates bite-size pieces and gives readers ‘visual breathing room’. Lists are also great because readers are inherently lazy and [...]
65 years ago, George Orwell wrote an essay entitled Politics and the English Language, in which he urged people to write naked. In other words, to keep it clean. Simple. Straightforward. He said, ‘Let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around. In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is surrender to [...]
Email. It’s not rocket science. We’re all pros at it; after all, we send and receive somewhere in the region of 40-80 emails a day, on average. But sometimes we’re not as effective as we could be. Or, we offend. Or, we cause frustration. And frustration, offence or ineffectiveness are not good ingredients when it [...]
‘I hate writing!’ Every day, I’m confronted with a client or contact who tells me they hate writing. It takes up about 50% of their day, regardless of their position, industry or area, but they despise it. Why? Take your pick: ‘I get writers’ block.’; ‘I can’t say what I mean.’; ‘My manager makes endless [...]
