Seek to understand. It sounds a bit like advice you’d get from a karate kid movie or Yoda, right? (Wait. Did I just date myself?) But it’s sound advice for anyone trying to communicate—especially when writing at work. It takes longer to make the effort to understand as opposed to knee-jerk reactions, but it saves time in the end. Not only that, seeking to understand can improve workplace communications. In his article titled How do you improve workplace communication? Ask questions, writer Michael Bungay Stanier explains that we shy...
Do you remember the song Inside Out by Eve 6 from a few years back? It was playing over the sound system at the grocery store last week and I’ve had it stuck in my head ever since, especially the line about putting “my tender heart into a blender, watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion.” Sometimes writers seem to put their words into a blender and watch them spin around into a not-so-beautiful oblivion. And, sad to say, the higher up the corporate food chain, the more likely this mess of words tends to be. I say this because I...
How you say something is as important as what you say, so learn to cut the clutter but keep the kindness when writing at work. Writing clearly at work is not simply a matter of stripping your message down to the bare bones. It’s learning to identify the clutter that gets in the way of communication. We must remember that a human being is on the receiving end. And therefore we must write with respect and consideration…which means removing the bullshit or clutter. But if you strip away too much, you go too far. You’ve removed the...
Looking for tips on how to write fast? Read on for five suggestions for writing faster without making more mistakes. As someone teaching workplace writing skills, I see again and again the impact of our hurry-up work world on the quality of writing. And although I will continue to preach slowing down, for all kinds of reasons, the truth is that many people still prefer to hurry through tasks. On the surface, this rushing through the workday might seem to equal productivity when it often has the opposite result. As an article at...
Clear writing is sadly lacking in both marketing and business content these days. Here’s why… No matter how many decades I spend working with words, I continue to be shocked by the lack of writing for clarity all around me. I see cluttered and clunky writing everywhere, in marketing content and in business writing. Sometimes I wonder if people are getting paid by the word, for goodness sake! But, no, I realize that’s not the case. So what is? Why this propensity for clutter instead of clear writing? Not that I think people choose...
We’re celebrating the launch of a free proofreading course with proof proofreading matters! Proofreading shmoofreading, blah, blah, blah… If that’s your attitude toward this critical communication tool, read on to learn how typos can cost businesses millions of dollars—and even damage careers. How Proofreading Protects Your Brand…and Bottom Line Proofreading is important to you as an individual and to your company, for several reasons (some quite costly!). For an individual, proofreading protects (or even builds) your credibility....
