by Sharon Ernst | Jun 13, 2023 | Business Writing Skills
I have a goal. It might sound morbid to you, this goal, but it is realistic. My goal? When I die, I don’t want any need for a garage sale. I am of an age that friends have parents who are dying, and those friends are stuck sorting through all kinds of what we’d call crap if we’re being honest. I don’t want anyone to have to go through that on my account. So, I am trying to slowly but surely make sure that I only live with things that can be recycled if not wanted (like books) or donated (like quality clothes, dishes and furniture)...
by Sharon Ernst | Feb 27, 2023 | Business Writing Skills
Almost every job involves some kind of writing. So, when everyone can write, why does it matter whether or not you write well? I’ll let Natalie Canavor, the author of several business writing books, reply to that when she says, “You are what you write these days.” Think about it: In an age when so much communication is done via written words like emails and chat messages, not during face-to-face or even phone meetings, your writing is your brand, the way you work and communicate. Your writing is your everything. But there are other...
by Sharon Ernst | Jan 18, 2023 | Business Writing Skills
I can help you with your New Year’s resolutions by helping you get back some of your most precious resource: time. Now, why on earth am I bringing up New Year’s Resolutions in late January? Because this is about the time of the month when we start to go from ambitious enthusiasm to wondering if setting those goals were such a good idea in the first place (as the gym parking lot meme shows). But we do set them! Millions of us set goals for the new year, and then most of us fail at them within the first week or month. I’m no...
by Sharon Ernst | Nov 30, 2022 | Business Writing Skills
We waste too much time writing and reading confusing communications at work. The four Rs can save us from ourselves. Once upon a time, we referred to the three Rs that kids learned in school: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. Today as adults in the 21st century who write at work, we need to focus on the four Rs: Re-read Remove Replace Rewrite And we need to starting now. Because time’s a wastin’ and we have better things to do. Why You Need the Four Rs As I’ve written about elsewhere, we are wasting $400 billion every single year...
by Sharon Ernst | Aug 2, 2022 | Business Writing Skills
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...
by Sharon Ernst | May 27, 2022 | Business Writing Skills
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...
