Are Your Emails as Bad as This? Learn 4 Better Business Writing Skills as We Look at What NOT to Do

Are Your Emails as Bad as This? Learn 4 Better Business Writing Skills as We Look at What NOT to Do

Originally written October 2017, Updated January 2024. As someone who wants to help people develop better business writing skills, I have no shortage of raw material to work with to point out how to write better! As proof, this email showed up today. At first glance, you might think, “Now this reads fine! Why is she going to pick this apart??” Well, I’ll tell you, after I let you read it through… Dear____, I hope your year is off to a great start. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is [employee name] and I will...
6 Business Email Best Practices to Get You Back Your Time

6 Business Email Best Practices to Get You Back Your Time

How business email best practices can make everything better… I was soooo lucky and I didn’t know it. How? During my 20 years as a freelance copywriter, I worked primarily with smart people who communicated well and made smart use of email. That means I thought the average person was equally good at email. I was wrong. When I closed up We Know Words at the end of 2019 to focus on our farm and Better Faster Writer, I also started doing a lot of volunteer work as part of a marriage ministry that we had to take over. (That’s a...
Slash the Time You Spend on Business Emails with This Cheat…Dot Dot Dot

Slash the Time You Spend on Business Emails with This Cheat…Dot Dot Dot

A huge part of the average worker’s day is spent reading and writing business emails. Yet there are many ways to reduce the time you spend in the email vortex, as you can see here and here. But here’s the deal: You’ll drastically reduce the time you spend on business emails when you make sure your emails are read and understood. …drastically reduce the time you spend on business emails when you make sure your emails are read and understood. Get Your Business Emails Read Let’s tackle the first challenge for a minute: Getting...
Both Horses and Email Are Dangerous When in a Hurry. Here’s Why…

Both Horses and Email Are Dangerous When in a Hurry. Here’s Why…

I hurt. My whole left arm aches as does my left shoulder. The back of my left hand twinges when I use it and my left pinkie tingles. Why? Because I disregarded one of the fundamental rules about working with horses: Don’t be in a hurry. And I ended up with these aches and pains but—thankfully–that was all. It could have been worse. So…what happened? My iPhone wasn’t working. I took Chase and the dogs for a ride up the logging road thinking I’d get service once away from home, but I didn’t. That’s when I knew I’d have to go...
Writing at Work? Don’t Be a Jerk: Put the Reader First

Writing at Work? Don’t Be a Jerk: Put the Reader First

Business writing at work can do more harm than good when the reader is ignored. What does it mean to be a jerk when writing at work? It means to write without considering the reader or audience. Because when you don’t write for the audience, you’re being selfish and writing to serve your own purposes only. And that leads to pointless back-and-forth emails, confusing documents, miscommunication and other time wasters. How do we fix this? Josh Bernoff has the answer. On page 5 of his book Writing Without Bullshit, Bernoff asks that we...