Originally published April 2018, Updated February 2024. Professional business writing tips should include “be wary of trends” because every few years it seems we have some kind of odd language trend that dumbs down our communications. In the recent past, we’ve experienced the persistent “you know” inserted into almost every sentence and now we have the annoying “no worries” that’s currently used in place of “you’re welcome.” Sometimes these phrasings are used in verbal speech only, and are not crossing over into business writing, so...
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...
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...
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