Business Writing
« Previous EntriesBusiness Writing: Don’t Ask Too Many Questions
Friday, July 25th, 2008Yesterday I received an e-mail solicitation that was a good example of a bad technique: asking too many questions. It began with this question:
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Mind Map Your Business Writing
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008Stuck writing that presentation or report? Maybe you’re procrastinating and feeling guilty about it. Here’s a tip: use a mind map. Mind maps use both your left brain logical side and your right brain creative side. As you doodle your map, you’ll get new ideas and will make new connections. Before you know it […]
New Year’s Resolutions–More or Less
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Most New Year’s resolutions have to do with more and less. I will exercise more. I will eat less. I will delegate more. I will spend less time working late. In the spirit of more and less, I offer these suggestions for improving your business writing in the coming year.
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Six Proven Tips for Making Your Business Correspondence Inviting to Read
Friday, July 11th, 2008With today’s business moving at the speed of broadband, everyone expects better results in record time. Every day, we deal with hundreds of communications in the form of e-mails, letters, phone calls, chats, and meetings—and that’s before we tackle the “to do†list.
It’s no wonder that many business messages often reads as if they […]
Best Practices for Bullet Points
Monday, July 7th, 2008The days of long sentences in long paragraphs are long gone. Our readers need to retrieve information fast. An excellent way to help them do this is to lay out information in bulleted lists.
Definition: A "bullet point" is an item introduced by a dot ("bullet") or a similar icon, like this:
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War of the Words
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008Not only do I recall my first job, I recall my first memo, a recommendation on how to shorten a lengthy approval cycle. That was 20 years ago, and I doubt that the cycle has changed a bit, but that’s not what I recall about the memo. What I remember is how quickly my […]
Workplace Etiquette: How to Handle Condolences
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008When we read the daily headlines that detail the casualties of war, auto accidents, fires, urban shootings, and other similar events, the tragedies seem somehow removed until someone we know is harmed. Then we often are speechless at the time when our action would mean the most to the bereaved.
When something tragic happens to a […]
The State of Business Writing Today
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008There is a crisis in the workplace today, and believe it or not, it’s about the quality of writing.
That’s right:
poor writing skills are at the core of issues such as
low productivity,
inferior quality, and
poor customer relations.
Think about […]
Three Easy Steps to Cut the Fat in Business Writing
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008Do people often misread or misunderstand your writing? You may be obscuring perfectly good ideas in useless words. These three easy steps can help you cut the fat from your writing.
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Five Essentials of Thank-You Notes
Friday, June 6th, 2008It’s simple, of course, but a handwritten note from a business always gets my attention because it’s so rare.
Inevitably, I either tell people about a note or blog about it.
Here’s one I recently received from, surprise of surprises, my new gym:
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