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What do your format choices mean to readers?
Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz summarize the implications of some recent psychological research on format this way: Any variable that facilitates or impairs fluent information processing can...
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Friday fun with the punctuation support group
Click on the cartoon to get the right size for reading. Happy Friday everyone! Filed under: Other Stuff Tagged: Punctuation Continue reading »
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The genre of business proposals: Getting readers to buy what you’re selling
So you’ve got an idea or service to promote? You’ll do much of that selling face-to-face. But you’re likely to need a written proposal in many cases. This post provides some basic guidance for writing...
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Who is the audience for a university website?
As the academic year begins in US institutions of higher learning . . . I couldn’t resist sharing this comic from xkcd. Last year, faculty in my College were in an uproar over a redesigned website...
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Friday fun with “You Can’t Write Proper English under Pressure”
No matter how well you’ve mastered the etiquette of “proper” English — like confusing word pairs (its vs it’s) – this game from Us vs Th3m will challenge you! I got to Level 8. Can you? Filed under:...
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Using TEDEd lessons to learn about plain language
TEDEd brings us short lessons on many subjects. There are currently eight lessons in the TEDEd Playing with Language series. That’s where I found one called How did English Evolve that explains why...
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When should you delay stating your bottom line message?
Rarely. That’s how often you should delay when writing to readers from Western cultures. Our attention span is short. We value efficiency. We want to know your bottom line first. Then we’ll decide...
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On the 50th anniversary of the “I have a dream” speech
Martin Luther King, Jr. certainly had a way with words — and with audiences. I have often used his words as the focus of discussions in my leadership communication class. In honor of today’s 50th...
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Did you know dictionaries are democratic? The real story behind “twerk”
I’m guessing many of you don’t understand how a dictionary is created. It’s true of the vast majority of people — even highly literate ones. So here’s your chance to get educated about lexicography....
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What I will say on the first day of a writing class . . . someday
I’m sharing a delightful first-day-of-class speech from John McIntyre, teacher of copy editing at Loyola U in Maryland and columnist at The Baltimore Sun. His words ring true for anyone who has taught...
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I need your help . . .
. . . to understand what influences writing quality in the workplace. Everyone has an opinion. And it usually focuses on blaming someone else. The public, through their legislators, blames educators....
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Friday Fun: You can’t say “sh” in Spanish
This 4-minute TED Talk explains how the lack of “sh”explains why we use the letter X to mean “the unknown.” You know like Planet X. X-ray. Gen-X. X-Men. X-rated. Cheers! Filed under: Other Stuff...
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Wanna know the difference between a dash and a hyphen?
‘Cause my day job kept me from blogging this week, I’m reprinting a wonderful article by James Harbeck: You’re using that dash wrong: A comprehensive guide to our language’s horizontal lines — from the...
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What happens when passive voice is banned?
I’ve said before that advice to ban the passive voice counts as a platitude. A recently published study corroborates my point. The authors of that study wrote, [Advice to ban the passive voice] implies...
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What is a linguist?
I am a linguist who studies workplace language. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain that I don’t speak lots of languages. (The fact that I wish I had learned to earlier in life is a...
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What is outstanding business communication research?
About a year ago, I posted Kitty, ABC, and beautiful locations when I learned that the Association for Business Communication (ABC) chose me as the winner of the Kitty O. Locker Outstanding Researcher...
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Trick or Treat!
Reblogged from Literal-Minded: In the course of writing a Visual Thesaurus column on aspects of the word Halloween, I looked into the history of trick or treat. Some of the questions I had about it...
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The genre of white papers: What we do (and don’t) know
One of my colleagues recently asked me for resources on writing white papers for a corporate friend who is confident in his ability to write short recommendation reports, but believes longer ones —...
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Friday fun with malapropisms
I’ve written about malapropisms before. If you want a diversion that involves word play with malapropisms today, try this game from Oxford Dictionaries. Example: The muscles around the stomach are...
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A good example of bad customer service writing
I recently discovered Leslie O’Flahavan’s Writing Matters blog and thought I’d share her analysis of some bad writing. Follow the link to see how she re-wrote the email. I look forward to reading more...
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