Blog

Getting Started Writing Requires Asking Important Questions
Crafting a clear, well-organized message requires that you ask a few important questions and think before you start writing. Resist the impulse to plunge into every communication and immediately start typing. Asking questions about your message and the audience can...
read more
Be Cautious about Adopting New Words
New words that pop up in our language might sound catchy, but they also can create a bad impression. Dozens, if not hundreds, of new words are accepted into English every year, because it's a living language; it's evolving. But in the interests of good clear...
read more
Simplify Writing by Limiting Acronyms
Avoid abbreviations when writing an opening paragraph if the reader has no context. Focus instead on what the product does. Employees everywhere complain about the pervasive use of abbreviations. They can be a useful shorthand that saves you from writing out names of...
read more
Get Your Execs on the Op-ed Page: Help Shape Public Opinion
An opinion piece is a great opportunity to express an opinion or advocate for a cause, but you need to be able to structure an argument. Nearly everyone on the planet writes email, and many people write articles, stories, and news releases as a full-time or part-time...
read more
Being Persuasive: It’s about the “we”
An important way to be more persuasive is to develop a sense of connectedness with your audience. Creating a connection with the other person (or people) based on what you have in common creates a powerful sense of “we,” says Robert Cialdini, the Arizona State...
read more
Crafting Leads that Grab Readers
When you have only seconds to get a reader's attention, an effective lead in a news article or feature story is essential. The reader makes a crucial decision quickly: keep reading or click to something else. So crafting an opening paragraph that keeps the reader on...
read more
Punctuation Puzzler: When to Use a Dash
Dashes are not a one-size-fits-all answer each time you need to pause. People frequently use dashes interchangeably with the comma: Anytime they want to pause, they just toss in dashes without realizing that the nature of the information dictates whether a dash is...
read more
Grappling with Grammar: Commonly Asked Grammar Questions
With all the nuances of the English language, writers often are stare at a sentence and ask, is that right? Here are a few issues people commonly ask about. Starting a sentence with and - Because many teachers said it was wrong, there remains a persistent...
read more