Blog
Giving Thanks May Be Persuasive
Thanksgiving is just the start of the season of giving. Although it is traditional to give thanks as we gather at the dinner table this year, we also need to remember to give thanks where we work and in our corporate writing. As a leader, corporate communicator, or...
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Public Relations Tips: What Makes a Great News Story?
People sometimes ramble on aimlessly about this or that, leaving the audience wondering, where is she going with this? Keynote speakers, executives, trainers, and PR pros are encouraged to tell stories to engage the audience, but many seem unclear about what makes a...
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Should You Ditch Laptop Note-Taking?
A psychologist says that we remember more when we handwrite because the brain has time to absorb the meaning. Business professionals and students are increasingly using laptops to take notes in meetings and classes, because it's faster and because everyone is...
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Persuasion Tip: How to Motivate Employees
How can you persuade employees to improve their job performance? It can be as easy as showing them how their jobs benefit others. Psychologists have often said that a manager can improve job performance by changing a person's perception of how the job benefits others....
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Persuasive Writing Tip: Express Displeasure Politely
Learning to express displeasure politely invites a civilized discussion and increases the likelihood that the other person will accept your point of view. This was a lesson that a Harvard Business School professor apparently did not consider before sending a series of...
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Don’t Underestimate Rhythm, Variety, and Emphasis in Business Writing
Don't underestimate the power of the clear, direct sentence, but creating rhythm, variety, and emphasis are other ways to make your writing compelling. Here is a segment from a USA Today story looking back on pay phones in America: For a century, the pay phone has...
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PR Writing Tip: Your Sentences May Be TOO Long
A person usually has good intentions when he or she suggests the right way or wrong way to do something in writing, but if you ask the person why that is the accepted way, you often hear, it just sounds better or that’s the way I was taught, or the more candid I don't...
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Public Relations Writing Tip: Use Flattery to Persuade
If you want someone to comply with your request, try using flattery to persuade. Flattery, compliments and exaggerated tributes, are among numerous ingratiation tactics that people use to induce someone to perform a particular behavior. Flattery brightens a...
read moreBy Ken O’Quinn
As a contributing author in this book on leadership, Ken offers insights and tips for managing difficult conversations, providing effective feedback, and being authentic. Order here.
Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill)
Provides the right words and phrases for any situation - quickly. The book was reprinted in Japanese because of high-volume sales there.
TD at Work — Business Writing for Managers
The Association for Talent Development invited Ken to write this 22-page booklet for the TD at Work series.
Current Blog Post
Improve Your Writing through Candid Feedback
People take writing criticism personally, but being receptive to criticism is the way you grow as a writer. It keeps …