Know the difference between affect and effect? Or where to use that but not which? Or when to use which but not with a comma before it? I know. MS Word forbids it. But can expect from a bot? Anyway… You could fill several multi-story car parks with people who — or is it that? […]
I’ll be finished by nine, you tell yourself. After that, maybe a bit of Netflix. That’s at 7.30. Then someone comes over. “Just popped over for a minute.” You put the kettle on. 8.45 they’re still there. “I hate to be rude”, you stammer, “but there’s this report thingy…” It’s a bit awkward but they […]
Noreen Malone, senior editor at New York magazine, admits what everyone else thinks about those pesky em-dashes. “The problem with the dash—as you may have noticed!—is that it discourages truly efficient writing. It also—and this might be its worst sin—disrupts the flow of a sentence. Don’t you find it annoying—and you can tell me if […]
Hate being interrupted? Who doesn’t. The thing is: sometimes you need to interrupt others too. If you start off with, ‘I just got a quick question…,’ their proton shields shoot up. Defense mode activated. Getting the response you were hoping for slips away… ‘Yeah, I’ll get back to you’, isn’t good enough when you need […]
Bertrand Russell, especially in his book, Why I Write, offers great advice on how to move from wordy, verbose, lengthy, purple prose to shorter text without losing any meaning. Here’s the three step formula he provides: Never use a long word if a short word will do. If you want to make a statement with […]
Q: Where can I find work as a white paper writer? Getting your first project is the hardest. Once you’ve got this under your belt, it becomes easier. I’d suggest the following: Setup a 10 page website. Write about the benefits, sales opportunities, branding development and web traffic that can be made from well written, […]
Rule #1! You can’t describe what you don’t understand. We agree? You can try and fudge it, but the people reviewing the document will see through it. I will. You would. Maybe you can try and cheat by cobbling together material that others have written, but it doesn’t work. Anyway, that’s not writing. It’s just […]
What are the three documents most potential customers wants to read? I’d say it’s white papers, case studies, and product brochures. The first sets the scene, the second shows you how it works, and the third… this tells you how and why it works. Of the three, product brochures are the least sexy. But they’re […]
What happens the moment you hear, ‘I’m going to be brutally honest with you’? I tend to filter out the honest part and tense up, wondering about the brutal part. You the same? You sense what’s coming next. It doesn’t feel good. We’re ‘brutally honest’ when someone annoys us but we can’t say it to their […]
Why aren’t you using video to create more content? I took this video when heading to a museum in a Beijing taxi. It won’t win any academy awards but it has a certain charm. For me, shooting videos just makes sense. You can always find five minutes to flip open your phone and press Record. You […]
How do you track Change Management tasks? Here’s how I do it using Excel. If you look at a large project as many small tasks chained together, it’s easier to start. Learn more about these excel Change Management templates here We often get stuck with large projects because we can’t find the right place to […]
