Over lunch today I was reading a booklet about "controlling email" when I came upon a weird set of suggestions for establishing a company email policy. It included these pointers:
- Expect employees to train themselves. . . .
- Forget your international associates. . . .
- Allow employees to dismiss the organization’s ePolicies as insignificant or unenforceable.
These suggestions did not make sense, and I soon realized the problem. It turns out that they were under this heading:
DON’TS
Unfortunately, I did not look at the heading when I started reading, just as many readers do not.
Here’s the lesson for us as writers:
When we do not insert the word Don’t before each item in a list of don’ts, we can easily misinform our readers.
Don’t do that! Instead do this:
Use the word Don’t in front of every don’t you include, like this:
- Don’t expect employees to train themselves. . . .
- Don’t forget your international associates. . . .
- Don’t allow employees to dismiss the organization’s ePolicies as insignificant or unenforceable.
Don’t you agree?
Lynn
