Business Writing

Smiling at My Inbox

This week I received an email from someone who wanted to write for this blog. In the five-sentence message, I noted these little blunders: No words were capitalized, not even my name. The phrase "clients website" had no apostrophe. The first sentence, "hope you are well," ended with a hyphen,... Read more →

Help Customers Think Positively

Yesterday I wrote about the effective personalized email I received from IX Web Hosting. But the personalization was not the only strong point of the message. The email was a fine example of leading the customer-reader to think positively by using positive language. First, the subject of the email was... Read more →

Personalizing a Mass Mailing--Yes You Can!

In my business writing classes, attendees often state that it is virtually impossible to personalize their mass mailings--both in print and in email. But I send my e-newsletter, Better Writing at Work, to more than 10,000 subscribers each month, and I greet each reader by name--if the reader has included... Read more →

Editors: Here Is Data to Support Your Job

Susan Daffron of Logical Expressions gave me a link to an excellent article-blog post "How to Measure the Value of Editors," by James Mathewson. Mr. Mathewson is editor in chief at IBM.com. IBM conducted a study in which they measured the difference in response rates to an unedited and an... Read more →

Job Seekers: Start Out Strong and Persuasively

I received an email from a man who was interested in working with me as a business writing teacher. I could not consider him as a colleague because his message and his attachment started out wrong. The email started this way: Subject: Trainer Candidate Dear Lynn, I am a 60-year-old... Read more →

What's Wrong With This Excerpt?

Wanting to improve my skills in Spanish, I picked up a book about Spanish verbs to study. In the introduction, the writer makes two stylistic mistakes that business writers must avoid if they want to engage their readers. Can you recognize the problems in the excerpt below? Beginning on page... Read more →

Lesson from Slow-Talking Guatemalans

Having returned from a 15-day vacation in Guatemala, I have been thinking about what I experienced that relates to this blog and business writing. Here is what I realized: Throughout the trip, I prided myself on speaking Spanish, with no lapses into English just because the hotel clerk or driver... Read more →