Business Writing

How Do You Like Your Holiday Cards?

Cathy wrote to me today, concerned about a possible change in how her team sends holiday greeting cards. In the past they have purchased holiday cards, addressed them to a mailing list of customers and other important people, had everyone on the team sign them, and then mailed them through... Read more →

Strip Off the Wallpaper in Email!

In homes, wallpaper is the paper covering the walls of a room, hallway, or staircase. It is often colored and textured, and it gives a certain feeling to the space, a feeling of comfort, elegance, the outdoors, etc. In email, wallpaper is a colored, textured background. It gives a feeling... Read more →

Hello to All!

I was teaching in North Carolina this week, when a participant in the business writing class shared her most embarrassing email mistake. The mistake was in an email she sent to everyone in the company--about 400 people--in her role as a senior manager of human resources. It involved a typo... Read more →

When "Rebooting" Means Grabbing the Galoshes

I accompanied my 89-year-old father to the hearing aid center yesterday. He had just gotten hearing aids and needed instruction on how to use them. The doctor, around age 50, told my father that a tiny button on his new hearing aid would "reboot" it. My father looked at the... Read more →

Mens and Womens Glasses?

I stopped by a "vision center" today to get my eyeglasses fixed. While waiting, I noticed the signs above the eyeglass frame displays. They said "Mens" and "Womens." Maybe the apostrophes just wouldn't fit on the signs, which should have said "Men's" and "Women's." Or maybe the signmaker didn't have... Read more →

Practical Advice to Reduce Notetaking Stress

We all schedule meetings on our calendars. But people who take notes at meetings need to schedule three events on theirs: Time before the meeting to review the agenda, reports, and presentations that attendees have shared in advance Time to attend the meeting Time to complete a final draft of... Read more →

Writing Advice for Job Seekers

The other day I was teaching a business writing class in Portland, Oregon, when a manager said this: "I got an email from someone who had just completed his certification and was looking for a job. In his email, he didn't even capitalize his own name! And there were other... Read more →