In the United States, the hearings of Judge Samuel Alito for the position of Supreme Court Justice have brought up the subject of what to include in resumes and job applications. Unlike Judge Alito, most of us do not have our resumes combed through and then discussed on national...
Do you want to be more efficient? Think about your meetings and the meeting notes that follow them:
When our meetings aren't effective, we waste valuable time figuring out what we are trying to accomplish in them.
When our meeting minutes aren't effective, we waste the time we spent in meetings....
Recent visitors to this blog have been searching for answers to post-holiday etiquette questions. Here are three good ones:
Is it necessary to respond to Christmas greetings?
How do I say thank you for a Christmas gift when I don't celebrate Christmas?
How do I write a thank you for a business...
Update on December 27, 2011: For New Year's wishes, read this post.
As the year ends, many people in business are emailing new year's greetings to clients, customers, patrons, volunteers, and employees. If you are at a loss for what to say or how to say it, consider these...
During the holiday season, many people write an annual holiday letter or Christmas letter that reviews the previous 12 months. One challenge is how to write it without sounding like a bragger. Another is to avoid merely listing job promotions, vacations, and our children's accomplishments.
Although holiday letters are...
The days of long sentences in long paragraphs are long gone. Our readers need to retrieve information fast. An excellent way to help them do this is to lay out information in bulleted lists.
Definition: A "bullet point" is an item introduced by a dot ("bullet") or a similar...
These days people are searching the Web for suggestions on how to write holiday greetings that are suitable for business. I'll be glad to provide advice. My best suggestion is this:
Send a message that's right for your reader.
In our world of global communication, know what holidays your reader...
You've probably experienced this awkward situation: a person makes a request to you in writing, and you have to say no--in writing.
On the telephone or in person, you could respond earnestly, "I'm sorry! I wish I could!" or "Unfortunately, I have to say no." But it's a bit...
I have been writing lately about how to compose a condolence message and how and why to write thank you notes. This post combines the two: how to write a thank you for a condolence message.
I'm inspired to write on this topic because of the search strings people...
Writing a thank you is one of the easiest tasks in business writing. It's a short, happy message that makes both writer and reader feel great. Some recipients even post thank you notes on their bulletin boards and in scrap books, so the good feelings live on.
To communicate...
