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Leading by Example

Over the past 1.5 days, I taught a business writing course for internal auditors. Throughout the program the vice president of internal auditing participated wholeheartedly in every learning activity. He shared his knowledge, admitted his knowledge gaps, and communicated his hopes and expectations for his team's audit reports… continue reading

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Being Real in Business Writing

Before I specialized in business writing, I wanted to be a fiction writer, and I spent many years trying. One of the books I read to help me develop as a writer was Brenda Ueland's classic If You Want to Write. No doubt other writers… continue reading

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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… continue reading

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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… continue reading

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If You Have Always Done It This Way, Think Again

Today I ordered a prescription refill from my health plan through the automated telephone refill line. The line is normally easy and efficient. For nearly every choice, the user has to press the # (pound) key. This is a breeze, just a touch of a key, on… continue reading

What’s Wrong With This Writing?

Last week I wrote the flyer for a business writing class I am offering online for the first time: Writing Tune-Up for Peak Performance. In the flyer, I included brief examples of typical business writing that needs tuning up. Thinking you might enjoy testing yourself on the items, I… continue reading

Letting Them Sweat–How to Weaken Relationships

My friend Cindy, who runs a training company, told me about an apparent negotiating technique I was not aware of: letting them sweat. Cindy had prepared a proposal for a prospective client. Shortly after the client received the proposal, all communication stopped. Emails from Cindy's staff received… continue reading

Turning Desire Into Action: Writing Great Meeting Notes

In a Meeting Notes Made Easy course online, one of the participants wowed me with the extra effort she has put into taking successful meeting notes in a foreign language: English. To get her meeting notes down correctly and to write well in her new… continue reading

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Oops! Comments Deleted by Accident

My finger seems to have strayed and accidentally deleted all the comments posted here from April 1 through the afternoon of April 17. So if you commented and don't see your remarks or my response, you know the reason. Please accept my apology for the temporary (I… continue reading

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I Am Not a Machine and Neither Are You

No, we aren't machines, and neither are the people who write to us. So how do we explain a message like the one I just received (below)? In fact, I received two identical messages. They came from a wireless Internet service I subscribed to temporarily. They… continue reading