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Archive for the "business writing" category

Correction: Words to Feed the World

Here is the corrected link to the freerice.com site.
Many thanks to the alert subscriber who pointed out that the link in my earlier post wasn’t working! I fixed it there, too.
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Words to Feed the World

Language mavens take heed: you can feed the hungry and build your vocabulary at the same time, while slacking off online, by visiting www.freerice.com. The home page is built around an interactive vocabulary quiz, and for every word you guess correctly, the site’s sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations’ World [...]

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Spreading the Good Word

Next Tuesday, April 8th, I’m presenting a luncheon seminar for the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce called “Words That Work: Business Writing Basics.” Can’t wait. It’s always a treat to get a chance to share useful, practical information that makes life and work easier for people. There’s nothing like witnessing those “aha” moments when something [...]

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Making Headlines Work

A well-educated, sophisticated client of mine whose practice serves her own well-educated, sophisticated clients brought up an interesting question about headlines this week. She had learned in an online marketing course that capitalizing every word in a headline — regardless of grammatical correctness — is a good way to get people’s attention, and she wanted [...]

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Email Etiquette: Opening Lines

Is it just me, or have the rest of you been noticing the proliferation of commas newly being added between the “Hi” and “[recipient's name here]” in email salutations?
One of the most intriguing and confusing things about email etiquette is its flexibility. The old conventions of letter writing don’t apply, and informality has become the [...]

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Business Communication: the Gobbledydegook Manifesto

Just read a colleague’s post — http://www.webinknow.com/2007/08/the-gobbledygoo.html — that makes my day. David Meerman Scott’s updated manifesto makes me feel so, well, validated. Having written more than my share of jargon-ridden pieces — always under tactful protest, having tried to point out the futility of using worn cliches instead of language that actually means anything [...]

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