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.
Popularity: 77% [?]
words inspire, words connect, words mean business
April 9, 2008
April 7, 2008
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 Food Program.
I learned about it from the Idaho Foodbank’s latest newsletter and couldn’t resist logging on and spending way too much time there immediately. In the process of contributing thousands of grains of rice, I also learned that a “sastruga†is a wind-formed snow ridge and that “luculent†is another word for clear. That’s my idea of a good day.
The vocabulary is challenging, even for a person who brags that she has to buy a massive dictionary to find one that contains words she doesn’t know. The site lets you customize the level of difficulty and track your progress, and you can hear how a word should be pronounced by clicking the speaker icon next to it.
Not only does FreeRice give slackers everywhere a way to feed their brains while feeding the hungry, it also exemplifies elegant simplicity in website design. Everything works: the navigation is logical, the design clean and appropriate to the subject, and the content is informative, interesting, and well-written. For an example of what I mean, take a look at the about page. Does clean, clear copy get any better than that?
Popularity: 69% [?]
March 31, 2008
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 that was once daunting suddenly seems doable.
I’ve given this talk numerous times, and I typically customize it to have either a marketing, or technical, or formal slant depending on the audience. But the core material is always built around what I consider the three commandments of communication: Know your audience, know your purpose, and keep it simple. I didn’t invent this message, obviously they’re widely available from many knowledgeable sources, but I certainly delight in passing it on, partly as a way of paying back all the wise souls who enlightened me.
It’s amazing how easy it is to make things much harder than they actually are, especially in the middle of a project with the deadline looming and the pressure turned up, but coming back to those three key concepts can put everything back into perspective. Audience, purpose, and K.I.S.S. Can’t you feel your blood pressure easing down just reading that? Doesn’t it make you want to explore the ins and outs of better business writing at the very first opportunity? I know I’m excited about it, in fact I could go on and on at some length — but I promise to keep the presentation under 90 minutes.
Popularity: 58% [?]
March 20, 2008
How many times have you asked someone, “What do you do?” only to get a pretty much incomprehensible answer? For some reason, people tend to get lofty when they try to think of a boilerplate phrase to introduce themselves and their business. Unfortunately it’s very easy to get caught up in words like “optimize,” “facilitate,” “customized,” “mission-critical,” and so on. I actually know consultants I see and talk with at meetings and events regularly, whose websites I’ve read thoroughly — and I still have no idea what they actually do.
Whether you call it a tagline, a magnetic introduction, a sixty-second commercial, an elevator pitch, or something else — we all need one. I’ve recently had a great time helping a few clients develop new pitches that are working well for them. In the process, I began to realize how important it is to practice and test whichever words you use. Even if you hire a brilliant writer to write a captivating script for you, you’re still the one who’ll have to believe in it and deliver it. It’s like learning to snowplow when you’re skiing downhill: until you try it and have the experience of it actually working, you’re scared to death of crashing or careening out of control.
I’ve also discovered how much fun it is to get two or more clients together to try out their new pitches. The client is usually self-conscious and reluctant to have faith in the new phrase, and they can’t totally trust my opinion because I wrote it. But having other people around to provide an immediate non-verbal reaction really does the trick.
In fact, maybe I should take my own medicine for a change and get a few peers together to help me work on a pitch for myself? I’ll have to get around to that one of these days.
Popularity: 55% [?]
March 13, 2008
Not long ago, I heard Pamela Dell of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce deliver a delightfully to-the-point talk about marketing. She took the whole daunting subject and broke it down into three steps:
- Make time.
- Have fun.
- Follow up.
How can you not love that? As a writer, of course I also love it that she also used parallel construction and made each step a declarative, two-word sentence. Very nicely done—in only six words, she made a point more effectively than some books I’ve read on the subject.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the rush of ideas. Diving deep into the details of planning, messaging, branding, strategy, and so on is important, of course. But so is coming up for air. Marketing is about connecting with people, and ideas that don’t surface don’t reach anybody.
Like many of my clients and most of my colleagues, I can get easily carried away and need to remember not to make things harder than they are. It’s that old K.I.S.S. thing. Pam’s message is a welcome reminder that the most important step in marketing is to keep doing it.
Popularity: 40% [?]
March 7, 2008
Whenever a person, company, or agency starts manipulating language and resorting to euphemisms, it’s time to pay very close attention. For any of us who make our living as communicators – or who hire communicators to get our messages out – it’s important to realize that our audiences are not stupid. Obfuscation doesn’t fool people; it merely alerts them that somebody is trying to hide something.
According to Webster’s, to “obfuscate†is “to make dark or unclear†in order to “muddle, confuse, or bewilder.†At a public hearing last week about the proposed Idaho Roadless Rule, I heard quite a bit of obfuscation in action.
The issue being discussed was whether to open up currently protected backcountry roadless areas in Idaho to road construction for logging and mining. The Idaho Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service representatives wouldn’t come right out and admit that, though.
Instead, those who attended the hearing were assured that “temporary roads†were only to be permitted in rare instances of “mineral activity†and “stewardship projects†for forest health.
Right. Many critical thinkers in attendance pointed out that there is no such thing as a temporary road. Wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail are still visible more than 100 years after the last wagon made the trek. Clearly, roads built with bulldozers and modern grading equipment to accommodate multi-ton trucks will not just disappear.
And what exactly are forest health “stewardship projects?†It wasn’t made clear what “stewardship†means. But my guess is that it will have more to do with cutting down trees than feeding them compost tea.
My favorite fuzzy term of all, though, was “mineral activity.†Minerals are rocks, and it’s been my experience that they are not especially active, nor does phosphate get restless and spring out of the ground on its own. What’s with the smokescreen? Do the governor’s team and the Forest Service honestly expect the public to believe that “mineral activity†is not really phosphate mining?
By underestimating their audience’s intelligence, obfuscators lose that audience’s trust along with their own credibility.
Popularity: 30% [?]
February 29, 2008
November 26, 2007
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 to know my opinion.
The answer depends on whose attention you’re trying to get and what impression you want them to have. The headline in question went with a long copy sales page describing an intensive training retreat. The goal of the headline was to get the right people to read it and then to win their respect for, and trust in, my client’s professionalism.
Everyone alive in this century is skeptical of anything that smells like advertising. Headlines in all caps (including articles and prepositions like “a” and “to,” for example) may catch more eyeballs initially but, if the eyeballs belong to, say, a liberal arts major, the brain attached to them is likely to say, “Oh no, another cheesy long copy sales pitch,†and click away to another site.
If you’re selling something to an educated audience, ignoring grammatical conventions in favor of what is flashy or catchy risks insulting their intelligence. And if your product or service is expensive, gimmicky marketing materials will devalue it. Put another way, if you’re charging Nordstrom prices, you don’t use K-Mart merchandising techniques.
My client is all about quality and expertise. And in my admittedly biased opinion as a writer and an English major, her image and her audience deserve flawless grammar.
Popularity: 61% [?]
September 9, 2007
Have you been meaning to write a book “someday?â€
Well, how would you like to get that book written by Christmas?
As a market-savvy entrepreneur, you’re probably aware that writing a book is one of the best ways to advance your career and build your practice.
As a committed professional who is driven by the passion for making your clients’ lives more successful and more rewarding, you also know that a book is the perfect vehicle for capturing and sharing your passion and expertise.
Chances are that you’ve been meaning to write your own business book. But where do you start? Maybe you’ve even started a book, but somehow couldn’t make it happen on your own.
My next Biz Book Writers workshop, starting 9/26/2007, is designed to help you turn your notes and ideas into a real draft of your book by the end of the year. Using methods tested and proven by a pilot workshop earlier this year, I’ll provide the structure, support, and personalized action plan to help you make the most of your time and energy and get tangible results. This is a hands-on, action-oriented approach designed for busy professionals who want to make this happen now, not someday.
For more information, see the Biz Book Writers Workshop! page at workingbizwords.com
Popularity: 32% [?]
September 4, 2007
How would you like to finally start that book?
Here’s your chance.
Writing a book is one of the best ways for consultants and entrepreneurs to build credibility and share their expertise. For many of us, it’s also a life-long dream that ranks high on our life list of things to accomplish someday.
Well, someday may be sooner than you thought. This dream is well within your reach.
Here’s your chance to get started on the book you’ve always wanted to write — even if you’re not sure where to start and not quite ready to dive in and commit to getting the whole thing done at once.
Try just a taste first. A low-cost, low-pressure way to tiptoe into the water at the shallow end and see how it feels to start writing and make progress.
Join Peggy Jordan’s NEW Book Writers Quick-Start Workshop:
- One month
- Five sessions
- A price even starving artists can afford
- A roomful of supportive peers
- Your table of contents? Done.
- Your book’s introduction? Done.
- Your action plan for getting that book written? Ready to roll.
It’s that simple.
Email Peggy now to sign up or learn more.
Peggy Jordan’s intuitive, interactive Quick-Start Workshop will give you the direction, support, and tools you need to jump start your book.
- Learn how to make the space and time in your over-scheduled life to write.
- Discover your target audience to write the book your readers really want and need.
- Get more writing done in less time by understanding and leveraging your own energy levels and working style.
- Clearly define your subject and your own unique approach to it.
- Build the support network and line up the resources you’ll need to see the project through.
- Get crystal clear about your purpose — the great big “why” that powers everything else.
- Create an action plan and system to keep your book moving forward — at a pace you can sustain — no matter how crazy life gets.
Space is limited and will go fast — sign up now to guarantee your spot!
Book-writing coach and mentor Peggy Jordan specializes in helping busy professionals turn their book ideas into actual manuscripts.
With decades of experience as a marketing writer, technical writer, editor, trainer, mediator, songwriter, and jazz musician, Peggy knows the secrets of crafting language that sings — words that ring true and clear for both reader and writer.
She excels at helping authors find and maintain that delicate balance between creativity and discipline that gets results.
Join Peggy Jordan’s NEW Book Writers Quick-Start Workshop:
- October 22 – November 19
- Wednesdays, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
- $197
It’s that simple.
Remember the Woody Allen Quote about how 80% of success is showing up? Here’s your chance to show up for something that will make a real difference in your work and your life.
Email Peggy — right now — to sign up or learn more, and you will have taken the first big step.
Other workshop participants and clients have been thrilled with their results:
This is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, and I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support. Thank you, Peggy, for helping us achieve our dreams.
– Donna Geisler, partner at FusionSet, Inc. and author of I’ve Tried Marketing and It Works!
Peggy Jordan’s book writing workshop has been a powerful tool for me. I went from wanting to be a writer to actually becoming one. She is a wealth of knowledge and is kindly supportive and understanding about what the process of writing a book is all about.
– Sandra Wood, Inner Path Coaching, author of A Guide To Self-Empowerment
This is a famously supportive and well-structured workshop. Along the way, Peggy encourages, cajoles, and — in an ever supportive way — asks writers to keep up the pace, never give up, and keep their dream alive.
– Rochelle Lierz DeLong, CEO at Consilio and author of Paper Stories
Sign up today for Peggy Jordan’s NEW Book Writers Quick-Start Workshop:
- One month
- Five sessions
- A roomful of supportive peers
- Structure, direction, and support
- Only $197
You want to do this.
You can do this.
Isn’t it about time to take the first step?
Popularity: 22% [?]