Writing

Do You Know The Single Most Powerful Word in Business Writing?

September 8, 2011

Whether it’s email, Twitter, Facebook, or — going back to the ancient days — even business letters and proposals, the single most powerful word in business writing is “you.” Whatever else happens, if you start with “you” then you are on the right track. You asked me … You missed this … You suggested … [...]

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Are Spelling and Grammar Obsolete?

August 31, 2011

Am I being too critical? Do you react like I do to blatant spelling errors? Do they spoil messages for you? Glaring grammar and spelling errors distract me. Yesterday I received an email from somebody asking me to help him find an “inverstor” because he’s had “alot” of interest and he “truely” believes he could [...]

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You Can't Eat Truth Either … But it Still Matters

March 28, 2011

As blogger, former full-time journalist, and long-term entrepreneur, I’m offended from all three sides by journalists complaining that bloggers don’t get paid on the Huffington Post. I’m offended by the envy. The money Arianna Huffington and her investors made on the sale of Huffington Post to AOL was classic entrepreneurship, earned by taking risks. They [...]

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On Content, Do You Want Quality or Quantity?

March 2, 2011

Do you know the expression “from your lips to God’s ears?” It means “I hope God hears what you just said, because I want it to be true.” I say let’s tell Carol Tice “from your keyboard to God’s eyes” for her Why Content is No Longer King post last week on her Make a [...]

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Tip: Mistakes Are More Fun Than Tips

January 24, 2011

Here’s a continuing trend: tips and what-not-to-do lists get better readership as lists of mistakes.  It’s not a new trend, it’s not a surprising one, but one worth remembering. What reminds me this morning is a collection of posts by Geoffrey James on BNET:  The 8 Stupidest Management Fads of All Time  The 5  Dumbest [...]

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Jonathan Fields’ Great Title Idea

January 3, 2011

This is so cool. I’m really jealous. As he finishes up his next book, Jonathan Fields turns to the web and his so-called tribe for help with the book title. In Help Me Choose The Title Of My Next Book, he put a poll onto his blog and promoted in there and in Twitter, Facebook, [...]

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Business Words Losing Meaning

December 9, 2010

Sometimes words and phrases lose their meaning. They get so diluted by overuse that they end up meaning nothing at all. And that’s important to track when we use them in business. I first noticed that phenomenon back in the early 1980s with the phrase “user friendly,” as in “user-friendly” software. That phrase was so [...]

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The Beauty Of Data Visualization

November 29, 2010

I really like business charts. I think I always have. I’ve been in the business of communicating about numbers for a long time. And here is a master of it. David McCandless, a British journalist, also calls himself “a data detective,” and we see why in his Ted talk shown here, The Beauty Of Data [...]

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Good News, Bad News, And True Story on Blogging and Editors

November 12, 2010

The good news and bad news about blogging is editing and editors. Good news: anybody can blog without going through an editor as a gatekeeper. Back in the old days we used to strive to “get published.” Now we just publish. Hooray, we’re free. Bad news: nobody is so good that good professional editing doesn’t [...]

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3 Blog Titles and One Novel in a Single Sentence

August 2, 2010

This sentence was at the end of the lead paragraph: In this Q&A, he warns of the classic mistakes of manager-wannabe-leaders, the perils of too many bullets and not enough Zen, and why CEOs are like dogs. Isn’t that great writing? Doesn’t it make you want to read on? There are three blog titles in [...]

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