+44 (0)1273 732 888
Choose your words wisely
Posted by: Catie Holdridge
20 / 06 / 16
Cowardly writing is the linguistic equivalent of your unreliable ex. It avoids committing. It leads you astray. It wastes your time. And it evades all entreaties to be straightforward or say what it really thinks. You can recognise it by its long sentences, convoluted structure and overuse of words and phrases such as ‘clearly’, ‘it […]
Posted by: Rob Ashton
11 / 05 / 16
One of the great pleasures of my job is that I frequently get a chance to talk to people who really are at the top of their game. Over the last 18 years, my colleagues and I have worked with over 40,000 people. And among them have been many industry leaders who have built seriously […]
Posted by: Simon Busch
31 / 03 / 16
What’s the right tone to strike in business writing? Formal? Yes, you want to come across as a serious contributor to the subject at hand and not to sound too … chatty? Hmmm. But if you’re too serious, don’t you risk boring people and losing them? Tone is a minefield. And it’s made all the […]
Posted by: Richard Smyth
18 / 03 / 14
Repetition isn’t a dirty word. I repeat: repetition isn’t a dirty word. But some of the tricks we use to avoid it are positively vulgar. We’re quite happy, it seems, to repeat ourselves when our intention is rhetorical – when our priority is emphasis, emphasis, emphasis. And yet when repetition is required for the purpose […]
Posted by: James Eagle
14 / 10 / 12
Poor apologies are all too common in business. But the flipside is that, because they’re so rare, a good, convincing apology to a client can leave you with a stronger relationship than before you slipped up. It isn’t hard to do, either. The key is to remember that you don’t want to sound like a […]
30 / 03 / 12
It would be easy to imagine that these words represent an evolution: two words becoming one. In fact, they have distinct meanings. Here’s how to keep each in its place. Altogether can mean entirely, utterly or completely; on the whole; or with everything included: That’s a different point altogether. Altogether the meeting was a success. […]
Our newsletter contains proven advice and tips for transforming everything you write at work. Join over 4,000 professionals who receive our best advice for writing documents that help you achieve your goals.