These articles will help you develop writing and editing skills that lead to clearer communication and fewer misunderstandings. You’ll learn how to get your message across efficiently and reduce the need for follow-up or clarification.
Professional Writing and Editing
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Are Poor Spelling and Grammar Really All that Bad?
How much of an impact can poor spelling and grammar have on a reader? Is getting it right really that important?
How Bad Can It Really Be?
I recently decided that I had to get to the bottom of this. I wanted to…
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Want to Write Attention-Getting Documents? Focus on Your Reader
We have a tendency to focus on our own perspectives when completing tasks, including writing our business documents. But the best documents (the ones that capture the most attention) focus on the reader’s point of view instead.
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Motivating Writers Through Positive And Constructive Feedback
Most organizations don’t have professional editors on staff. And while many strong writers are also strong editors, editing does represent a unique skill set that not everyone excels at without specific training. When you edit, you want to…
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An Email Structure that Gets Results
Do you sometimes pause before you send out an email because you don’t know where to start, or how to start? You will no longer have these concerns if you follow what is known as the MAD email format.
MAD is an acronym for Message…
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Spotting Signs That Need Help
When driving around town, I look at signs. The image posted shows one I see weekly, and its mistakes jump out every time. Let's take a look at it.
First, let's look at spelling, The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling book lists…
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Have you ever thought much about the pronouns ‘me’ and ‘myself’? Probably not. But you should!
What is each pronoun all about?
The pronoun ‘me’ is an object pronoun. Therefore, as a writer, you want to use it either after a preposition, such as ‘for me’, 'with me’, ‘from me’, or as the object of a verb, for example: He loves me. It…
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What We Learned at PLAIN 2013
From October 11 to October 13, 2013, Marie and I attended the 9th Biennial Plain Language Association International PLAIN 2013 Conference in Vancouver. For three days, we met with other plain language enthusiasts to discuss and share ideas on how…
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Why We Need to Avoid Using "Shall"
Finally, I’ve found a concrete example showing why we should avoid the use of “shall” in writing. (yes, even legal writing)
While attending the PLAIN conference, I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation from Joseph Kimble, a leading…
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Calling All Capitalization Questions
Have you ever considered how capitalization can affect the meaning of your sentences? Take a look at these two sentences and notice how one capitalized word can completely change the meaning of the sentence.
Sentence 1: Help Uncle…