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Category: Communication

The difficulties of group writing

The challenge when people get together on a document is to maintain one voice so that the reader isn’t thrown by changes in tense, point of view, phrasing, word choice, structure and so on. Sometimes it’s even difficult to keep on the same point. Group writing is hard, and the more people involved, the more difficult. Here are some guidelines.

Business names: endlessly confusing!

These days, companies are getting extra creative with odd combinations of capitalized and lowercase words—and then there’s the separate issue of online presence and website addresses. Susan F. Benjamin cautions us on this major element of business correspondence in the book Quick and Painless Business Writing.

The art of procedural writing

Whether it’s being tasked with updating the employee manual, or you’re trying to prepare your colleagues to handle your desk during a planned absence, or you’re leaving a list for your pet sitter, at some point most of us have to prepare written instructions. Authors Jane Curry and Diana Young share specific tips.

What is a great email?

Chances are if you’ve written a “loaded” email, you may not have taken the time to review it or revise it because it took you so long to write it! OK. It happens. So what does a good email look like? The Email Doctor, Dr. Monica Seeley, says to think in fives.

Can handwriting be improved?

Handwriting? What’s that? Kidding aside, there are plenty of times we still handwrite things, apart from signing documents. It’s worth taking a little time to improve it. Here are a few ideas.

Got any banter heroes?

Banter heroes are people who can always think on their feet—maybe people you tried to emulate when you developed your own speaking style.