Has e-mail become so ubiquitous that it has changed the way we craft business correspondence? That’s what admins recently debated on our
Admin Pro Forum. Some suspected that writing “Dear” or “Very truly yours” has become too old-fashioned for digital—or even printed—correspondence. A bevy of self-proclaimed “old-school” admins protested.
When used incorrectly, apostrophes are a huge annoyance for readers such as Lynn Crocker of Comcast Spotlight. “What drives me nuts is people using apostrophes for plural things,” she says. “I’ve even seen people make signs that say, ‘We make key’s!’” Make sure you aren’t using apostrophes recklessly. Some tips:
When writing for a broad audience, pay attention to what’s called the “fog index,” which measures the density of your writing. Never mind how it’s calculated—a complex formula tracks things such as word lengths, sentence lengths and syllables. Test your writing by plugging a sentence or two into the text box at
www.panix.com/~dhf/fog.html.
Make your résumé more cutting-edge with these tips for 2010: Example: Don’t put an objective statement at the top of your résumé. “Ditch it immediately,” advises Jack Williams, vice president of national sales and recruiting for Staffing Technologies. Employers don’t care what a potential hire wants to do. “They care whether they can do what the employer needs them to do,” he says. Other tips:
When should you use fewer or less? If you can count or list the items, such as “skills,” use fewer. If you’re describing something that’s a broad concept, such as “skill,” or if you’re referring to something that can’t be counted, use less.
In business writing, you don’t receive extra credit for slathering your sentences with fancy phrases, the way you did in college. Do that in a memo, and you can expect eyes to glaze over. What you cut from your writing is often more important than what you add to it, says Jane Dominguez of The Write Business Advantage. Trim the clutter from business writing with her tips:
Hold a shorter, more effective meeting by remembering the three purposes for having a meeting in the first place: to inform, to gather input or to ask for approval … Read faster using this technique developed by reading expert J. Michael Bennett: rhythmic perusal … Try this remedy for a foul-mouthed boss …
Using transitions in your writing is like taking readers by the hand and guiding them exactly where you want them to go. Transitional words such as “however,” “meanwhile” or “likewise” create relationships between your sentences and paragraphs so that readers can understand why you’ve written sentences in a particular order.
The magic of a thesaurus is that it can take your business writing from drab to unforgettable. Which thesaurus to use? Nothing beats the print version of Roget’s International Thesaurus. But for ease of use, try these bookmarkable online editions:
Which is proper “me and him” or “him and I”? It’s a good question. Often when people speak, they don’t get these pronouns right. Then, when they try to write using pronouns, people get confused about the correct grammar. Here’s the rule:
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