Most of us don't like the way we look in photos. We wince slightly when we glance at a picture that includes us. Despite how it might feel, though, this has very little to do with how we actually look. It’s because the face we're seeing is not the face we see in the...
Rob Ashton
Why it’s so hard to change how we write
Let's start out with a quick question. Look at the line on the left in the image below. Which one on the right do you think is most similar: A, B or C? It’s pretty obvious that the answer is C, right? Or so you'd think. Yet three out of every four participants...
How much information is too much?
Much of what we write often sails way over our readers’ heads. The problem is that we take our own knowledge for granted and assume that everyone else knows it too. As I explained recently, we all know more than we think. Even if you're new to a topic yourself, it’s...
The old editor’s trick that gets you reading
The headline almost leapt out of my screen. It was June 2020. Every day was bringing another batch of harrowing news stories. Yet this one, on the website of The Mirror, still stood out: ‘Tragic coronavirus death toll rises by lowest number in seven weeks.’ ...
Why you know more than you think
One of the biggest killers of great ideas (and even greater careers) has to be impostor syndrome. I've met countless professionals who were held back by a lack of confidence in their own knowledge and expertise. It’s almost always unjustified and it always breaks my...
This fake news trick can be a force for good
I've got a quick question for you. How many people live in the Australian capital of Sydney? Is it two million? Five million? Seven million? The answer, of course, is none of those. Canberra is the capital of Australia, not Sydney. Well done if you spotted the...
The board want insights as well as facts
A paper to the board can be incredibly powerful. But you have to tell them what you want and make sure they actually read it.
The report-writing secret that most of us miss
Organisations are full of documents that don't work. The CEO of a London bank recently told me that he'd spent 20 minutes of his last board meeting arguing over the meaning of a single paragraph in a report. And the board had to get through ten other similar reports...
Use this structure for tricky emails
If you're putting off writing a tricky email or text right now, you're not alone. According to a recent poll by YouGov, almost one in three adults (31%) say they're currently struggling to compose a message or have struggled to recently. And the survey of over 3,000...
Are your reports grinding readers down?
Getting someone to read a document is often a bit like pushing a car that won't start. You have to overcome a ton of inertia at first. But it then takes much less effort to keep them moving. You're already halfway there if you can get them to read the first few...
This Netflix technique works for documents too
People read your documents until they can stop. Then they do. But that's not because we have limited attention spans. The truth is that we can focus for hours as long as something grabs our attention and doesn't let go. Just ask anyone who's ever binge-watched a...
Shorter is not always better
One of the biggest business-writing myths has to be that shorter is always better. 'Less is more,' say those who claim to be in the know. Keep it brief and people will thank you. To be fair, this advice comes from a good place. And, like most myths, it does have some...