Expert trainer Kathy Gemmell explains how to use design to create easy to read, high-impact documents. Learn how to: Make a document look readable Select the best width for margins Use headings and subheadings to guide your reader. You can listen here.

Someone once said that writing is easy. You just sit at your keyboard and wait – till the beads of blood form on your forehead. For anyone who has ever suffered from writer's block (and that’s all of us), this will be a familiar scenario. It doesn’t...

Last month we announced the launch of our index tracking the use of the words ‘green shoots’ and ‘recovery’ in the newspapers. So where are the press putting us now? June’s references to ‘recovery’ actually topped May’s...

The meeting room is booked and you’re waiting for your clients to arrive. The reception is strangely quiet and no-one turns up. It’s a mystery. After 15 minutes, you resort to re-reading the invitation you sent out, and a horrible realisation dawns on you:...

Ever seen the TV game show Supermarket Sweep? The premise is pretty simple. After answering a series of questions, the contestants are instructed to find certain groceries in the supermarket. Not surprisingly, no-one methodically paces through the aisles. With the...

Which came first: the newspapers or the news? This seemingly silly question – while not quite as mystifying as the whole egg-versus-chicken debate – proves relevant when it comes to the big e-word: economy. The press may have helped write us into a...

It’s not always true that your readers will want to read everything you’ve written – particularly if it’s a 300-page document. Even if you’ve done all you can to break it up and make it as readable as possible, the demands of time we all...

When the naturalist Charles Darwin outlined natural selection, he almost certainly didn’t have business people in mind. But his idea, that the species best suited to their environments are the ones who survive, has never been truer in the world of work....

Business-writing expert Gary Woodward explains: Why intros and endings are so important How to grab a reader's attention How to conclude effectively. Click here to listen.

For most actuaries, it’s a love of maths, statistics, probabilities and risk analysis that draws them into the profession. However, once they’ve been fully trained in these hard skills, working life throws up new challenges. If you’re a consulting...

Whether you’re setting up a new business venture or want the go-ahead for a project, there’s one essential document you need. Robert Ashton gives a step-by-step guide to writing a good business plan. There’s a memorable conversation in the famous...

Managers are failing to update their staff just when they need to most, it seems. The training manager of a blue-chip multinational was telling us recently how many managers had gone curiously quiet. It seems that their tongues (or their keyboards) have gone west...