Welcome to the blog – advice, opinions and musings on how to make words work
Telling someone they need help with their writing rarely lands well. You may be right. They may even agree with you. But they'll still probably feel at least a little wounded if you point it out. The trouble is that, deep down, we think writing is something we should...
One of the biggest dangers of relying on AI writing bots is perhaps not the most obvious. It’s not that what they produce is inferior to human...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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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...
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...
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.
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...
On misusing or fumbling a word, is it better to hold your hands up to it or to compare yourself to the world’s greatest playwright? For Sarah...
Click here to listen to Emphasis CEO Rob Ashton explain how to overcome writer's block. Learn how to: Get started Plan your document Use a...
How do you avoid confusing your reader when you're writing for non-native English speakers? Expert business-writing trainer Janet Bateman explains:...
Writing skills is a subject that many trainers claim to be able to provide. Here’s our guide to sorting the wheat from the chaff. Writing...
A website is a quick, easy and relatively cheap way to reach thousands of potential clients. Rich web content is what keeps those prospective...
Dignity is an inherent human right, according to the United Nations. (And who are we to argue with them?) But what began as a subject for the UN has...
The increasing use of the word ‘recovery’ in the press during the recent financial crisis may have contributed to the UK’s...
The media should exercise caution when reporting the Euro crisis, researchers warn, as the language that journalists use seems to be affecting our...
In our e-bulletin, we like to take a wild specimen of business-writing bull by the horns and tame it, so that it can be understood by all. The Ban...
He began by turning Shakespeare into txt spk. Now it’s Dickens for da yoof of today. Martin Baum, a father from Bournemouth, has rewritten...
Browse the business aisles of any bookshop and you’ll find an array of ‘how-to’ titles. Whether you’re hiring or firing,...
A delegate on one of our courses suggested a subject for the blog. ‘Can “into” and “in to”,’ she wondered,...
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