Welcome to the blog – advice, opinions and musings on how to make words work
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...
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...
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...
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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...
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...
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...
In his second article on writing skills for nursing students, Rob Ashton explains what to do when inspiration doesn’t strike. D-Day has...
Rob Ashton explains how to use writing skills to become a recognised industry expert. If you take a poll to find the world’s top music...
We probably all know what it’s like to get frustrated over an item of punctuation, but most of us don’t get the chance to pass a law...
We’ve been paddling down various creeks for Ban the bull in the past few editions of Write Away, trying to clean up and make sense out of what...
Rob Ashton explains how to write your way to the ideal candidate. Back in January, we lamented that the UK was sitting on a glut of unwanted...
Medical technologies may cross language barriers, but words are the building blocks of a marketing message. Rob Ashton of Emphasis explains how...
More people are unsure of their punctuation than would ever care to admit it. Use our quick guide to make sure you're not one of them. Never use...
For anyone graduating – or with offspring who are graduating – this year, you could be forgiven for thinking the future looks a little...
Printer manufacturers must be getting a bit twitchy about the iPad. Or if they’re not, they should be – because it could well make a...
If you need to win an audience over, lend top speech-writer Jack Elliott your ears, as he reveals his secrets of writing a good speech. In this...
Printer manufacturers must be getting a bit twitchy about the iPad. Or if they’re not, they should be – because it could well make a...
You might have heard it's a good idea to favour the active voice in your writing – it's generally tighter and more dynamic than using the passive...
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