Welcome to the blog – advice, opinions and musings on how to make words work
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...
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...
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...
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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...
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...
Imagine you've just got a text from a friend. Which of these two messages would you react to more strongly? A: 'The forecast doesn't look great...
Have you ever written what you thought was a perfectly clear email, only to get a reply ten minutes later that left you scratching your head?...
The power of language is often harnessed to persuade. And love them or hate them – it’s usually one or the other – advertisements...
Last month we announced the launch of our index tracking the use of the words ‘green shoots’ and ‘recovery’ in the...
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...
The police often have a hand in giving out long sentences. Now they’re writing them. A potentially record-breaking 102-word single sentence...
Ever seen the TV game show Supermarket Sweep? The premise is pretty simple. After answering a series of questions, the contestants are instructed to...
Am I the only one who is taking the decision to ban the ‘i before e’ rule a little too much to heart? It’s been deemed too...
The results are in ... for Britain’s top ten most frequently misspelt words. And the winners are: 1 Definitely (Definately) 2 Sacrilegious...
Which came first: the newspapers or the news? This seemingly silly question – while not quite as mystifying as the whole egg-versus-chicken...
It’s not always true that your readers will want to read everything you’ve written – particularly if it’s a 300-page...
It’s always a great feeling of revelation (not to mention vindication) when something you have long suspected or known to be true suddenly...
Most people have felt the curse of the dreaded writer’s block: that plummeting feeling of panic that takes hold as you stare hopelessly at a...
It’s not always true that your readers will want to read everything you’ve written – particularly if it’s a 300 page...
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