Welcome to the blog – advice, opinions and musings on how to make words work
I’ll never forget the first time I was asked to write a report. I had recently graduated and was two months into a new job with the Environmental Health department of a local authority in Swindon. The day before, I’d accompanied my manager on his safety inspection of...
Simplicity is often misunderstood and underrated. One of the biggest myths in business writing is that complex topics need complex documents. The...
Years ago, not long after I started Emphasis, I found myself in conversation with a young training manager for one of the UK’s biggest companies. We...
Many of us are still hoovering up pine needles from the living room carpet. There may even be a lone chocolate rattling around the Quality Street...
Disappointingly, the good people at the Oxford English Dictionary have chosen not to name Documentese as their 2024 Word of the Year. But as their...
There’s one critical problem with most articles and videos on ChatGPT. And it’s glaringly obvious to anyone who works in a sizeable organisation....
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I faced a slightly awkward moment in a meeting recently. Some consultants were presenting their ideas to me, but I stopped them five seconds into...
A colleague had a bizarre experience recently. While browsing the website of a well-known electrical-goods company, she idly clicked the Get Help...
Some rules are made to be broken – even ones that I laid down just a few weeks ago. You know how I said recently that it's usually best to put your...
How much do big words and flowery phrases really impress our peers? A lot less than many people think, it seems. I've talked before about the...
Training is one of the most important investments anyone can make in their future. It can help people get promotions and command higher salaries,...
The English language is littered with grey areas and apparent paradoxes that cause confusion. One of our former delegates, Richard, got in touch to...
By any measure, our High-impact business writing course in London has been a runaway success. For over 19 years, we’ve trained thousands of...
Empathy: a lovely fluffy word, isn’t it? Touchy. Feely. Soft. Perhaps with hints of being rather passive – even submissive. When it comes to...
When it comes to training, we'll go wherever the need is – whether that’s Norwich, New York or the Netherlands. But even we were surprised to get a...
Do you need to write practice or practise? The short answer is, it depends. Many find it tricky to know when to use one or the other. So, in order...
As soon as you type a word, you’ve put something out there that you can be judged on. Are you a competent professional? Are you clever? Are you the...
With the summer holidays fast approaching (hooray), there’s a question you might soon find yourself pondering. Perhaps it’ll be when you’re penning...
The ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji. Whether you love it or scorn it, you’re probably familiar with its ecstatic expression. You might even know that...
Walk down any busy street and you’ll soon see someone head-down, absorbed by their phone, tapping away to someone unseen. There’s a good chance...
Is e-learning really in a perilous state? There are some who are suggesting its death knell has all but rung. And you might believe it too, if you...
If you're not yet using a chat system to collaborate with your colleagues at work, you probably will be soon. Apps like Slack (the most popular) are...
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