Worried that what you’ve written sounds a little too light and fluffy? Concerned that your words seem to be traveling all over the place instead of delivering a clear message? Thanks to a handy tool within Microsoft Word and most other word processors, and with a little bit of self-discipline, you can easily make your … Read more
I miss the days when newspapers and other media wouldn’t publish a story until it had been edited and edited again. Sadly, expediency has supplanted accuracy, and shrinking budgets have eliminated the copy editors who dispatched typos and other errors from their writers’ dispatches. These days, the only thing protecting writers from themselves is their … Read more
I often point to flawed marketing efforts by well-known companies. It isn’t that I have something against big business; it’s that those big players tend to make some of the biggest, most amateurish mistakes in their marketing efforts. Usually, the underlying concept is sound. The execution is where it falls flat. Take the email I … Read more
Sometimes, businesses have to deliver bad news to customers. That’s a fact of life, but it’s rarely easy to do. In most cases, the best way to do it is just that — do it, get it done, and move on. If the business relationship is solid, it will withstand one instance of bad news. … Read more
At a time when new technologies seem to appear every day, most folks are becoming overwhelmed. While they’re impressed by all the new features and opportunities, and while many can see at least some of how these new advances will benefit them, the sheer volume of information is pushing a growing number of people into … Read more
There’s a mistake that both amateur and professional marketers make all too frequently. It shouldn’t happen but it does. That mistake is forgetting the call to action. What is a call to action, you ask? In simple terms, it’s the instruction you give to the reader or viewer about the next step you want them … Read more
While reading a book about the history of the New Yorker magazine (About Town by Ben Yagoda), I encountered an interesting bit of 1930s correspondence between the magazine’s founding editor, Harold Ross, and author E.B. White. Perhaps best known today as the author of Charlotte’s Web, White objected to the magazine’s acceptance of an ad … Read more
Part of human nature is wanting to be liked. Deep within each of us is that child who wanted the other kids on the playground to play with us, the middle-schooler who desperately wanted to be seen as “cool” by his or her peers, and the young adult who hoped to be appealing to prospective … Read more
I’ve done work for companies that have their own lexicons — even style guides spelling out exactly how things should be worded. For example, I used to do a lot of work for some divisions of Amoco Oil (since absorbed by BP). Among the no-nos in their style guide was that you couldn’t refer … Read more
As you’d expect, the Indiana School Boards Association is an advocate for schools, so it’s no surprise that the Summer 2015 issue of their Journal included an exhortation from the group’s president to get members fired up. But you’ll probably be surprised that she was calling for the group to “lead the fight for pubic … Read more