This terrific post comes to you from Matthew Baines over at Boggleton Drive. Enjoy!

Similar Posts

Pros lead with language
I teach my first class of the fall 2012 semester tonight: Leadership Communication. The focus includes writing but is not specific to it. Instead, we study how to lead with language (plus some non-verbal behaviors because we’re interested in communication). Because I will be thinking about the topics in this class quite often over the next 15 weeks, some…

Kudos to Google. And the Center for Plain Language.
Yesterday, Time.com reported that Google ranked #1 for their privacy policy. The Center for Plain Language judged how well 7 big tech firms followed plain-language guidelines. A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find,…

What is a linguist?
I am a linguist who studies workplace language. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain that I don’t speak lots of languages. (The fact that I wish I had learned to earlier in life is a separate issue altogether.)That definition of a linguist is used almost exclusively within government, especially in…

Communicating in Cairo
I saw this last week and thought I would share it today because I don’t have time to write much. (I’m in Atlanta for a few days at the AACSB Accreditation Conference.) According to a cab driver from Cairo, car horns are used by drivers there to communicate more than their frustration. Several morse-code like…

I can’t believe I just remembered it’s National Grammar Day!

A light-hearted lesson on the Oxford comma
Today is filled with tasks related to my day job — AGAIN. So I’m sharing a quick (and dirty) punctuation lesson in honor of my friend, Charles White. Chas and I are both nerdy enough to be fans of the Oxford comma. The illustration is a slightly edited version of the original by Jeff Bishop. (I’m trying…
One Comment