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Now that last week is over, and I get a breather from wearing a suit and listening to other people in suits talk at me using PowerPoint bullets (I’m not a “natural” administrator) . . . let me get back on track. Gavin’s post was a timely reminder about what makes a visual work.

Merry Christmas, y’all!
If this music doesn’t get you into the holiday spirit, nothing will! Watch (and listen to) the Blind Boys of Alabama sing “Go Tell it on the Mountain” with Stephen Colbert, which aired on The Colbert Report last week. The original recording on their Grammy-winning 2003 album is available on iTunes or on their online store. If…

Plain language in a democracy
Just taking a second to vent my frustration about the lack of plain language on the ballot I read this morning. Here’s a sample. As someone with an earned doctorate in English linguistics and writing, I would place myself near the top of any chart displaying literacy skills among US citizens. But I had no…

No, thank YOU, you @#$%^ machine!
I’ve heard a few folks complaining about automated messages — thank-you emails to be specific. In Auto-politeness, revisited, one of The Economist’s Johnson bloggers wrote, Thanking is a real human response to a real event; I don’t know if it can be outsourced to a machine. Here is a personal example from a while back….

Guest Post: A Lesson from Joe Clark on Communicating On Record Plainly
My name is Tucker Burke and I am a senior at the University of Alabama, majoring in Management Information Systems. I will be graduating in May before I begin my career at Ernst & Young in Nashville, TN. As a part of my education, I have been working to complete a specialization in Management Communication,…

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,…