Amateurs rarely appreciate the (lack of) commitment of workplace readers. It’s another one of the consequences of the fact that, as students, they have prepared documents only for teachers, who are required to read thoughtfully whatever their students write and who have no real use for the content in those documents. Amateurs don’t often recognize that everyone else…
[Updated September 21, 2012 with new art ’cause I liked it better than the original.] What will the tone of your emails say about your attitude today? If you are feeling the need for a light-hearted look at tone in workplace writing, check out Toaster-Instruction Booklet Author Enraged That Editor Betrayed His Vision from The…
Attitude, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. (OK. This is not technically accurate. Psychological theory considers attitude a trait of the individual. But it is an accurate way of describing the fact that we attribute attitudes to other people.) We have been attributing attitudes to the woman in Da Vinci’s portrait for 500 years. We mostly use nonverbal cues, like…
Folks who rail against passive voice usually cite an unethical writer (or speaker) who is trying to avoid responsibility. Passive voice is certainly one linguistic tool for unethical behavior. But active voice can be used unethically, too. Compare the two lies: My homework was eaten. (passive) The dog ate my homework. (active) I see confusion here between the tool and the…
“Passive voice is bad,” cry self-proclaimed (but undereducated) writing experts. I’ve known lots of these folks who can’t accurately identify a passive. And very few folks who can accurately define it. And even fewer who can provide amateur writers with more useful advice than this platitude. (In fact, I can’t accurately call it a platitude since…