Save time and avoid frustration during content collaborations
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Save time and avoid frustration during content collaborations

Here are some common workplace issues that are one focus for my technical editing students this week. Content Collaboration #1 You’ve just started work on a document and are gathering information to include from several individuals who represent different departments at your organization. You get a response from three individuals. Individual A suggests deleting an…

Get clear about your purpose before you write for workplace readers
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Get clear about your purpose before you write for workplace readers

Pro workplace writers are strategic. Period. They begin a document with a predetermined goal and a plan for achieving it. Bryan Garner, author of the HBR Guide to Better Business Writing, makes the point when he says, Many people begin writing before they know what they’re trying to accomplish. As a result, their readers don’t know where to focus…

Here’s a tool for calculating the costs of writing at work
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Here’s a tool for calculating the costs of writing at work

If you need to make business case for creating higher quality documents in your workplace, check out the cost calculators from Eclectic. You can calculate the daily and annual costs of ineffective emails. the cost of creating a specific document. the annual cost for you to write documents. It’s worth reminding you of two other resources for making…

To better understand . . . Or to understand better?
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To better understand . . . Or to understand better?

Has anyone given you grief over splitting an infinitive in your writing? If so, they would claim “to better understand” is wrong because the adverb better appears between to and the verb understand. The “rule” to avoid splitting infinitives originated in the 18th century due to a faulty comparison of English with Latin. (For more…

What does that smiley face mean? And should you use it?
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What does that smiley face mean? And should you use it?

There’s been buzz about the use of emoticons like the smiley face 🙂 or wink 😉 in the workplace. A New York Times article in 2011. Huffington Post took on the topic in a 2011 article and again in this 2012 article. A post by Gemma Stoyle at Linguistics Research Digest spurred my thinking about what emoticons mean and when they’re appropriate. Research by Eli…

Want satisfied workplace readers? Give them an efficient reading experience
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Want satisfied workplace readers? Give them an efficient reading experience

Efficiency. One of the greatest challenges for amateur workplace writers, who have not yet wrapped their heads around the fact that their colleagues do not read like  teachers do. I’ve made the point many times that teachers are obligated to read their students’ documents thoughtfully. And that workplace readers actually read the same way writers…

Pros test their draft documents — with readers
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Pros test their draft documents — with readers

Because pro writers recognize their limitations, they adopt practices designed to overcome them. One of those practices is testing a draft before delivering the final document. That’s why I highlighted the practice within my post: What is plain language? (Part Four: Putting It All Together in a Process). There are lots of document quality testing methods. While the source…

Amateurs suffer from too much AND too little knowledge
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Amateurs suffer from too much AND too little knowledge

It’s a conundrum. Do amateurs struggle to write successfully in the workplace because they have too much or too little knowledge? The answer is “yes.” Here’s what I mean. Amateurs suffer from too much knowledge about their message. In the workplace, it’s commonplace for writers to have more information than their readers. I mean . . . That’s…

What is plain language? (Part Four: Putting it all together in a process)
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What is plain language? (Part Four: Putting it all together in a process)

The first three parts of my series on defining plain language focused on the three aspects of the rhetorical triangle: (1) textual elements like style and organization, (2) reader outcomes like comprehension and usability, and (3) writer outcomes like organizational costs and benefits. To overcome the limitations of any one of those aspects when considered alone,…