One of the comments to How Do Your Sell Plain Language to Your Manager? insisted that a software program called StyleWriter is the key to management support for more successful writing in the workplace. I want to respond to that recommendation. But I realized that the commenter and I understand “plain language” differently. So I’m going to…
Thanks to Tracy Allison Altman over at Evidence Soup, I just read Does the Language Fit the Evidence by Mark Zweig, MD, and Emily DeVoto, PhD. The authors are concerned about the translation of medical research into popular media stories. Here’s why: A subtle trap occurs in the transition from the cautious, nondirectional, noncausal, passive language…
The AACSB peer review team left this morning after a whirlwind onsite accreditation visit to our business school. I shared a copy of our report with you a couple of months ago. Today I want to share a lesson on bottom line messages. Some background. One area in which the College is reviewed is called Assurance of…
I’m feeling a little punch-drunk after a 36-hour mock accreditation marathon so thought I’d share something that fits my mood. The Onion recently published a great little piece about gang violence and the Oxford comma. Enjoy! Related articles The Best Shots Fired in the Oxford Comma Wars (mentalfloss.com) A Light-Hearted Lesson on the Oxford Comma…
Glad to leave my sick bed and return to the land of the living . . . Here’s how this post started. Recently, my 17-year-old son did something dumb on the basketball court during his high school team’s game at a school in another town and earned his fifth foul. (For those with limited knowledge…
Bama is known for its success in football, winning another national championship last night. That’s two in a row and 15 total (depending on who is counting). What is less well known outside of the Deep South, is that there were other national championship teams on our campus in 2012: softball, women’s golf, and women’s gymnastics — also for…
I’m working on a post about taboo words (that means swearing or profanity) that’s not ready for prime time — and recovering from the flu. In the meantime, I highly recommend today’s post over at Motivated Grammar. Gabe’s point is that, when people don’t actually understand how language works, they see decline and deterioration in language different…
This is too good not to pass along!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog. Thanks for making my first 6 months in the blogosphere a success! Here’s an excerpt: 600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 9,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest…
You’ve heard me talk about my interest in the obstacles to widespread adoption of plain language before. Over the holidays, I read Joseph Kimble’s Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please. What a terrific compilation of resources for those of us interested in more successful workplace writing! Kimble is a law professor with a long history as…