The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for Pros Write. My sabbatical, which allowed me to concentrate on research projects, distracted me from posting as much as in past years. (Did you hear that, Will?) Thanks for reading. Happy New Year! Here’s an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year….
Yesterday in “The big grammar quiz of 2014,” the UK’s Management Today published a terrific piece about grammar in workplace writing. Test yourself with their quiz. Then review your score with their key, which includes thoughtful and accurate explanations. If you rely on Strunk and White’s classic, The Elements of Style, you will resist those explanations. But…
In the spirit of the holidays, I’m sharing this infographic from Oxford Dictionaries. Thanks for reading Pros Write, and peace (in whatever language you prefer) to you all!
In order to respond to reviews of research articles (RAs) submitted for publication, researchers have to be astute readers of those reviews. Plus, novice researchers are usually asked to write their own reviews of research during their doctoral studies–often beginning with papers (or abstracts) submitted to conferences. We developed a rhetorical move structure (see definition…
I’m breaking my silence here at Pros Write with these guidelines. They’re the result of a study made available today in Business and Professional Communication Quarterly. With my co-authors (Pierson Carmichael and Jefrey Naidoo), I offer six practical lessons to help change agents manage communication and maintain credibility with stakeholders who have made a hostile challenge like “Why…
A couple of months ago, the CMO of a tech startup shared Surviving Email Politics at Work via LinkedIn. Email is an extension of you, part of your reputation. What you say and how you conduct yourself over email is the professional “you.” Managing this carefully is important. I couldn’t say it better. Today, I’m…
If you’re in Pittsburgh today, come hear Jef Naidoo and me try to answer this question at IPCC 2014. Here’s more detail than we’ll be able to cover in 20 minutes. (We have a couple of related details about white papers to share as well.) Why are we studying white papers? They’re important to organizations. Here’s some evidence from…
I think so. At least this email from the lead writer at Pinterest to all company employees supports the connection. It is too good not to share. (See my series on what plain language is for background.) Because of my current research on workplace writing quality, I’ve been thinking about how to capture the qualities of organizations…
Calling all word nerds! For some Friday fun, try the Macmillan Red Words Game, which tests your awareness of English word frequency. It’s not as easy as you might think. After a couple of tries, my highest score was 195. Can you beat it? Along the same lines, Roberto Trotta has written an interesting book. From the…
I have been trying to avoid thinking about today’s “holiday,” but Nancy Friedman has captured my attention. Punctuation is indeed both relevant and interesting in today’s workplace. My own Nat'l Punctuation Day linkfest: punctuation in company names and logos. http://t.co/fFCEAorHZ7 @FYI @andcompany_ @sfciti — Nancy Friedman 🦗 (@Fritinancy) September 24, 2014