Category Archives: Communication Tips
The easiest way to get a response in business communications.
What’s the easiest way to get a response from your readers? Ask for it. Seriously. You’d be surprised how many emails, presentations, and other documents don’t. Yet, it’s one of the quickest, simplest ways to improve the effectiveness of every document you write. In this post, I’ll show you some specific examples. They’re all based [...]
Also posted in General Writing, Presentations 4 Comments
The best writing mistakes and how to make them.
Make mistakes. Make a lot of them. And make them often. It’s the only way to get your thoughts on paper, and you’ll enjoy the writing process more. I actually damaged some muscles in my hands several years ago, because I was so excited about something I was writing that I spent too many hours [...]
Also posted in General Writing 9 Comments
How to write like Julia Child.
Suddenly, America is taking a fresh look at one of its great communicators, Julia Child. And love is in the air. Her magnum opus, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, has rocketed to dizzying new heights atop other New York Times bestsellers. Health-crazed, 21st century Americans are now secretly slipping into rich crème sauces and [...]
Also posted in General Writing, Great Communicators 7 Comments
The easiest way to write a great one-pager.
You’ve got to put together a one-page description of your new project, event, product, or service. It needs to be very clear and easy to read. You don’t have a lot of time to work on this, so you’d be happier if it were also easy to write. No problem. All you have to do [...]
Also posted in General Writing 4 Comments
What to write when you can’t think of the right word.
We’ve all been there – stuck in the middle of a sentence trying to think of the right word when nothing seems to fit. It’s unbelievably frustrating because you’ve got this great phrase or sentence…and it’s almost working…and it would be absolutely perfect if you could just come up with the one missing word. Thesauruses [...]
Also posted in General Writing 1 Comment
Three tips from one of the 20th century’s great communicators.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of David Ogilvy. Expelled from Oxford as a less-than-average student, he went on to become a sous-chef in Paris, a stove salesman in Scotland, a British Intelligence officer in Washington, and a farmer in Pennsylvania. Then he discovered his true calling, founding what would become one [...]
Also posted in Branding, General Writing, Great Communicators 5 Comments
Quick, which page would you read first?
Take a quick look at the two documents below. Both have exactly the same 150 words. Even without understanding any of the words on the page, you can immediately see that one of these documents would be much easier to read – much more inviting.
Also posted in Design, Emails, General Writing, Presentations 4 Comments
Looking for a new job or business lead? Here’s the first thing you should write.
I recently taught a short seminar to a group of MBA students at Georgia Tech. It was a great group (props to Ms. Becker and her class), and I really enjoyed it. These soon-to-be MBAs wanted to learn how to communicate more effectively with prospective employers through emails and cover letters. One of the things [...]
Also posted in Emails, General Writing 4 Comments
This 60-second car commercial will make you a better communicator.
This is embarrassing, so I’m going to go ahead and get it out right now: even though I worked in ad agencies for years and even wrote a number of commercials, I rarely watch TV. We rent movies, but that’s about it. We don’t even have cable. When someone wants me to comment on a [...]
Posted in Communication Tips 1 Comment
Life is too short to memorize 25,376 writing tips.