It’s true there are occasions where the passive voice is appropriate. Use it when you don’t know who did the action or when you want to put the emphasis on the receiver rather than the performer of an action. But what often happens in the corporate world is promising action without committing a specific person to performing it, or admitting something without accepting responsibility. Thus when a company fires an executive, it may announce “Changes are being made to the executive team” (by whom?) and “[NAME] has been appointed” (by whom?).

Ann Wylie shared a great trick for finding the passive voice in her December 6 Wylie’s Writing Tips newsletter (which she attributes to Tim Burnett at FedEx): If you can add “by my grandma” to the end of the sentence and it makes sense, it’s passive. For instance, “Changes are being made to the executive team by my grandma” and “[NAME] has been appointed by my grandma” both make sense; both are passive.

To fix the passive, make sure the subject (my grandma) is doing the action: “My grandma has made changes to the executive team” and “My grandma has appointed [NAME].” If my grandma didn’t do it, well, maybe it was “the board” or “the company.”

“The positive emotional aspect of newsletters is that they can create much more of a bond between user and company than a website can.”

Very few promotional efforts can claim the degree of “customer buy-in” enjoyed by newsletters, Nielsen says, noting that 69% of users “said they look forward to receiving at least one newsletter, and most users said a newsletter had become part of their routine.” Asked why they liked email newsletters, more than one-third highlighted these benefits:

1. They are informative and keep users up-to-date.
2. They are convenient and delivered straight to the in-box, needing just a click to open them.
3. They have timely information and real-time delivery.

Nielsen encourages looking at newsletters as a long-term investment, noting that “they work their magic over time.” Be sure what you publish has value to grow or keep your reputation and maintain a relationship.

I love newsletters, print and electronic. The best ones, as I’ve said before, are warm and friendly, and contain interesting and/or useful information. They arrive often enough to be familiar and welcome, but not so often that they seem TOO frequent. (Nielsen says one of the most frequent complaints he hears is that some newsletters arrive too often; readers also want them brief.)

Nielsen says e-newsletters are a better way to stay in touch with customers than updates to Facebook or Twitter, because they go to the reader’s in-box and stay there. On a social network, new postings continually replace the old, and your comment just gets pushed out of the way. Plus, people use social networks more to keep in touch with friends than to go looking for corporate content.

As always, Nielsen shares great advice in the executive summary of his newest report on email newsletters, and of course even more in the 586-page report ($497 US), such as:

• Facebook is good for one-line updates; use your newsletter to convey more detailed information.
• Be sure to send out news through your newsletter BEFORE tweeting or posting about it elsewhere.
• The volume of email is increasing (300% higher than just four years ago!), so make sure to use clear subject lines with key content from the issue to encourage readers to open it.
• Lead the content with your most important information. This is especially important when many of your readers will be looking at a preview on a mobile device.

One of the things I like about Nielsen is his generous sharing of content. I also appreciate that he compares the various editions of his newsletter reports to help you decide if you need the newest edition or not! Thanks, Jakob.

I was already juggling a number of projects, but this is a long-time, valued client and I thought it could be done relatively quickly. So I met my other deadlines and then worked late on the “rabbit.”

The very first thing I did was change the lead sentence. By remarkable coincidence, Ragan.com CEO Mark Ragan today posted a link on Twitter on this very topic, pointing to a classic Steve Crescenzo column called “Dumping C.R.A.P. on reporters.”

In it, Steve rants that the “trained monkeys” who write most news releases follow this formula for the lead sentence:

Name of company + everything great about this company that nobody really cares about + bad verb + bad quote by a guy with too many titles.

My client’s release originally began with “Name of company + something great about this company that nobody really cares about” plus that other classic: “today announced” (as if the “announcing” is the news). And took 42 words to say it. The actual news event was in paragraph two.

I rewrote the lead to start with “Employees of [Company]” and link to their involvement in the event that was the “news.” It took only 18 words, and I was able to work in “polar bears,” which you have to admit is pretty awesome. I pushed the “something great about the company” to paragraph three, and included some facts that were relevant to the event.

My client was happy with the result, but I was worried some of the executives might have changed it back. She just called, however, and said they went with the revision. And she appreciated the link to Steve’s column, which gave her a laugh.

The bottom line: With news releases, as with newsletter articles, look for the news and put it up front. Your readers will be more likely to read it, whether they are employees or journalists.

Purpose: What do you want the newsletter to achieve? How will you know it’s effective? Is there any behaviour you want to change or encourage? Why a newsletter over other forms of communication?

Content: What will make your publication really useful to your readers? What will make them look forward to it, open it, read it? What unique perspective or information can you provide that readers can’t get elsewhere? What are you the expert in, or what makes you different? Are there frequently asked questions you can answer, case studies you can share, survey results, conference recaps and so on? Think about your readers and their needs. Make sure your content addresses the reader’s unspoken question, “What’s in it for me?”

Appearance: How important are looks? Do you want something with colour and impact, that could stand up to a magazine in the newsstand? Or do you want to go the other way, more subdued, even bare bones, in keeping with the economy? Or something in between?

Timing: Is there a particular day/week/month you want to be sure to issue your newsletter? This will help you decide when to launch, and help you set up a schedule to make sure you meet your deadline, whether it’s quarterly (the minimum time recommended), monthly, weekly or even daily. And yes, you should work backward from your desired publishing date to figure out when you need to start and finish each issue.

As I say, these are just some of the things to think about. What other suggestions would you share with someone thinking about introducing a newsletter?

I’ve never curled, so I found the unfamiliar lingo quite confusing. The commentators talked about a runback double, draws and takeouts, a shot rock and a hammer, and on the button. Then there are the near constant shouts of “Hurry hard!” and just “HARD!!!!”

You’d think, having a large audience for the Olympics not necessarily familiar with the sport, there would be more of an attempt to explain. There wasn’t, or maybe they explained things early on and expected everyone to keep up. Or maybe the important fact (for Canadians) was that the men’s team won gold and the women’s team won silver.

The curling-speak reminded me of the value of watching out for jargon in employee communications. Often there’s an assumption that “everyone knows” what a particular term means, or maybe it’s been explained once or twice before and that’s considered to be enough. I don’t buy it. Many times I have asked someone to explain a term or what some initials stood for, and the employee doesn’t know, or can’t remember. So I like to explain uncommon terms, or better yet, use familiar words.

This week, I was applying that thinking to two projects involving information technology. Tech types never want to launch or introduce something when they can implement or deploy it. They are all about the impacts and solutions, and other special jargon. But I did my best to frame the projects in more common terms that would be understandable to non-tech readers. It’s always worth a try!

I wonder…if I succeeded with both, would that be a runback double?

As has happened, sadly, to many a print publication, this one no longer exists. It was a controversial decision that I won’t get into here. Suffice to say a number of us mourned and still feel its loss, despite its eventual replacement with an electronic version.

As I flipped through the issues, enjoying the smooth touch of the paper and the simple, clean design (by one of the group’s talented graphic designers), I was pleased to see that the content stood the test of time. We have a number of talented writers in the group who contributed, and it showed. The newsletter covered a variety of useful tips for things like riding out the peaks and valleys of solo work, cold calling, dealing with “scope creep” and maintaining a professional business with children home during the summer. The newsletter introduced new members and shared updates on projects in which existing members were involved. If you couldn’t make it to one of the regular meetings, you knew you’d be able to read about it in a summary that was the next best thing to being there.

Don’t get me wrong; e-newsletters can be great, and I subscribe to quite a few. The best make sure the content is king, with useful guidance on whatever the newsletter topic happens to be. And they are regular; if the newsletter is monthly, you get one every month. Although many people think an e-newsletter has to be flashy, a strictly text newsletter is fine; looks aren’t that important if the content is there.

But what’s so great about print?

• It’s portable. Employees can read it on the bus or subway, and take it home to share with their families.
• It’s easy to keep. You can file it and refer to it later, as our independent communicators often told me they did.
• It’s easier on the eyes than staring at a computer screen.
• It can be more economical than something employees read online, since many times they will print it out at work anyway, at higher expense than the bulk printing of hard copies.
• Not everyone has a computer. I know, it seems like we all do, but what about truck drivers? People who work in a mine or in construction? They may have shared access to a computer at certain times, or are connected by a BlackBerry or other mobile device that isn’t the best place to view an online newsletter.

Respected communications expert Dr. TJ Larkin notes that “The Web is best for short, quick, information retrieval. The Web user is a hunter: leaning forward, senses pricked, visually aware, searching and eventually tracking down the targeted information. This is a great mental state for searching but a much poorer one for comprehending.”

Dr. Larkin says companies should “think paper” when communicating things like a major change to benefit plans, a big strategic change in business direction or a new software application. “Messages that are new, long, and complicated belong on paper, not on Web pages,” he says. “Paper’s strength is comprehension. People use the Web — they read paper.”

(Download Dr. Larkin’s free report, Communicating Big Change Using Small Communication, at www.larkin.biz > Publications.)

Probably the worst culprits for throwing around industry jargon are sports commentators.

The men in my household are all sports fans, so I’ve heard a lot of the terms. In hockey, players don’t just get a goal, they go “top shelf” or “roof daddy,” possibly when the other team is unsuccessfully “on the PK” (penalty kill). In baseball, an easily caught fly ball is a “can of corn,” a fastball is “cheese” and a pitcher can be said to “have some good giddy-up.”

Earlier this year, I ran into a whole new vocabulary listening to commentary on curling. This is a sport I know nothing about, so I had no idea what the announcer meant talking about “hit through the hole,” “last draw” and “threw a runback hit and stick for three.” Whaaat?

A friend has taken up lawn bowling; yep, it’s got it’s own jargon, too. A ball is actually a “bowl,” and there are “backhand draws,” “hammers,” “hog line” and “bowling to the Jack.”

Writers have their own secret words, too, as I was reminded when reading a fiction writer’s blog. She talked about “wip” (which from the context seemed to mean work in progress), “pubbed nonfic writer” (published non-fiction writer), “ms” (manuscript) and “SASE” (self-addressed stamped envelope).

Sports announcers can get away with their jargon only because many of the listeners are fans and followers of the sport. As insiders, they get it.

Writers shouldn’t assume any such thing.