Weed out weasel words
Having just edited a client’s news release, I found David Meerman Scott’s recent post on weasel words, gobbledygook, jargon and other baloney quite topical! (Check it out for some awful examples of what not to write.) The release I worked on started out in...
5 steps to keep paying the rent
Don’t you almost hate to watch the news, open a newspaper or check your stocks these days? The bad news is unrelenting. Formerly solid companies going bust. Layoffs. Gasoline prices through the roof. Catastrophic weather. It’s definitely an uncertain world we live in....
Sesame Street rules at clever writing
One of the great things about having small children is watching Sesame Street. My children loved that show for the funny puppets and silly sketches. I loved it for the way it made learning fun, and because the writers did crazy things that made parents as well as...Say what you mean
(I posted this earlier today, but a hard drive failure on the server hosting my site washed it away. So apologies if it shows up twice. To make up, I’ve added two bonus errors!) We all make mistakes, but in this business, you need to work hard to keep the error...
Straw to gold in 5 steps
Last week, I was juggling several different articles for two different employee publications. One somewhat daunting piece started off with three interviews, four people to quote and three pages of notes. I had 1,500 words to boil down into 500, a process I like to...Overcoming the solo proprieter blues
Being a solo communicator can be lonely. Les Potter, ABC, communications guru and visiting instructor at Towson University, once blogged about the loneliness of the solo communicator and the importance of regular social interaction with fellow professionals. He quoted...The scream
If I have to write about another “enterprise-wide end-to-end process” or “methodology,” I may scream. The good thing is, in a home office, there are few in earshot to hear the noise. You’ll be glad to know I am working hard to not include...
Guilty summer pleasure? Sneaking out to swim
All summer, I kept working away on hot days, even with a pool coolly beckoning. “I’ll finish this project now and swim late in the day,” I told myself. I can’t tell you how many times a glorious sunny day turned dark as rain swept in about 4...