Posts tagged "business communication"
As Winston Churchill said, ‘the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence... is a noble thing.’ Short sentences communicate powerfully. Writing short sentences is a very good plain language trick. Plain language uses short sentences. If you write short sentences, your meaning is usually clear and your grammar is usually correct.
When I grew up I had four besties. Together we were just like Blyton’s Famous Five. Sure, we didn’t roam the countryside solving mysteries and capturing villains. Golly gosh no! But we did freely roam our cul-de-sac for hours enjoying jolly adventures — at least until dinner time.
After university, we all dispersed into very different jobs — one into journalism, one into strategic planning, one into advertising, one into corporate comms, and I moved from solicitor to information designer.
But in the last five years or so, something funny has happened: all our job descriptions are starting to look the same. Disciplines are merging. My friends and I are doing similar tasks and use the same skillsets.
It takes two to communicate! How do you work with people whose communications are incomprehensible? Maybe they send you cryptic emails ... smother you with gobbledegook ... expect you to read their minds ... give you mixed messages ... confuse opinion with fact ...
Since 1995, writing for the web is a phrase that has come full circle: literary writing online. Business writing, writing on the web, writing for the intranet, blogging, web content, SEO writing, content marketing, mobile content, accessible content, digital communication ... what next?