Put your main message or a summary of your document first, after the headline. In fact, the very first 6 words should give a strong clue about what's in the document. Assume other people will read only the first line...
Blog: Content writing and content strategy insights
Why plain language needs the strong arm of the law
Most of us feel we have a right to get official information in a form we can understand. But is a law necessary to enforce this? At PLAIN 2009 (just-finished conference in Sydney) the answer was a resounding "yes". Sweden...
Tip: Don't use apostrophes to make words plural
When you make a word plural by adding s, don't use an apostrophe. CORRECT: words, apples, peas, the Joneses, CDs, 1950s. See? It's wrong to write apple's, pea's, CD's, 1950's or PC's. That apostrophe is just downright wrong. People rudely...
Tip: Use the magic word "You"
You is a powerful way to communicate clearly. When a sentence starts with you, that sentence will most probably be easy to understand. Better still, you sentences are easy to write. It’s hard to get into a tangle using the...
E-book publishing: line break alert
For years I've thought that: poetry would be ideal content for reading on mobile phones the best phone poems would be tiny little simple ones I was just the person to write these phone poems but first, someone needed to...