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Legal Writing

Business Writing

By Lynn Gaertner-Johnston, founder of Syntax Training in Seattle, Washington, and a fan of business writing.

Post Frequency: 3.1/day

Last Entry: May 19, 2013 at 13:34:36

Email: A Great Place for a One-Track Mind

Posted on May 19, 2013
In a recent Better Business Writing class, several participants had a challenge that most of us have: They could not get readers to respond to everything they requested in their emails. They tried to be efficient by covering more than...

A Lesson on "Fewer" and "Less"

Posted on May 12, 2013
This past week, when I led the online class Writing Tune-Up for Peak Performance, I was surprised at the number of people who used the word less where they should have used fewer. Test yourself on the items below to...

Improve Life for Your Proofreader

Posted on May 04, 2013
I recently led two proofreading workshops for an organization. At the beginning of both sessions, I asked attendees what causes them to miss errors in documents when they proofread. They mentioned some of the usual reasons: short deadlines that limit...

The Differences Between Our Writing and Shakespeare's

Posted on April 23, 2013
Today is William Shakespeare's 449th birthday. Imagine being remembered for your fine writing hundreds of years after your death! But if you are a business writer, being remembered is not as important as being effective day by day. Has the...

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T-Shirt Error Loses Sale

Posted on April 14, 2013
I was walking around Seattle's Sea-Tac International Airport yesterday, waiting for my flight to Maui, when I admired a T-shirt with a clever slogan: Washington Rain Festival, Jan. 1st ? Dec. 31st What a perfect message, since it rains in...

Tricky Pronouns: Whoever and Whomever

Posted on April 11, 2013
In a comment on last week's pronoun tips and test, a reader named Jasmine asked for more examples of whomever. Whoever and whomever can be very tricky because they do not always play the role they seem to be playing...

Pronoun Tip Sheet--Pass It On!

Posted on April 05, 2013
Pronoun errors shift my attention from the message to the mistake. Instead of listening to speakers' meaty ideas, I am thinking about their incorrect Is and mes. Are you like me? Are you hearing him where you hoped for he,...

The Case of Two Investment Firms

Posted on April 01, 2013
As the executor of my father's estate, I have been dealing with the two investment firms at which he had accounts. The companies' names are household words, but let's call them Firm A and Firm B. I will tell you...

A Fine Example of Meeting Readers' Needs

Posted on March 13, 2013
I am away on a writing retreat on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and I took myself to Doc's Marina Grill for dinner tonight. The menu included something I have never seen on a menu before, yet it makes perfect sense for...

Is Your Writing Inside Out?

Posted on March 11, 2013
Often business writers communicate from their company perspective, looking at things from the inside out rather than the outside in. But if you write to people outside your organization, you need to reverse your perspective. For instance, in a recent...

Recommending Communication Webinars

Posted on March 05, 2013
Webinars have gotten a bad reputation. Too many dense, slow-moving slide decks presented by long-winded speakers have caused people to think of webinars as snoozers. Not only that--plenty of them ooze sales and marketing messages that make participants feel used...

NLT: Another Abbreviation to Avoid

Posted on February 27, 2013
A professor at a nearby university just scheduled an appointment with my daughter. He wrote, "I will meet you at 2 pm, NLT 2:15." NLT? My daughter searched the college map to figure out which building was NLT or NLT...

Shall We Go Further, or Farther?

Posted on February 22, 2013
My friend Elizabeth wrote to me the other day asking for a clarification of the words farther and further. I am happy to oblige. Let's start with a quiz so you can recognize your use of the two words. 1....

Acronyms Do Not Comfort, Doc

Posted on February 13, 2013
I have been away from this blog awhile, as I spent my father's last ten days with him, then planned and attended his funeral. As you can imagine, stress and sadness colored the days. Acronyms and abbreviations made the process...

Book Review: Better Business Writing

Posted on January 21, 2013
At last! A book I can recommend to executives and to the human resource managers whose responsibility it is to develop executives: HBR Guide to Better Business Writing, by Bryan A. Garner. Garner is one of my favorite experts on...

Anxiously or Eagerly? It Depends.

Posted on January 14, 2013
The other day I was among a group saying goodbye to our friend Carol, who is traveling to several countries in the Middle East, places where we fear a bit for her safety. One friend, Elizabeth, told Carol, "We will...

Copyeditors Killed in Style Conflict

Posted on January 07, 2013
Reader Jennifer Schmidt of the Detroit area tipped me off to this import article in today's Onion, "4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence." Based on the comments readers post here, I know passions run...

Email Subjects: Specific vs. Vague

Posted on January 06, 2013
What type of email subject gets your attention? This week I deleted 1226 messages from my email inbox. Viewing their subject lines, I was reminded of what typically makes me read a message: specificity--something specific in the subject. These are...

Setting Expectations: You're Going to Love This!

Posted on December 26, 2012
The other day I attended a Christmas pageant put on by amateur actors. Before the pageant started, the emcee said, "This is such a wonderful pageant. You are going to love it!" Last month I decided to patronize a business...

Spam Is Still Spam in a Holiday Greeting

Posted on December 20, 2012
For the last couple of minutes I have been sitting at my computer and deleting spam greetings from my email inbox. These greetings do not give me a warm, positive feeling about the senders. I consider the greetings spam because...

Condolences to Newtown, Connecticut

Posted on December 15, 2012
No words can comfort those who have endured the horrendous killing of children and adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School yesterday. The terrible tragedy is beyond understanding. Yet some people who know the suffering families and individuals in Newtown...

Cleaning Up "Spots" for Global Readers

Posted on December 10, 2012
Because I appreciate having blog and newsletters readers around the world, I try to recognize words and expressions that do not translate well. Spot is one of those words. I have found it in a variety of pieces I have...

Do You See XOXO in Business Email?

Posted on December 06, 2012
This month's Atlantic magazine features a snappy article "Kisses and Hugs in the Office," by Jessica Bennett and Rachel Simmons on the use of XOXO in business email. I wrote last year about a woman who was signing her email...

How to Help Your Meeting Note-Takers

Posted on November 30, 2012
Teaching my online class Meeting Notes Made Easy, I have heard many note-takers complain. They say that they could take better meeting notes and minutes if the meetings they attended were managed better. Based on my experience of meetings, I...

Recommended Guide: "Caps and Spelling"

Posted on November 21, 2012
I like to keep up with correct Canadian writing style and word usage. That may be because I live 110 miles--177 kilometres (Canadian spelling)--from the border, and I have clients in Vancouver and Calgary. Also, many Canadian readers check in...

Your Gluten-Free (Gluten Free?) Recipe

Posted on November 14, 2012
People planning Thanksgiving menus may be wondering which gluten-free recipes to prepare for their guests on restricted diets. But others are simply wondering about the correctness of the hyphen: Is the compound word gluten-free or gluten free? A client wrote...

Pronoun Puzzlers: Who Does What to Whom?

Posted on November 12, 2012
I was enjoying the newspaper the other day when I read an article that began with this sentence: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dismissed his chief of emergency management after learning that he deployed government workers to clear a...

Aid and Sympathy to NY, NJ, and the Coast

Posted on November 07, 2012
While much of the United States celebrates or laments the results of yesterday's elections, the East Coast is experiencing more bad weather. Although much smaller than the attack of Superstorm Sandy last week, Winter Storm Athena may again cripple communities...

Watch How You Say What You Say Online

Posted on October 30, 2012
As the mother of a daughter in college, I worry about how she presents herself online. Does she use four-letter words, rant about a roommate's habits, or tweet about her own exploits, as many young people do? I worry that...

When Not to Cut "That" From Your Sentences

Posted on October 28, 2012
If you are like most people in my business writing classes, you want to write more concisely. It's a terrific goal. Concise writing is much more likely to be read and acted on than wordy messages. But in your efforts...

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