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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: 3.2/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 02:31:44

How to Get Readers to Read It

Posted on April 01, 2011
If you've been wondering how to get readers to open your ezine or email and read it, read this brief article (less than 200 words) from marketing expert Marcia Yudkin's "Marketing Minute." ******************* "Catchy Lines" from "The Marketing Minute" by...

The Latest Word on the Word "Email"

Posted on March 26, 2011
If you have been holding back on using the word email, without a hyphen, in your business writing, waiting for a style manual to firmly support your choice, The Associated Press (AP) has finally acted. On March 18, AP announced...

Writing to Associates and Friends in Japan

Posted on March 23, 2011
If you are looking for words to communicate your feelings of concern, sadness, and condolence to friends and associates in Japan in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, I offer the examples below. To communicate most effectively across the...

Speaking Your Readers' Language

Posted on March 18, 2011
Yesterday a woman who lives in India, whom I will call Bala, participated in my online class How to Write Email That Gets Results. She told me that at her company a typical opening sentence of an email is this:...

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How to Increase Trust in Email

Posted on March 11, 2011
I was straightening my office and found an article I had printed off the Internet, "Karen Stephenson's Quantum Theory of Trust," written by Art Kleiner and published in 2002 by strategy+business. It is a fascinating article about relationships in business--not...

Smiley Faces and Senior Managers

Posted on March 08, 2011
A senior manager whom I will call Kate wrote to me asking for advice about the use of smiley faces in email. Kate's question had an unusual twist involving her boss: he wanted her to use smiley faces, but she...

Old Style Guides: To Save or Not to Save?

Posted on March 02, 2011
Reading The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) "New Questions and Answers" column today, I got a huge laugh from the final question and answer: Question: My library shelves are full. I need to make some difficult decisions to make space...

How a Suitcase Can Help Your Writing

Posted on February 28, 2011
I just returned from a perfect vacation in Florida, and now I am looking forward to a business trip to Hawaii in April. Instead of putting away my suitcase until my Hawaii trip is imminent, I have left it out...

Are You Smarter Than the Average SAT Taker?

Posted on February 19, 2011
My daughter will start college in less than two years, so she is preparing to take the SAT� (Scholastic Aptitude Test) as part of her college admissions process. She receives "The Official SAT Question of the Day" by email to...

Help for People Who Make Signs

Posted on February 14, 2011
My friend Margaret sent me two examples of faulty writing on signs. I want to share them to help office managers and others who make signs for visiting customers. Read the two notices below, and see if you recognize the...

Use Caution With Automatic Signatures

Posted on February 10, 2011
The other day my husband Michael, who is my business partner, showed me a personal-business email he had received from the mother of a child at our daughter's high school. The email was about a carpooling situation. Just above the...

Proofreading Slogan: Print Before Sending

Posted on February 08, 2011
I regularly receive emails that end with the slogan "Please consider the environment before printing this message." Many people, including me, are concerned about wasting resources. Yet I've found that it's much more effective to proofread a document from a...

CPAs, Raise Your Standards!

Posted on February 03, 2011
Carrie wrote to me this week with a complaint about the writing at her accounting firm. She said: "I proofread most of the mailings that the firm sends out. I often point out run-on sentences, only to be told 'It's...

Error in an Ezine to 11,192 People

Posted on February 01, 2011
Last week I published my monthly e-newsletter Better Writing at Work and sent it to more than 11,000 subscribers. One of them, proofreader and copyeditor Geoff Pope, found an error in the title of the newsletter and lead article. Can...

Quick Tip on Texting

Posted on January 27, 2011
Include your name at the end of your text messages. That way, people who don't have you in their address book--and don't have your number memorized--will know it's you. Thanks to Melissa Thirloway for sharing this good tip. Lynn Syntax...

When Should You Tell an Email Lie?

Posted on January 26, 2011
I was teaching a business writing course, when an attendee I'll call Lucy showed me an email she had sent to a vendor. In the message, Lucy explained that she had not replied sooner because her company's computer system had...

What You Must Know About "All Told" and "All Tolled"

Posted on January 22, 2011
I paused over the expression all told in a piece of business writing the other day. Because I had not seen the phrase in a long time, I decided to make sure it was correct. Sometimes expressions we think are...

Recognizing Words With No Plural Forms

Posted on January 19, 2011
I am working with an executive who speaks English as a second language, with Chinese as her first language. She was very surprised to learn that the words information, knowledge, and jewelry have no plural forms. Would you join me...

Make Your Writing Dreams Come True

Posted on January 13, 2011
My friend Susan Daffron of Logical Expressions sent me an email telling me that today is "Make Your Dreams Come True" day. It was a marketing email in which Susan wrote about the dream of writing a book and how...

Avoid This Simple "Comma Splice" Error

Posted on January 12, 2011
In 2010 one of the most common, surprising errors I saw in people's writing was run-on sentences made up of two short sentences. Here are examples: Thanks for your help, it's exactly what I needed. I will see you on...

Today Is 1/11/11--Or Is It?

Posted on January 11, 2011
In the United States, today is 1/11/11. In much of the rest of the world, it's 11/1/11. That difference is enough to argue against using numbers alone. Although all those 1s look terrific together, numbers alone can't communicate with the...

WSJ on the Death of "Dear"

Posted on January 06, 2011
If you are interested in greetings for emails and letters, check out today's article in The Wall Street Journal titled "Hey, Folks: Here's a Digital Requiem For a Dearly Departed Salutation: Writers of Emails and Texts Find a Too-Tender Greeting...

A New Way to Address and List Married Couples

Posted on January 05, 2011
It's 2011. It's time for a new way to address married couples on envelopes and to list their names in programs. I regularly get messages like the one I received today from Carol, who works in higher education: Hi Lynn:...

Some Dos About Don'ts

Posted on January 03, 2011
I like the don'ts included on a package of gel "window clings," that is, window decorations, I have had on my office window during the holidays. The don'ts below are taken directly from the GelGems window clings package: Don't give...

Write Efficiently for Onscreen Readers

Posted on December 31, 2010
I am ending this year with an example that people in business writing classes found most helpful when it comes to writing for onscreen readers. In Writing Tune-Up for Peak Performance, a business writing class I teach regularly, we talk...

The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition

Posted on December 27, 2010
When I sent out my monthly e-newsletter, Better Writing at Work, recommending books for business writers, two subscribers let me know that The Chicago Manual of Style is now available in a 16th edition. Thank you, Fran and Linda! I...

Books for the Business Writer's Bookshelf

Posted on December 22, 2010
The other day my friend Joanne wrote to ask me how to render the word "by laws." She said Google had suggested "by laws," and a legal website had offered "by-laws." "Which is correct?" she asked. Neither. That is why...

Surprise! Your Contact Info Isn't There

Posted on December 15, 2010
Last week I taught a business writing class in New York City with seven individuals. I mentioned that one of my pet peeves (things that annoy me) in people's email is a lack of contact information. If no phone number...

The Value of Giving Examples

Posted on December 09, 2010
I was on a United Airlines flight from Seattle to San Francisco this week, when a flight attendant said something I had never heard before. Usually at the end of a flight, passengers hear an announcement about checking around them...

How New Is That Rule?

Posted on December 04, 2010
Maecey, a director of corporate communications, wrote to me with a question. She wanted to know when the comma rule for direct address had become proper usage. She was referring to the commas in these sentences, which address the reader...

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