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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

Want to Be Concise?

Posted on December 09, 2008
In all my writing classes, people tell me they want to be more concise. That's a worthy goal, especially since our readers get slammed with so much they have to read on the job. If a message isn't short, often...

Free Spanish-English Online Dictionary

Posted on December 08, 2008
Ricardo wrote to me today to tell me about a free English-Spanish online dictionary. It's at the Word Magic website. As someone who is interested in learning Spanish, I was pleased to find out about this resource. I tested the...

Oops Once, Not Twice: Get Rid of Old Errors

Posted on December 05, 2008
This week I received an email reminding me about a luncheon on Monday, December 9. The writer pasted in the original invitation beneath his reminder. Minutes later I received an "oops" message, apologizing: the writer had meant Tuesday, December 9--not...

Too Many Nouns (Consider Revising)

Posted on December 03, 2008
Yesterday I picked up our local newspaper and read this sports headline: "Star Times All-Area Fall Prep Teams." I had no idea what it meant. Later I phoned home and asked my daughter to read the headline to me, so...

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How to Punctuate Captions

Posted on November 25, 2008
Kristi wrote to ask about punctuating captions. She was told that there should never be any punctuation at all in photo captions. She asked about a caption something like this: Drivers Bill Long and Joy Rae Craig log on to...

Don't Pile on the Topics in an Email Reply

Posted on November 21, 2008
Today in "How to Write Email That Gets Read and Gets Results," which I presented for the Washington Society of CPAs," we talked about our pet peeves, things that slow us down and drive us nuts as email readers. An...

Naming Your Blog and Newsletter--Think Big

Posted on November 19, 2008
The other day in a Better Business Writing seminar a librarian named David asked for ways to generate ideas for his blog and weekly newspaper column. He was looking for creative ideas on new topics to cover. When David asked...

Too Busy to Be Kind?

Posted on November 15, 2008
I was teaching Better Business Writing the other day, and we were talking about communication style differences. An attendee told me something like this about her boss: "My boss never says please, thank you, hello, or anything nice in email....

Is Your Reader Ignorant?

Posted on November 13, 2008
I have been working on improving my Spanish, so every chance I get I spend a few minutes doing Spanish language exercises. Yesterday I was finishing an easy Spanish crossword puzzle whose theme was food, in a college Spanish workbook....

Dear Reader: More About Salutations

Posted on November 11, 2008
About 70 percent of the questions I get from readers are about salutations for business letters. Here are some recent ones. For much more about letter and email greetings, see the links below. Question: We are sending out a mass...

A Historic Day or an Historic Day?

Posted on November 06, 2008
Since Tuesday, November 4, commentators throughout the world have been speaking and writing about Barak Obama's election as President of the United States. I have been reading about what "an historic occasion" and "an historic event" his election is. I...

Surprising Your Customers

Posted on November 03, 2008
Last week my 14-year-old got her braces off. After several years of teeth expanders, retainers, and braces, as of last week, she has beautiful, straight teeth. At the end of her orthodontic appointment, the staff at the clinic sang to...

A Number, a Multitude, a Host . . . Are

Posted on October 30, 2008
This morning before my second cup of caffeine, I stumbled over a subject-verb agreement issue in instructions I was writing. Here is the sentence: If there is an odd number of participants, pair up with one of them. If there...

Thanksgiving and Holiday Greetings

Posted on October 29, 2008
In the United States, Thanksgiving is less than a month away. And Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa are not far behind. It's not too soon to be thinking about writing holiday greetings to customers, clients, employees, and others around the world....

Terrible Passive Verbs

Posted on October 28, 2008
This morning in my daily newspaper I read two sentences with passive verbs so bad that I had to write about them: Owen is thanked for his past 12 years of service. Republican McCraw is endorsed for lieutenant governor for...

Domestic Violence Awareness Month--and Good Writing

Posted on October 22, 2008
In the United States October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. That designation means that domestic violence is a subject of television programs, news reports, newsletters articles, discussions, and so on. The focus on domestic violence encouraged me to tell...

It's Not Essential to Proofread

Posted on October 20, 2008
The other day I led a business writing class for leaders in a world-class company. Because they were a supportive group, one of them admitted she often doesn't proofread her email. With the need to send out dozens of messages...

A Friendly Failure--Called by the Wrong Name

Posted on October 13, 2008
I just read an email exchange between a manager and a consultant who is hoping to work for the manager. The manager's name is Susan. The consultant addressed her as Sue. Friendly failures like these get noticed much more than...

Punctuating a Series

Posted on October 12, 2008
When it comes to punctuation, not all series are created equal. On a discussion board I participate in (as part of Marcia Yudkin's Marketing for More program), this sentence came up in a discussion about commas:I dropped the pickle jar,...

Start Out Strong in a Resume

Posted on October 07, 2008
My friend Sadie asked for help with a resume (also known as a curriculum vitae), and I was happy to oblige. Sadie's resume began with her name, email and street addresses, and phone numbers. So far, so good. Sadie's first...

How to Say Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary

Posted on October 06, 2008
I received this message from Jen:As a service-oriented company, we send out birthday and anniversary cards to our clients and close business associates. The last thing we want is to be cookie-cutter, so can you please consider providing some tips...

How to Finesse Email Reminders

Posted on October 01, 2008
In an Email Intelligence class the other day, attendees brought up the question of reminders: If something is due at 5 p.m., is it okay to email someone at 4 p.m. with a reminder? What do you think? If you...

Too Many Tos

Posted on September 30, 2008
An error I am seeing constantly is the incorrect rendering of too as to. Just yesterday in an Email Intelligence class someone wrote this phrase to describe what slows down her reading of email: "to many words." That's wrong. People...

Avoid "Blessed" and "Bang for the Buck"

Posted on September 26, 2008
In yesterday's Better Business Writing class, participants shared two examples of language to avoid: "blessed" and "bang for the buck." I think their cautions are worth passing on. In the first example, an employee has been sending email with "Have...

Cowardly vs. Courageous Communication

Posted on September 24, 2008
In today's Seattle Times I read the advice columns "Miss Manners," by Judith Martin, and "Ask Amy," by Amy Dickinson. Their advice illustrates a topic I wrote about in this month's Better Writing at Work: cowardly vs. courageous communication. Responding...

What Your Out-of-Office Message Reveals

Posted on September 18, 2008
Today I sent out my monthly ezine, Better Writing at Work, to more than 6,000 subscribers. As usual, I received dozens of out-of-office messages. As I read them, I realized they told me a lot about my subscribers' employers. For...

Great Party--But You Can't Come!

Posted on September 17, 2008
Imagine a friend describing a great party she is planning--wonderful food, music, people, dancing--all on a beautiful exotic beach. Too bad it's in New Zealand and you're in New York. Your loss. Or your home office emails you about a...

Capitalizing Headings and Titles

Posted on September 11, 2008
I was driving west on State Route 520 in Seattle yesterday, when I passed a sign that always drives me nuts. It says "University Of Washington." I have nothing against the UW. In fact, I am looking forward to teaching...

Two Sides of the Fence

Posted on September 10, 2008
Where I live, people fence their yards. Before the fence goes up, the homeowner decides whether the finished side, without the supporting posts showing, will go on the inside or the outside. The essential question is this: Do I want...

Over vs. More Than

Posted on September 06, 2008
There's a quiet war between the over/more than camps, and I took part in it last week. I was updating my bio on my web site (you can read it here) when an associate cautioned me to replace my overs...

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