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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

"Let's Discuss"--A Cliffhanger

Posted on February 23, 2008
In a business writing class I taught recently, several managers ended their messages with this cliffhanger: Let's discuss. The sentence is not a cliffhanger because we don't know what will come of the discussion. It's a cliffhanger (something that leaves...

Less Then I Expected

Posted on February 22, 2008
This week I received a disappointing email, a marketing message from a person who describes herself as a coach in the areas of writing, publishing, and marketing books. It was the subject line that disappointed me: Would You Rather Cuddle...

An Alternative to Looking Silly

Posted on February 19, 2008
Today I received an email with this subject: 10 Powerful Secrets to Email Marketing Because I am interested in email marketing and "powerful secrets," I opened the message. I saw that it featured a free downloadable report with this jazzy...

Can This Inventory Be Saved?

Posted on February 15, 2008
While teaching Better Business Writing at a world-class Pacific Northwest business yesterday, I heard a story of an equipment inventory that made me shudder. At this business of 4000+ people, an inventory request goes out each year. A blank sheet...

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Underlining: A Bad Choice Online

Posted on February 12, 2008
Yesterday I visited two websites where underlining had gone wrong. At each site, I clicked underlined (underscored) words and phrases, expecting to be taken to more information. But there was no click. I just sat there, staring at an unchanging...

What's in It for Me?

Posted on February 11, 2008
We can all get a good reminder from an email sales message I received from someone selling software for the classroom. Her second sentence was this: I would appreciate the opportunity to present this information to you through a web...

How to Read Email: Backwards

Posted on February 08, 2008
Lena wrote asking for an email tip to share with her boss. Here is her concern: My boss, who travels frequently, responds to his emails in chronological order (earliest to most recent). Therefore, he often provides advice and gives orders...

How to Entice Volunteers

Posted on February 05, 2008
The usual request for volunteers begins like this: Volunteers Needed! It doesn't work. That's because it focuses on the writer's needs rather than the needs of the reading audience. I just received an excellent call for volunteers from the Cascadia...

Why Don't They Speak English?

Posted on February 04, 2008
On Friday night I attended a superb performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Seattle Children's Theatre. Although abridged for its youthful audience, this Hamlet was faithful to the story and characters and freshly acted by just five players seamlessly changing...

Your Commotion List

Posted on January 31, 2008
The other day I wrote about David Allen's two-minute rule. When I used my grammar and spelling checker to check the post, I had a a good laugh at a suggestion for this sentence of mine: If not, your message...

Write for David Allen's 2-Minute Rule

Posted on January 28, 2008
Among his many tips and strategies, time management guru David Allen offers a "two-minute rule." He says that if you can get a new task done within two minutes, do it. If you cannot get it done that fast, either...

Re: Are You Around This Morning?

Posted on January 25, 2008
I was reviewing a company's email when I came across a wonderful email thread. It started with one employee wanting to know if another was in that day. Here is their email subject: Are You Around This Morning? The person...

How to Stop the Gossip

Posted on January 23, 2008
A client sent me a worried email about an administrative assistant. The assistant had sent out an email to some executives in the company, and that email had lots of errors. When I read the email thread, I saw the...

I Don't Hear from You

Posted on January 22, 2008
In sales letters and email (and even in telephone messages), many people end like this: "If I don't hear from you before then, I will call you on Friday." There has always been something about that statement that has not...

As I Said, Make a Sign

Posted on January 15, 2008
My husband Michael, who works with me at Syntax Training, has a sign on the wall above his desk. It says: As I said, As it says, Michael uses this sign, usually while on the telephone, to remind himself that...

Furnace Maintenance for Readers--Brilliant!

Posted on January 10, 2008
I was reading my Winter 2008 Perspective: News and Insight from PEMCO Insurance, when I came upon another excellent example of writing that makes life easy for the reader. "How to Maintain Your Furnace" was the column I was reading....

Me, Myself, and the Presidential Candidates

Posted on January 07, 2008
I have been watching the debates of the candidates vying for the nomination of their party for U.S. president. Whatever their politics, I would like them to get one thing straight about English grammar: The word myself is not correct...

Scared Off by the Big, Bad Paragraph

Posted on January 06, 2008
I was reading the list of upcoming business meetings in a weekly email from The Seattle Times, when a meeting announcement caught my attention. The presenter was going to speak on a topic that interests me--the steps in growing one's...

Another Way to Make It Big

Posted on January 03, 2008
Kathy Frederick, author of The Junk Drawer blog, wrote me about my post on increasing type size to proofread more successfully. She wrote: "My husband and I made a great discovery the other day. You can enlarge screen text by...

A New Year Message from 1949

Posted on December 31, 2007
We heard a scratching sound in a remote section of our attic, and my husband went to investigate it. While he didn't locate the source of the sound, he did find The Seattle Sunday Times from August 28, 1949, left...

Typefaces and Other Topics

Posted on December 21, 2007
I was just introduced to a blog by Ken Adams, whose expertise is in drafting contracts. His recent posts cover some of the latest options and thinking on typography. If you are interested in contracts, typefaces, and gems of language,...

What Apple Can Teach Us Writers

Posted on December 20, 2007
Last week we made a purchase at the Apple store, a new desktop Mac--our first Mac ever. Apple made the entire experience easy, and easy experiences always inspire me to think of ways to make life easier for my readers....

Be Kind to Your Note Taker

Posted on December 17, 2007
Last week I led a writing class for a group of administrative assistants who wanted help writing meeting notes and minutes. We began by talking about the challenges they face as note takers. Here's their list of challenges: Getting the...

Addressing and Signing Greeting Cards

Posted on December 14, 2007
Now that you've bought your greeting cards and written your holiday letters, how do you address and sign them? I've gotten lots of questions on this topic, and I have answered just about all of them before. Please see this...