Sometimes it’s easier to learn by looking at examples of jobs well done. Here are a few sentences that illustrate a principle we teach in the Worktalk writing trainings: Create visual images. Abstractions do not move people the way images do. The more you can engage your reader’s senses — sight, sound, smell, taste and […]
Learning from Good Writing: Using Visual Images Read More »
What else can you do to irk the readers of your emails? Here are a few more examples from our nationwide survey. Not Providing a Context People who respond to a question that was asked in an e-mail without including the original email, so their response is out of context and forces you to look
Here are more results from Worktalk’s recent poll. Some of these ideas are covered in our course on Using Email Effectively. As I mentioned last week, “reply all” triumphed as the most annoying habit. In response to the question, “What email habits annoy you most?” here are excerpts of what people wrote: Hitting Reply All
Annoying Email Habits: Reply All, CC & BCC Read More »
I recently did a nationwide survey about annoying email habits. The results confirmed the responses in the Worktalk email trainings to the same question. Not surprisingly, “reply all” won the most-annoying top slot. However, a slew of responses fell under the general category of inappropriate email replies. Here is what people wrote: Not Responding At
Annoying Email Habits: Responding Inappropriately Read More »
At a corporate training I taught last week, participants asked me to clarify the meaning of the above word pairs. Since these words seem to perplex many people, here are simple definitions. Affect (verb) This word has many meanings in the dictionary. It can refer, as a noun, to one’s emotional state. As a verb,
Clarifying perplexing word pairs: affect/effect, advise/advice Read More »
