worktalk

Elizabeth Danziger, the founder of Worktalk Communications Consulting, is a seasoned written communications expert with over 30 years of experience. She has a longstanding reputation for training people to become compelling, confident writers. Danziger is the author of four books published by major publishers, including Get to the Point!, a text on business writing initially published by Random House. Her work has also appeared in many magazines, including Personnel Journal, Journal of Accountancy, and other national publications. She enables people to wield the power of words to enhance their credibility and catapult ahead in their careers.

Don’t embarrass yourself: Use the Right Words

Someone recently wrote to me, “Your welcome to join us at the dinner reception.” While I appreciated the dinner invitation, the writer undermined herself by making the basic mistake of writing your instead of you’re. She meant to say, “You are welcome to join us,” but that’s not what she wrote.
Am I being a curmudgeon to mention this? Perhaps. But if I’m a grouch, I’m not alone. For millions of readers, these mistakes matter. When you are building your personal and business brand, can you afford to assume that your readers don’t care about precision in language?

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How to Write Emails That Get Responses

the right subject line

You work hard to write the perfect email to a prospective customer. You hit the send button full of hope that you will get a positive response. Then, the waiting begins. A day goes by. Then another. Then another. Crickets. It is frustrating when our recipients do not respond to our emails.

First, the bad news: If your recipients do not want to respond, they won’t. They will probably ignore your email if they are uninterested in your offering. We cannot control other people’s behavior.

However, you can get a reply if you have strong credibility and a compelling subject line. If your subject line and content resonate with a recipient’s emotions, you can even overcome the resistance to entertaining a message from an unknown sender. So, there is hope.

If you want your recipient to respond to your email, three things have to happen.

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3 Essential Writing Tasks That AI-Assisted Writing Programs Cannot Do for You

maintaining logical flow

Many people seem to believe that they no longer need to learn to write because the AI genie has popped out of the bottle and is granting their every wish about drafting their documents. I smile when I hear this because I’ve seen what AI can and cannot do. It can generate a serviceable first draft, yet you cannot rely on its veracity. AI sometimes fabricates statistics and citations. Its tone swings from obscure to trite. It repeats itself. It is wondrous in its ability to clean up bad writing but not so adept at preventing bad writing in the first place. To manage AI’s output, you need to know how to write.

Artificial intelligence programs are like devoted servants. You give them a prompt and they dutifully polish it and send it back. However, they don’t think. Here are three essential writing functions that artificial intelligence cannot do–and that you must do yourself.

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