No business person can afford to be misunderstood. Communication is essential to your success if you want to widen your circle of business contacts, strengthen your relationships or deal with customers. And communication takes place when the reader or listener understands your message.
Aristotle taught his students the art of persuasion. Today’s business people use persuasion daily. Managers must persuade employees to follow through on projects, entrepreneurs convince investors to fund their start-ups and sales professionals persuade prospects to buy. In short, the ability to persuade is a core element of business success.
We want to be the writers whose sentences people read and understand. So how do we do that? Here are three ways to strengthen your sentences.
[3 minutes to read] I was at an international conference in Washington, DC, a few weeks ago. There were 10,000 attendees. A consulting firm decided to make a splash at the conference by sponsoring one of the keynote speakers. The speaker was famous and therefore, presumably expensive. On the day of the speech, the firm …
How using the wrong punctuation can create confusion.[4 minutes to read] “Can you schedule a meeting with me and Bob.”“Will you let me know when you find out.” “Could you send me one right away.” Have you seen sentences like these before? What do you notice? Of course, the questions are missing the question mark. Question …
