Articles

If you’re working from home during this pandemic, you might be feeling as though you’re living inside your computer. But it’s not just nostalgia and technology overload that’s making me hark back to the fountain pen and redisover the benefits of some endangered work practices.

The first draft of any communication you write is likely to be wordier than it needs to be. There will be ambiguity. There will also be typos and inconsistencies. This is normal. Even professional writers need to go back and refine their work multiple times to make it clear and concise. Find out how our systematic, 3-stage approach will increase efficiency and achieve a better result.

In times of crisis, we naturally seek comfort from others. When someone is ill, anxious or sad, we instinctively want to be near them, to squeeze their hand, give them a hug or have a chat over a cuppa. Yet as we don our masks and keep a physical distance to stop the spread of COVID-19, we have to find other ways to show we care. Words become increasingly important.

Writing is often seen as a solitary task. Yet to produce a report, brochure, fact sheet or other workplace communication, you’ll need to involve others. Having different team members contribute ideas as well as provide feedback on drafts can strengthen your communication. But beware. Too many cooks can sometimes spoil the writing broth leading to time consuming, costly and embarrassing outcomes.

If you were applying for a senior management position at a large corporation, wearing thongs and shorts to the interview is likely to give the wrong impression. A top hat at Ascot might look appropriate there but completely out of place at the family Sunday barbecue. It’s a similar principle with writing. 

With word processing programs in workplaces often remaining in the default setting of US spelling, many people are increasingly unaware of the differences between Australian and American spelling. Australian spelling closely follows British spelling, yet many common words are spelt differently in American English even though they mean the same thing. In an interconnected world with English an international language, do these differences matter?

Enticing your reader to begin reading your report may be the biggest writing challenge you face. Even the most motivated reader is likely to be deterred by a report with pages of unbroken text. So how do you overcome this common barrier?

It was French designer Coco Chanel’s non-traditional approach to women’s fashion that made her famous in the 1920s. Perhaps the most enduring of her creations is the little black dress (also now known as the LBD). But what does the little black dress have to do with plain English?

Is it lay or lie? What about laid and lied? And why do we write ‘paid’ and not ‘payed’? Using the correct tense is an important part of communicating your message clearly. Using the wrong tense could mislead your reader. Knowing when an action occurred is important to add meaning to your communication. Take care not to fall into these common tense pitfalls.

One of the hardest aspects of English to get your head around is making sense of its chaotic spelling. This is true for native English speakers as well as those learning English as a second language. When words like blue, shoe, flew, through, you, two and too all sound the same but are spelled completely differently, what hope do we have of making sense of it all? And does it matter anyway? In Western culture at least, it appears that it does.