Showing posts with label business writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business writing. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

5 Biggest Business Writing Mistakes

We use the expression “there’s no room for mistakes” when we want to underline the importance of doing something correctly. But still, as you probably know from experience, mistakes appear whether there’s room for them or not. When they turn up in your business reports, memos, business emails and letters, and job applications, it can be downright embarrassing. We’ve gathered the biggest and most embarrassing, potentially devastating, and sometimes sneaky mistakes people make in business writing.

Friday, April 1, 2016

6 Tips for Writing Well on Social Media

There are 1 million links shared, 2 million friends requested, and 3 million messages sent on Facebook every 20 minutes. Twitter users send 9,100 tweets every second. More than 60 percent of all Americans have at least one social media profile — and many use this profile daily. Whether you love it or hate it, communication on social media is a fact of life.

Unfortunately, the nuances of communicating on social media escape many people.

Friday, August 28, 2015

What Is the Best Way to Develop a Writing Style?

Whether or not you realize it, you have a writing style. It’s like fashion: sometimes you don’t notice it at all (jeans and a t-shirt), and other times you can’t take your eyes away (Fashion Week, or Lady Gaga). Whether you’re trying to make it as an author or churning out dozens of business emails a day, your writing style is your signature way of communicating.

Your writing style is uniquely yours, but that doesn’t mean it has to be so unique that it causes confusion.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Please Find Attached: Do You Need to Notify Your Audience?

When I was new to the job market and mailing out resumes (although I’m dating myself, I’ll admit that this was well before the days of email), I sent my carefully crafted cover letters with a note that read:

Enclosed please find my resume.

One such mailing resulted in an interview. There I was in the wood-paneled office of an immaculately groomed lawyer. While I waited anxiously in an oversized leather wingback chair, he sat at his desk clicking his pen top and scanning my resume and cover letter.

Friday, June 13, 2014

How Do I Show Emphasis in a Sentence

If you need to emphasize a word or a particular fact in a sentence, you can use italics to stress it. That said, italics and other font changes lose their impact if overused. It is best to use such devices sparingly and rely on strong writing and strategic word placement to get your point across.

Before the advent of word processing, it was common to underline words to show emphasis.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Learn the Types of Writing: Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive, and Narrative

Whether you write essays, business materials, fiction, articles, letters, or even just notes in your journal, your writing will be at its best if you stay focused on your purpose. While there are many reasons why you might be putting pen to paper or tapping away on the keyboard, there are really only four main types of writing: expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative.

Each of these four writing genres has a distinct aim, and they all require different types of writing skills.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

What Is a Common Noun?

A common noun is the generic name for a person, place, or thing in a class or group. Unlike proper nouns, a common noun is not capitalized unless it either begins a sentence or appears in a title. Common nouns can be concrete (perceptible to the senses), abstract (involving general ideas or qualities), or collective (referring to a group or collection).

All nouns can be classified as either common or proper.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

7 Books Every Student Should Read Before Entering the Workforce

Unless you’re really lucky, you’ll have some time between taking your last step out of your college and your first step into a new job. You can spend that time trying to have as much fun as you can, basically prolonging the college experience as long as possible. You can spend that time trying to figure things out, yourself included. You can travel, paint, or volunteer. You can do a lot of things, but what you can’t do is escape the fact that, unless you have a trust fund, you’ll have to join the workforce (cue Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”).