While moving house recently (packing endless boxes of books) I came across George Orwell’s five rules of effective writing. They’re as relevant today as they were in 1946… Read more
There are so many ropey corporate straplines, missions and visions around, that I decided to establish some criteria for judging the worst ones. I feel that to be the worst of the worst, a strapline must pass three basic tests: It doesn’t say what the organisation does. When translated into normal English, it is either... Read more
Things will look different in the morning. Very true, on most days. I don’t know why, but sleeping seems to change your perceptions of things: when you wake up, you see them differently. Read more
Have you noticed how some passages of copy seem littered with ‘that’? And how removing all the unnecessary ones instantly gives copy more flow and conversational tone? Read more
We’ve all been stuck in conversations that are one-way traffic. You listen and nod as the other person talks about themselves, unable to get a word in, until eventually you realise there’s nothing in it for you, and your mind wanders off. Unfortunately, many businesses have the same problem. Read more
“Do you have a CSR writer with a background in chemical fertilisers?” “I’m looking for an SEO expert with a working knowledge of nuclear physics.” Requests like these aren’t unusual. And you have to wonder why. Read more
Think of a famous speech. ‘I have a dream…’, ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few…’, ‘It’s not what your country can do for you…’ or ‘You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.’ Or recall someone less famous, who you saw... Read more
George Orwell wrote: “Most educated people don’t realise how little impression abstract words make on the average man.” We agree. So it’s always been a mystery to us why businesses seem to want to pepper their communications with them. Read more
Oh yes it is. And before you go looking for evidence to suggest otherwise – there isn’t any. Using these words to start sentences is a natural and important part of good written communication. So we often wonder why, occasionally, people question it. Read more
