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 Ralph specialises in teaching writing skills and the psychology of success. He has a background in psychology, television journalism and business and he has written four books on his topics. His blog includes observations on such things as writing skills, resilience, emotional intelligence, persuasion, happiness and life.
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Writing: Ignore the misleading advice |
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There's so much misleading advice around it's time someone protested.
Let's take the aversion some people have to 'we' in their business writing. A participant in one of my recent workshops told us her manager objected to it on the grounds that readers would be confused. Really? If it's going out with our company's email address or letterhead wouldn't an average person know who we might be?
There's something else.
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Writing: In praise of 'but' |
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Written by Ralph Brown
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Wednesday, 04 August 2010 09:36 |
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Don't be misled by people who say never use but in your writing. It's too sweeping and you might be missing out on a very handy device.
They say it's negative and anything before the but is just filler. They do have a point if the boss sits an employee down and says, 'I really like the way you turn up to work on time and tidy your desk at the end of the day, but your thinking and writing skills are far below what we need in this organisation.' The filler before the but just softens him up for the king hit.
But, here's why it's such a useful word...
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Even the most resilient people have down days |
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Written by Ralph Brown
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Wednesday, 07 July 2010 11:07 |
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A friend is going through a terrible time. Serious career, financial and family health issues have come together all at once.
She sent me an email recently that showed that she knew exactly what to do, but on that day none of it seemed relevant and she was feeling very low. Today, she feels she has her resilience back - and new insights. This is how she put it:
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Writing: Qualified praise for the simple sentence |
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Written by Ralph Brown
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Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:09 |
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Qualified?
Yes. Simple sentences are easy to write and read, and they help us avoid many grammatical problems. All we need is a subject and a verb, though usually we'll go on to say something more interesting about what happened.
Here's the but.
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Write informally for credibility |
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Written by Ralph Brown
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Tuesday, 22 June 2010 11:22 |
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Let's be frank.
Formal 'commercial English' doesn't make our writing more professional, just aloof, old-fashioned and bureaucratic.
We still find even young writers beginning letters and emails with 'I am writing to you regarding your correspondence of 21st June, 2010.' Why not: 'Thank you for your letter about...' or even, 'Thanks for your letter...'?
In workshops we often act out a mini drama with one character speaking in the formal cliches of business English and the other using plain English. No one relates to the character using formal language and ...
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