Categories for Writing

Texting Etiquette for Saying What You Mean

As many of your arguments can probably attest, intent in text messages is often lost. Tone and body language aren’t there, so words have to speak for themselves. While we often do our best to say what we mean, it doesn’t always come off that way. (We’re sure there are millions of couples that would back up this claim). So, that gives you more reason to choose your written words even more carefully than your spoken ones.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your text messages. And auto correct can’t help you here.

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How to Write a Speech for Someone Else

You’re a wordsmith, a whiz with words, a connoisseur of content, a prodigy of prose — you get the idea. So in light of that, your non-wordsmith colleagues come to you to write their speech. Here are some tips on how to do it so your colleagues command the attention of the room with your carefully crafted wording.

Write in a tone appropriate for the occasion.

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Complex to Simple: Communicating with the Masses

Your client hands you a 50-page manual explaining the scope of the latest artificial intelligence software they came up with. It was written by the engineer who created it. Now you have to share that with the general public. Yikes. Where do you even begin?

It doesn’t matter if it’s artificial intelligence or Plato’s theory on friendship — any complex topic can be proven simple if given the opportunity. Here are a few tips on how to break down heavy concepts into light and breezy descriptions that will only leave the engineers who wrote them scratching their heads.

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Phrases on LinkedIn That Say Absolutely Nothing

The image you project to a potential employer should be one of your best self. And in most cases, it’s projected as even better than that. So when you’re describing yourself on LinkedIn, shouldn’t you be using all the best words to do so? You want to paint a picture that gets them to take action. You want to be proud of what you present them with.

Well, upon browsing through some profiles, a few common phrases appeared over and over again. At first glance, they sound professional. But really, they say absolutely nothing. It’s all just filler to take away white space. What did white space ever do to you?

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How to Write the Perfect Greeting Card

With the holiday season behind us, the surplus of unique sentiments got us thinking of what makes a good card so good. (We’re talking about the ones we wrote for our own special someones, although we’d be happy to write greeting cards for clients too).

Who doesn’t love watching the subtle curve of a smile form on their reader’s face, slowly revealing more teeth and adding to their wrinkle count? Knowing that your words did that is a special kind of feeling, one that’s known to render the gift itself irrelevant.

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What Makes Good Writing Good?

person-apple-laptop-notebook With all the bad and (closely second) mediocre writing out there, seeing real quality is refreshing for any level of word nerd out there. Assuming all the words are correctly arranged and grammatically sound, there’s lots more to consider when deciding how well-written it is.

Well-executed prose, a good story, a nicely balanced cadence of short and long words and sentences, along with a compelling flow of events, all contribute to upping writing’s value. When all of these components are on point, you can make an instruction manual worthy of a Pulitzer.

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Misused and Overly Exaggerated Words

Next time you read a body of text, pay closer attention to what’s actually being said. More than likely, you’ll notice some terms and expressions that are used in ways that don’t quite fit when you really think about it. A lot of these are so common that we overlook their absurdity as our eyeballs skim over them and our brains don’t decide to register them fully.

Agree or disagree as you wish. But the following examples are infuriatingly misused. Turn on that light bulb and think about it before writing it down. Especially before publishing it.

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Some Kick-Ass Ads in Just a Few Words

Advertising boils down to communication. And communication is all about getting the message heard. When we strip it down to its most basic form, all you really need are a few words to make that happen.

In most ads, visuals support words or vice versa. There are instances, however, where the copy stands alone because it’s so well done that anything more would just get in the way. (This applies to strong visuals as well, but we’re taking our obvious stance as wordsmiths here.) As you’ll see in the following examples, a truly powerful message communicates on its own.

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US vs. Canadian Spelling: Why is There a Difference?

Favorite vs. favourite. Color vs. colour. Neighborhood vs. neighbourhood. We’re speaking the same language. Yet until certain words come up, you wouldn’t know which side of the pond they were written on. Why do these differences exist when we’re all English speakers? As if this elusive language didn’t have enough exceptions and nuances to confuse us.

We’ve discussed some of the differences between common US/Canadian spelling distinctions, but let’s talk about why that’s the case. We’ll end off with which one is ultimately better (you can probably guess what our stance is).

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Rules & Exceptions: Who to Listen to

We’ve made it clear on multiple occasions that the English language is full of rules with little logic and lots of exceptions. Isn’t that a lovely combination?

There are so many experts out there whose opinions on the same delicate grammar and punctuation matters vary. So who do we listen to? Webster and Oxford don’t even spell all their words the same way. They’re both correct, though. Is one more correct than the other? That also depends on who you ask. Oh the joys of grey areas!

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Texting Etiquette for Saying What You Mean

Categories for Writing

Texting Etiquette for Saying What You Mean

How to Write a Speech for Someone Else

Complex to Simple: Communicating with the Masses

Phrases on LinkedIn That Say Absolutely Nothing

How to Write the Perfect Greeting Card

What Makes Good Writing Good?

Misused and Overly Exaggerated Words

Some Kick-Ass Ads in Just a Few Words

US vs. Canadian Spelling: Why is There a Difference?

Rules & Exceptions: Who to Listen to

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