People read your documents until they can stop. Then they do. But that’s not because we have limited attention spans. The truth is that we can focus for hours as long as something grabs our attention and doesn’t let go. Just ask anyone who’s ever binge-watched a Netflix box set.   Turn off Most work documents do neither. But that’s not just because they tend to cover slightly less scintillating subjects than Squid Game or Breaking Bad. In fact, many manage to turn off their readers even if they are genuinely interested in the content. They might have eagerly anticipated a proposal for wee ..read more

One of the biggest business-writing myths has to be that shorter is always better. ‘Less is more,’ say those who claim to be in the know. Keep it brief and people will thank you. To be fair, this advice comes from a good place. And, like most myths, it does have some basis in truth.   Shorter ≠ better We are all busy. And no-one has time to plough through endless pages of dense, poorly structured, largely irrelevant content. The ‘shorter is better’ mantra seems to have a commendable focus on the reader. And if there’s one thing I’d urge any writer of any business document to do, it’s to s ..read more

Have you ever wondered why you can never seem to get a document written until its deadline is looming? You might have been paralysed by writer’s block for weeks. Yet when you realise it’s due in at 5 o’clock today, you’re miraculously able to get on with it. It’s as if you’ve found a secret superpower. And in a sense, you have. The only trouble is that it often comes with a hefty price tag.   Deadline threat The brain has evolved over millions of years to protect you. The only reason you’re finally writing the report today is it now sees the deadline as a threat to your safety. (I’m assum ..read more

Have you ever written what you thought was a perfectly clear email, only to get a reply ten minutes later that left you scratching your head? Perhaps the person you sent it to emailed back with questions that you thought you’d already answered. Or maybe they got hold of the wrong end of the stick completely. It’s not just you. Sometimes, it can feel like people haven’t read what we’ve written at all. And there’s a good reason for that: they haven’t.   People don’t read… I’ll explain why in a second. But first, try to complete the following sentence: I have a problem with my mouse, becaus ..read more

Have you ever missed an obvious typo and wondered how? Maybe it was even in a title in bold, 24-point type. Or perhaps you overlooked a howler in a PowerPoint deck until you were presenting on Zoom. Don’t worry – it’s not just you. We’ve all done it. In fact, I’m slightly terrified that I’ll make a slip-up myself as I type this. Thankfully, the consequences of these mistakes are often no more severe than the need to mumble an embarrassed apology. But sometimes even tiny typos can have big consequences. Pacific Bell, for instance, once found itself in hot water after getting just one letter wro ..read more

Have you ever noticed how something strange happens whenever we sit down to write a document? In person, we might be able to explain even the most complex of topics in relatable, everyday language. But as soon as we fire up Word, phrases mysteriously appear on our screens that we’d never use face to face. ‘Start’ suddenly becomes ‘initiate’ and ‘stop’ is now ‘terminate’. A place is never ‘near’ somewhere else: it’s ‘in close proximity to’ it.   Paid by the syllable So in a conversation with the boss, we might say that something happened ‘even though we tried to prevent it’. But in our rep ..read more

When most people set out to write something like a report or proposal, they make one fundamental error. They might adapt a similar one that they wrote before or find one that someone else has written and model that. Or they’ll tweak a template – which is probably also based on a report that someone else has written. On the surface, these approaches all make sense. After all, why waste time reinventing the wheel? Surely anything that reduces the effort of writing has to be a good thing? Usually, yes, but not in this case. In fact, reducing effort in this way could mean you end up squandering al ..read more

Once, in pre-Emphasis days, I found myself in a training room full of people whose body language told me that they really did not want to be there. They were the communications team for a nearby company. An old friend, and former colleague, had brought me in to run some writing training. ‘I have to rewrite everything they do,’ my friend had told me. ‘I need you to sort them out.’ And here they were, miserably waiting for me to sort them out. My friend was nowhere to be seen. I asked them why they were unhappy. They told me that my friend micromanaged them – didn’t trust them to do their jobs ..read more

It’s one thing when stress intrudes on your own working day. But when you’re responsible for a team, their stress is your stress too. If you’re overseeing a team where tensions are running high, you know you need to do something. Otherwise, both morale and productivity will soon nose-dive.  So what can you do? Perhaps you’ve already tried limiting meetings, building a wellness plan or increasing time off. And that’s great.  But there is one more key piece to the puzzle – something we do every hour of every day at work. Making changes here can help reduce your team’s stress levels and ..read more

Imagine you’ve got a new grant proposal to write. And it really matters to you. Now, imagine taking your seat in the cinema or curling up in an armchair with a new novel. You may feel these things don’t immediately have much in common. But you’re so much more likely to find yourself pulled into any kind of story if the opening scene is a real powerhouse. At the very least, it has to somehow hook your interest from the beginning.  Remember this when you are sitting down to apply for funding for what you see as a vital, deserving project. It can be tempting to dive straight in with a descri ..read more