On Words and Business

Breaking the rules…

alley424 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:33:21 +0000

In business writing, it’s okay to occasionally break the rules. This type of writing usually is supposed to be more formal that other kinds, but that doesn’t mean you can’t mix it up a little bit.

And start a sentence with a conjunction, for example.
Or end with a preposition–the kind your English teacher told you never to end a sentence with.
Or to deliberately split an infinitive.
Or let the passive voice take over for a few sentences.
Or just go crazy. With. Punctuation. And sentence structure!

Within reason, of course. The line not to cross is probably a little farther than you usually go, but not as far as some of those horrible examples we all have in our heads. Have fun with it.

Successive approximation…

alley424 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:16:39 +0000

A very smart man just told me about his belief in successive approximation. He was talking about manufacturing, but the concept holds true for a lot of things, like some aspects of marketing and communications.

You do or create something based on the knowledge you have at the time. It might not be perfect, but that’s okay. Later, you gain more knowledge, so you are able to create something better. It might not be perfect either, but that’s okay.

The point is that you do what you can, you create the content you can, with the knowledge you have at the time. Don’t worry if the idea or concept isn’t perfect (the spelling and grammar should be, though!). You can fix it later if it needs fixing or replace it with something else.

Waves on information…

alley424 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:23:12 +0000

If you’re like me, you sign up for all sorts of RSS feeds and email newsletters. You read them for a while. Then start only skimming them. Then maybe read the headlines or subject line to decide if you even want to skim. Then simply delete when you see the return address in your inbox. Then finally get around to unsubscribing.

Then you start up again with an entirely new set of blogs and newsletters.

If you are like me, there are only a few stalwart sources that don’t end up in that cycle. You may not read ever word of every issue or post, but you continue to find value in them.

What are those writers and publishers doing to keep you engaged?

The content vacuum…

alley424 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:17:11 +0000

Have you ever tried to write content in a vacuum?

Without knowing who your target market is?
Without knowing what other marketing efforts were on deck?
Without coordinating with the PR department?

How’d that go?