by Marilynne Rudick | Jan 17, 2011 | Social Media Writing Courses, Writing Matters Blog
When Leslie and I started E-WRITE in 1996 “the e-mail” was a very new tool and Al Gore was inventing the Internet. We knew that e-mail and the web would change how we communicate. But who could have envisioned Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or blogs? I’ve noticed that...
by Marilynne Rudick | Nov 16, 2010 | Writing Matters Blog
I recently came across an article about 115 forbidden words and expressions compiled by Randy Michaels, CEO of the Tribune Co. The company owns the Chicago radio station WGN, and Michaels forbid radio anchors and reporters from using these words. Among forbidden...
by Marilynne Rudick | Sep 29, 2010 | Uncategorized, Writing Matters Blog
In 2010, we averaged 7.2 hours a week—almost a full work day—on e-mail. In 2019, we spent more than three hours per week on work email. Would you like to decrease the time you spend on e-mail and improve the quality? You can, if you follow these five golden rules....
by Marilynne Rudick | Aug 18, 2010 | Writing Matters Blog
As a collector of poorly written e-mails, I thought I’d seen everything: egregious spelling and grammar errors, poor organization, bloated language, and unprofessional tone. So I have to admit that I was shocked by the e-mail my friend “Chris” sent...
by Marilynne Rudick | Jul 11, 2010 | Writing Matters Blog
We recently evaluated the correspondence of a major insurance company and its competitors. Using a benchmarking tool we developed, we rated their e-mails and letters to customers on seven Standards. One Standard that we carefully looked at was tone:...
by Marilynne Rudick | Jul 2, 2010 | Plain Language Writing Courses, Writing Matters Blog
Poor President Obama. Besieged from the right and the left on Afghanistan, Iran, the economy, not to mention the oil disaster in the Gulf. He’s accused of being too cerebral (No drama Obama) and of being too belligerent (“know whose ass to kick”)....
by Marilynne Rudick | Apr 15, 2010 | Writing Matters Blog
When a friend mentioned some too-good-to-believe, low-risk, high-yield annuities that she had purchased, I decided to find a similar deal. I googled “annuities” and turned up 2Insure4Less. I quickly completed a form requesting quotes on annuities. Within minutes, my...
by Marilynne Rudick | Mar 30, 2010 | Writing Matters Blog
The most fun response to my post Proofreading Tips for Finding Errors in Your Own Writing came from fellow writing instructor and consultant Rosemary Camilleri: “Your Mac users may not know it but they have a ‘Speech’ feature built into Mac OX 10.4, 10.5, and...
by Marilynne Rudick | Mar 4, 2010 | Social Media Writing Courses, Writing Matters Blog
Since 2006, pundits have been predicting the death of e-mail. The word on the street is that people–particularly under 30s–have abandoned e-mail for IM, texting, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Jim Lodico, author of the Social Media 2.0 blog,...
by Marilynne Rudick | Feb 11, 2010 | Writing Matters Blog
Chances are, if you are facing a writing deadline, you’ve got a clean refrigerator. That’s because given the choice between writing and cleaning the refrigerator, or writing and root canal, or writing and most anything else, you’ll opt for the non-writing alternative....
