On a typical day, most customers will understand what you mean even if you use less-than-graceful words when you speak or write. For example, lots of customers dislike the phrase “No problem!” but they’ll look past it if you’re providing great service. They’ll give...
Plain Language Writing Courses
How to Write Automated Texts That Sound Human, Not Robotic
By Leslie O’Flahavan, E-WRITE and Rich Weborg, OneReach If your customers have opted-in to receive texts from your company, they probably realize that some of your texts are going to be automated. They understand that sometimes texts from your company were sent by an...
How to Write an “I’m leaving my job” Email That Won’t Burn Bridges
This piece was originally published as part of the “Tough Talk” article series by Relate, where I’m honored to be a guest author. You’ve had the heart-to-heart with your boss about why it’s time for you to move on. You’ve given HR your two weeks notice. You’ve...
How to Write a Condolence for a Coworker
This piece was originally published as part of the "Tough Talk" article series by Relate, where I'm honored to be a guest author. My colleague, Frank, seemed distracted. He was taking days to respond to emails and ignoring voicemails altogether. Then I received this...
E-WRITE’s Eight-Course Writing Curriculum Helped a Government Agency Write Right
Over the last six months I’ve been involved in a dream-come-true project. For the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), I developed a full writing curriculum—a set of eight different writing courses—and taught each of the courses at least twice. This project...
Cleaning up our language: A never-ending campaign
This guest post is by Elaine Blackman, Writer/Editor for the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Department of Health and Human Services. Cleaning up our language: A never-ending campaign Only a few generations ago, many causes and movements set out to clean up the...
If I told you to containerize your branches, would you know what to do?
After the destructive derecho storms our region experienced last week, the streets were a mess of downed branches, wrenched limbs, uprooted trunks, and scattered leaves. And residents were eager to jump into clean up activities. But lots of us were wondering what to...
Your Honor, could you repeat that … in plain language?
A plain language colleague recently shared this tale about jury duty. (He's given me permission to use it.) Here's the story, in his own words: "If you are called to serve as a grand juror in the District of Columbia, as I have been, you are sworn in using the...
Nov 1 – Plain Language Writing Workshop: Six Strategies For Clearing The Clutter From Your Writing
Need to get up to speed on plain language? Interested in improving your own writing skills and learning how to improve the documents you edit for others? Enroll in this practical, hands-on, half-day workshop and gain strategies for writing in plain language. Learn how...
September 11th e-mails: Written to calm or to scare?
On September 11, 2001, I was teaching a Writing for the Web course for staff in the Arlington County, VA government. Among the class members were six fire department employees. Just after 9:30, when I was discussing the course objectives and reviewing the agenda, the...
