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Marilynne Rudick
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E-Mail's Five Golden Rules
We now average 7.2 hours a week—almost a full work day—on e-mail. Would you like to decrease the time you spend on e-mail and improve the quality? You could, if everyone followed these five golden rules. Just think what you... Continue reading
Posted Sep 29, 2010 at Writing Matters
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Sentence Openers sounds intriguing. Great title! And it looks like a unique approach to writing. Would you like to send us a review copy?
Good luck with the book!
Commented Aug 19, 2010 on Lessons From the Insurance Industry: You Don't Need a Gecko to Set the Right Tone at Writing Matters
Lessons From the Insurance Industry: You Don't Need a Gecko to Set the Right Tone
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: "Correspondence is written in a personal, pro...
David,
You are right. This e-mail conveys a powerful message!
Not only has the offensive accountant missed the memo about it not being 1956, he also missed the memos and our posts about writing professional e-mail. Just when we think our job is done, along comes someone like this accountant to prove that we will always have work!
I don't know the politics of the office where Chris works. But as you know, often it's the whistleblower who is fired. So Chris took the time-honored route of leaking the e-mail to the press.
Commented Aug 19, 2010 on The Award for Worst Tone in a Business E-mail Goes to. . . at Writing Matters
The Award for Worst Tone in a Business E-mail Goes to. . .
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 me quoting e-mails that an accountant in her fi...
Does Passive Voice Mean a Passive President?
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... Continue reading
Posted Aug 11, 2010 at Writing Matters
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I agree with you about how cool the Mac is. And I know what you mean by wearing black when you use it. It is so sleek and beautifully designed that I feel a compulsion to clean my office so that it is as uncluttered as the Mac. (But I manage to resist the compulsion to clean!)
Commented Apr 2, 2010 on Brutal Proofreading: Your Errors Read Aloud at Writing Matters
Brutal Proofreading: Your Errors Read Aloud
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 following. It's called Text to Speech...
Perhaps Apple will upgrade the application so that you could choose to have Alec Baldwin--not Alex-- read your prose, or better yet, James Earl Jones. But the upside of Alex's boring drone is that it forces you to focus on the mechanics and not be seduced by the melody of your writing.
I admit, I had to go to Wikipedia to find out about Vogons--fictional alien race in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-- and, according to Wikipedia, writers of "the third worst poetry in the universe."
I'm now curious about the first and second worst writers of poetry. Stiff competition for Alex!
--Marilynne
Commented Apr 1, 2010 on Brutal Proofreading: Your Errors Read Aloud at Writing Matters
Brutal Proofreading: Your Errors Read Aloud
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 following. It's called Text to Speech...
I am glad to hear from a long-time, satisfied BlueHost customer who confirms my positive first impressions. It is good to know that as the company grew, it was still able to maintain--even improve--its customer service. I'm hoping to become a long-time satisfied customer, too.
Commented Mar 17, 2010 on BlueHost: Great Customer Service Starts on the Home Page at Writing Matters
BlueHost: Great Customer Service Starts on the Home Page
Mention customer service to almost anyone, and you’ll get a litany of complaints that include interminable wait times for phone support as well as incorrect or unsatisfactory responses to phone and e-mail queries. That’s why I’m singing the praises of BlueHost, the company I chose to host a new ...
Thanks. And that reminds me to take WriteRoom and Q10 out for a spin!
Commented Mar 16, 2010 on Tips to Help You Write When You'd Rather Not at Writing Matters
Tips to Help You Write When You'd Rather Not
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. And there are dozens of way...
Many thanks to Douglas Baumwall for contributing this comprehensive e-mail checklist:
32 most important email etiquette tips
http://www.emailreplies.com/
Commented Mar 16, 2010 on How the Humble Checklist Helps You Get E-Mail Right at Writing Matters
How the Humble Checklist Helps You Get E-Mail Right
I'm a devout list maker. I have shopping lists, to-do lists, vacation packing lists, work project lists, and lists of my lists (not yet!). I've always been a little apologetic about relying so heavily on lists. That is, until I heard Atul Gawande, a surgeon, making the rounds of talks shows (inc...
Thanks for the reminder that email was the first social media tool, and it's not an either/or question.
Commented Mar 16, 2010 on Is E-Mail Dead? Not So Fast! at Writing Matters
Is E-Mail Dead? Not So Fast!
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, summarizes the reasons most often given ...
I was having trouble with the edit commands. Some didn't work (copy, cut) and then the edit tool bar did not work.
Commented Dec 9, 2009 on Tell us why you are switching back at Switching Back
Tell us why you are switching back
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