Professional Writing and Editing

You’ve just drafted a reply to a frustrated customer, but something about the tone feels off. You re-read it, trying to sound professional without sounding cold and clear without sounding abrupt. In customer service writing, striking the right…

You’ve likely spent time rewriting a message, unsure if it’s clear enough, or you’ve hit send, only to realize it didn’t have the effect you intended. Unclear writing can lead to confusion or delays, leaving you second-guessing your…

Working remotely has many of us sending off dozens of emails a day to communicate with colleagues, customers and everyone in between. Due to the high volume, it can be easy to hit send in a hurry, forgetting to read through for any mistakes.…

If you edit documents for your employees or co-workers, ensure you are giving the best feedback possible. Here are ways to be a great editor.

Give Specific Feedback

Employees need to know exactly what they have…

Do employees in your organization struggle with using consistent abbreviations, spellings, numbers and capitalization? Maybe you write Internet with a capital I but your co-workers spell it internet. Or you like organize with a Z while others…

In writing, we often provide additional information that is not needed in the sentence for its meaning to be clear to the reader. That additional information is call a non-essential clause.

In this example, if you remove the non-…

Often at the end of a workshop, you’ll be asked to complete an evaluation sheet. These sheets tend to only focus on whether you found the training favorable or engaging. However, if you’re attending a workshop with the intention of learning…

Semicolons might be the most maligned punctuation mark after apostrophes. If you struggle with when and how to use them, it’s helpful to know you are never required to use semicolons. You can keep using periods and move on with your life.

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Do you think much about using transition in your writing? It’s one of many practices that separate good writing from mediocre writing.

Transition words and phrases link your ideas together smoothly and allow readers to make predictions…