Not long ago some people in our government decided it would be a good idea for government documents to be comprehensible. That is, they wanted the people who write government documents to write in ways that people can understand. They called this Writing in Plain...
Halloween! What a great holiday. Be someone else and eat candy. Being someone else seems to have great appeal, and we all know about the candy. Our Halloween transformation choices are interesting. Who- or what- do you become on this magical day? And- in what ways...
I wish I had a command of the English language such that an abundance of interesting, appropriate words presented themselves for my use. I wish I had enough words in my lexicon to allow me to avoid overuse of the words I do know and...
A career coach, a motivational speaker, and a nutritionist meet, and in talking about their work, they discover that they all give the same core advice to their clients: Know What You Want. Maybe it isn’t surprising, as this seems pretty reasonable advice for any...
A recent question from a person in one of our courses: “Is it okay to apologize or admit error to someone who works for me? My supervisor told me it’s a sign of weakness.” From one of the other course members: “Just say you’re sorry he...
As any self-respecting 5 year old can tell you, questioning is a valuable communication tool. But for many people, the use of this device seems to fall off as we get older. One complication is the perception of the question as an attack. “Have you had lunch?” “Why...