Is your writing less clear and sharp as you’d like?

Are there grammatical questions that keep popping up?

Are your emails rambling?

Do you dread workplace disagreements?

Is speaking in public a nightmare?

Do people have trouble understanding what you mean?

_____________________________________________

A communication skills tune-up can help.  Many communication problems can be quickly solved with the help of a coach, and a few guided exercises.

Think of it as a visit to the gym for your communication. An easy lift!

Call us to reserve your spot at the gym.  Your coach is waiting

Contact us at 202-298-7700 to learn how a communication skill tune-up can help.

The post Summer Tune-Up appeared first on Language at Work.

People can’t pop in and out of offices or catch up in the halls or chat over coffee, but communication needs to continue, so email now takes center stage, and folks are realizing what we picky communication people have been saying for years:  Email is important!

By which I mean, the quality of email writing is now getting attention.  People have noticed that email is NOT just ‘talking written down’.  Email is writing.  Those who receive the email message aren’t listening to it – they’re reading it, and they don’t have the cues to meaning that they get in an oral communication interaction. They don’t see the facial expressions or body language that modify words, and they don’t hear the tone of voice that contributes to meaning.  They have only words, and often too many of them.  Readers of emails now recognize the frustration of trying to decipher meaning in a tangle of run-on sentences, repetition, casual grammar, creative spelling.  The terms ‘clarity and brevity’ are being more closely considered.

Is it time for your folks to be reminded that the quality of their writing says a lot about them and about your organization?  After all, in these days of working alone, email is important!

Let us help.  Our virtual training sessions are clear and brief and get results.  Contact us for more information today.

The post Lessons From Working From Home appeared first on Language at Work.

“When school starts I feel behind already – there’s going to be so much to learn.”

A student who sees a blessing:

“I can’t wait to get back and start learning new things- and catching up on stuff I’ve forgotten.”

Whether entering 1^st grade or 40-somethingth grade, September brings similar thoughts: starting something new, learning new skills, getting better at something, reviewing things we’ve let slide into habit – another chance!

If your group brightens at thoughts of sharpened pencils, lucky you.  Bring on the training!

If your group has a September slump, maybe this is a time to help them sharpen some skills along with those pencils.  Do communication deficiencies hold them back?  Do conflicts send them hiding under the desks?  Do they avoid writing? Speaking?  Remember how easy it was for skills to slide over the summer?  Now can be the time to get them back!

Fall courses to get everyone back in action:

• Speaking with Power
• Listening can Change Your Life –NEW
• Write your Way to Success – NEW

Who can resist?

For more information about our courses, please see: ..//courses/ and/or call us at 202-298-7700.

The post Back to School:  Blues or Blessing? appeared first on Language at Work.

But, no.  Voices continue to be raised about messages that are incomplete, incomprehensible, rude, or appear to have been written by a hamster.

When faced with criticism, many email writers defend their messages by saying that email is informal and is essentially just ‘speaking – on the computer.’

I ask how the recipients ingest the message.  Do they listen to it, as we do when someone speaks?  “No,” say these folks, who act as though I’m a first grader, “They read it, of course.”

I rest my case.

If we produce something for someone to read, we need to produce something that approximates the accepted standards for writing.  Readers expect to understand what they read.  They look for clues such as sentence structure, punctuation, and correct-enough grammar.  And they don’t want to be confused about the sub-text.  (Is she mad at me?  Did I miss something?) And since they can’t speak up, they assume that whatever they asked is going to be answered, and that whatever is being told to them is going to contain all necessary information.

I think we’ve been hearing these concerns since email first entered our lives.  High maintenance, these email readers

——————————————–

We have an email writing class – do you have anyone who should attend?

The post More About Email appeared first on Language at Work.

Noma has a new boss.

Noma is worried that the new boss doesn’t like her, or that she has done something to annoy her.  She had a good relationship with her previous boss, and she’d like to feel comfortable with the new one.

Each of these supervisors communicated with Noma primarily by email.  Here’s an example of their messages:

Previous boss:

“Noma, we need to get the quarterlies to finance a little early this week- I hope that won’t stretch you too much.  Let me know if you can send them up by Thursday afternoon.”

New boss:

“Noma, you need to send the quarterlies to finance by Thursday afternoon this week. Thank you.”

Noma mentioned her concern to a colleague, who observed that people have different styles of communicating; that email can be notoriously guilty of projecting an unintended harsh tone; and that the new boss may be too busy to include chit-chat or softening in her work messages.

Noma accepts this information, and she also knows that she could be less sensitive, and that she could build a relationship with her new boss by speaking with her in person whenever possible.  But her unease continues.

How important is this?  If you’re Noma, it’s important enough that she may carry her uneasy feelings about the new boss into her work.  If you’re the new boss, it’s important if she begins to sense resistance from Noma, and thinks of her as a potential problem.

Lesson to all:  Be careful out there with those emails!  No-one can hear that upbeat, collegial tone of your voice- they just see the stark, unyielding words.  Choose them carefully!

Check out Spotlight on our Good Stuff page, and hear what Jane has to say about terse emails.

=========================================

Need some ideas for a refresher class?  Check our Writing Skills courses.

We are offering our Quick Guide to Managing Difficult Communication Situations to  our blog subscribers.  If you’d like to receive the Quick Guide, just send us an email at: contactus@languageatwork.com

The post The Tyranny of the Email Tone appeared first on Language at Work.

Noma has a new boss.

Noma is worried that the new boss doesn’t like her, or that she has done something to annoy her.  She had a good relationship with her previous boss, and she’d like to feel comfortable with the new one.

Each of these supervisors communicated with Noma primarily by email.  Here’s an example of their messages:

Previous boss:

“Noma, we need to get the quarterlies to finance a little early this week- I hope that won’t stretch you too much.  Let me know if you can send them up by Thursday afternoon.”

New boss:

“Noma, you need to send the quarterlies to finance by Thursday afternoon this week. Thank you.”

Noma mentioned her concern to a colleague, who observed that people have different styles of communicating; that email can be notoriously guilty of projecting an unintended harsh tone; and that the new boss may be too busy to include chit-chat or softening in her work messages.

Noma accepts this information, and she also knows that she could be less sensitive, and that she could build a relationship with her new boss by speaking with her in person whenever possible.  But her unease continues.

How important is this?  If you’re Noma, it’s important enough that she may carry her uneasy feelings about the new boss into her work.  If you’re the new boss, it’s important if she begins to sense resistance from Noma, and thinks of her as a potential problem.

Lesson to all:  Be careful out there with those emails!  No-one can hear that upbeat, collegial tone of your voice- they just see the stark, unyielding words.  Choose them carefully!

Check out Spotlight on our Good Stuff page, and hear what Jane has to say about terse emails.

=========================================

Need some ideas for a refresher class?  Check our Writing Skills courses.

We are offering our Quick Guide to Managing Difficult Communication Situations to  our blog subscribers.  If you’d like to receive the Quick Guide, just send us an email at: contactus@languageatwork.com

The post The Tyranny of the Email Tone appeared first on Language at Work.

What is this threat to business success?

Bad writing.

An informal study of people who have noticed writing errors in documents produced by companies with which they do business has yielded some of the following reactions:

– People in that company are stupid.

– They don’t pay attention to details.

– They aren’t careful in what they do.

– Whoever is managing that company isn’t doing a very good job.

And the worst:

• I think I’ll deal with someone else.

Writing is something we all do at one time or another in our jobs.  Most of us learned writing basics in early elementary school, and many people added some sophistication and depth to their skills in high school.  But some people didn’t have the gift of writing instruction, and others have forgotten much of what they learned, and still others don’t believe that it matters much how they write.

So many ways to demonstrate a lack of command of the language: grammatical goofs, weird sentence structure, non-sentences disguised as sentences, meaningless modifiers, made-up spelling.  It seems endless.  And perhaps it seems heartless to judge a perfectly good operation by the errors of a few, but there you are.

Naturally, we at Language at Work would like to help.  Shall we talk about writing coaching for the shy and busy, or classes for everyone else?   Give us a call at:  202-298-7700

Improve your writing with these training classes:

Better Business Writing

Plain Language Writing

Editing and Proofreading

Persuasive Writing

Grammar Gremlins

The post Writing: Is it Sabotaging your Business? appeared first on Language at Work.

“I look for someone who is…..hard-working in their prose.  By that I mean they take the time to choose words that surprise me; they use metaphors that I’ve never heard before; and they avoid clichés.  I don’t want to read anything – not even a clause – that I’ve seen before.  It’s just a waste of everyone’s time.”

How wonderful, I thought, to see that someone else wishes for original and possibly even creative language use.

I expect he wouldn’t want to see “a host of problems,” or “her actions spoke volumes about her intentions,” or “he padded across the room,” or “he had a shock of hair across his forehead.”

Even if the writer’s choice is between using these tired phrases and plain language, I would rather see plain language.  It suggests that the writer is making her own choices about which words to use, even if in any given phrase she hasn’t come up with something lovely.  I feel optimistic that in a few paragraphs she’ll hit on some interesting phraseology.  And if not – at least I’m reading that writer and not the many, many writers who used those words before her.

Does this concept apply to the often tedious writing of the workplace?  Does it apply to speaking?  Try this:  listen to yourself and others and see if you hear tired language that could be livened up.  Read the documents that pile up on your desk or computer and see if there is anything to be done about the weary words you will probably encounter.

And:  would you take a course in language use?  Maybe there’s an audience for ‘Watch Your Language’.  What do you think?  I wonder what Sebastian would think of that.

The post Watch Your Language appeared first on Language at Work.

“I want to email my boss and tell her that I can’t come in tomorrow – what’s wrong with that?” from Endora.

Ronan has secured a coveted interview for his friend. “I can’t wait for him to get my email about this!” he says.

There are many reasons to choose email over actual human contact but not all of those reasons are good ones. What’s going on in these situations:

– Vonda wants to avoid her colleague’s irritation. Or, more accurately, she wants to avoid being present when her colleague shows her irritation. An understandable desire, but sending bad news in this impersonal way suggests that Vonda doesn’t consider the situation important enough to risk feeling uncomfortable. In person, she could show her concern and maybe establish a comfortable agreement going forward.

– Endorra may ascribe to the view that it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission. Talking to the boss in person may lead to conversations that Endorra doesn’t want to have. Unless she knows that her boss is comfortable with this level of email communication, she might not want avoidance to become part of her relationship with a supervisor.

– Ronan just wants to do a nice thing for his friend, and this email will be welcome. But Ronan is depriving himself of one of the joys of friendship: sharing in good news. Why not deliver this message in person and have some happy dancing together?

Many emails are sent with bad news, questionable news, vague requests, and cheerful announcements with no negative consequences. But some would benefit from a little forethought. Before you hide behind an email, check to see what you’re avoiding. You may save yourself some trouble – or gain some fun – in the long run

The post Hiding Behind Email appeared first on Language at Work.

There are those who say that if the reader understands the message, so what if there are errors within.

Others, like Edgar, feel that messages with errors can be more difficult to read and understand. Grammar rules are like directional signals, telling the reader what is intended.

Grammar refers to many rules of standard English. Dangling modifers are among the most common. Edgar says he won’t order treats from the company who wrote this confusing message:

“As the owner of Pet Heaven, your dog can be assured of satisfaction.”

Does the company think that Edgar is the owner?

Misplaced commas are another source of confusion. Edgar is slightly alarmed by this advertisement for a new dog food:

“Owners will say, ‘Come and eat Fido!’ “

Even when the message is fairly clear, readers who understand and revere the rules of grammar notice when mistakes are made. Edgar feels that this lack of attention to detail and correctness could carry over to other areas of operation in the business.

So, to celebrate Grammar Day, Edgar would like to invite those who dismiss the importance of grammar to ask their readers how they feel.

“Its/it’s your/you’re decision to find out they’re/their/there opinion about whether or not grammar affects/effects their business and if it complements/compliments they’re/their/there work.

Edgar also suggests asking Language at Work for help. Grammar Therapy is as close as a phone call (202-298-7700).

The post Edgar’s Bone of Conention appeared first on Language at Work.