Monday, June 1, 2009

It Makes An A - - Out of You and Me

Too many of the bloggers of the world either think no one is reading their blog or everyone is. If you're journaling for yourself, okay, but if you want to share you thoughts, you need to be clear.

Besides the grammar, spelling and sentence structure mistakes that confuse readers, too many bloggers assume the reader knows what they are talking about. Not so.

When many of us pull up a blog we're lost. There isn't any background or context to give meaning to what's newly written.

Bloggers need to find a few words to explain why the reader should be reading this post, what's new about this information, how does it relate to what's been said before and how/why it matters.

Before hitting the send button, you, the blogger, need to ask yourself if what you've written can stand alone. Would someone who's finding your blog for the first time understand your latest entry? (Hint: if a reader needs to read all entries to understand your latest, you'll likely lose them.)

Yours,
WMW

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Let Me Help You

Beyond my tips, please consider hiring me to help you communicate better through your writing, whether in your workplace or your everyday life. I want to help.

If you don't want to hire me, cool, but keep reading the blog and offer suggestions on what you'd like me to write about.

Yours in Waste Management,
Christia
christia@writeimage.org

Saturday, February 21, 2009

That's It -- Period

I've recently been thinking there really are just two little things that would improve any kind of writing from e-mails to business letters to letters to insurance companies to whatever it is you need to write.

Don't bother with colons and semi colons, stick to periods. And, divide your writing into shorter paragraphs.

Keeping it simple means keeping things more understandable.

Take the first graph above. Here's how it could be better:

I've recently been thinking there really are just two little things that would improve any kind of writing.

They work well whether you're writing e-mails, business letters, letters to insurance companies or whatever it is you need to write.


See what I mean? There's beauty in simplicity.

Yours in waste management, WMW