In her excellent
blog on business writing, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston gives her best
tip for writing: only include one idea per sentence.
Is this the worst ad ever for freelance work? How many mistakes can you spot?
July 24th 2008 |
Writing skills
A journalist on the Boston Globe was recently criticised for using non-standard English in an article. According to the critic, the column in which the article appeared qualified as "formal written English" and so shouldn't include non-standard English.
July 17th 2008 |
Writing skills
If you manage to get away for a week or two during the summer, it's a good idea to send your colleagues a postcard. You don't have to write very much, and you can use the same sort of abbreviations you use in emails (missing out subject pronoun, auxiliaries and so on).
June 19th 2008 |
Writing skills
I'm ashamed to say that the following instructions were written by a native speaker of English. How many errors can you spot? (Hint: look for spelling mistakes, and absence of punctuation.)
June 5th 2008 |
Writing skills
Here are some useful ways you can use to ask people to do things for you. Using the modal verbs could, can, will and would will make what you say polite as well as
concise.
How can you ask your bank to transfer funds from one account to another? A visitor to our sister site (www.english-at-home.com) recently asked for help in writing a formal letter.
May 30th 2008 |
Writing skills
We use the word "Cheers!" when we toast each other. For example, in a pub when everyone has their drink, someone will say "Cheers!"
In a recent
survey, 40% of British adults could not spell "questionnaire", 38 per cent "accommodate" and 37 per cent "definitely".
In certain situations (for example when you move offices) you'll need to send the same information to a group of people, such as your customers. When you write customer notices, you should aim to include only the most important information.
April 15th 2008 |
Writing skills
