How heart-warming to hear a politician underselling his achievements.
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Brutal warnings
“Fragile – handle with care”… Does anyone ever take any notice when that’s printed on the box ? Seems like some manufacturers have realised that language needs to be more hard-hitting…
When money speaks louder than words
Yes, we’re talking about hedge fund websites. They make Google look wordy. I guess it’s a simple way of saying: “If you need to know anything about what we do, then you’re clearly not our sort.” At 41 words, including the phone number, Amiya Capital is exceptionally cool. Whereas IV Capital, sporting 147 words, is […]
The plainest book ever, on arguably the most important subject in human history
David JC MacKay’s ‘Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air‘ has justly won plaudits for being the first objective, level-headed assessment of our energy problem. MacKay is that wonderful and rare combination, an articulate physicist. His opening chapter, entitled ‘numbers not adjectives’ crisply summarises the book’s argument: do the maths, then look for the solution. Don’t […]
Reductio ad absurdum
It’s remarkable how little harrumphing is caused by Twitter. Elder digerati such as Stephen Fry and the excellent John Naughton seem utterly captivated by an app that, on the face of it, allows for the high-speed dissemination of inanity on a global scale. Perhaps it’s at least in part because there is something excellent about […]
Z – ZEN: MINIMALISM IN SENTENCES
The business world is notorious for ignoring one of the best ways to keep writing readable: short sentences. Take this fictional, yet typical, opening sentence of a press release: “Anycompany, a leading developer of best-in-class hardware solutions for business-to-business supply-chain optimisation, today announced a strategic partnership with leading retail systems integration consultancy Anyconsultancy to provide […]
Y – YANKS: UK AND US ENGLISH
There are no writing topics of any substance that begin with the letter ‘Y’. So under the colloquial title of ‘yanks’, let’s discuss the two variants of English most commonly used in business writing. Although many think it so, there is no qualitative difference between American English and British English. There are, however, big differences […]
X – EXACTITUDE
Okay, it doesn’t begin with X. But exactitude, or accuracy, is a crucial aspect of business writing: Spelling mistakes — Although spellcheckers should never be relied on as the sole way of checking documents, their ubiquity means there is really no excuse for basic spelling errors. Despite this, at the time of writing Google produces […]