No surprise.
Communication, like every business activity, is prey to Murphy's law.
Any message that can go wrong will.
Any message that can go wrong will.
But there's a simple app available that will staunch the flow of red ink.
It's called clarity, and it's friendly and easy to use:
- Turn long sentences into two or three shorter ones.
- Chop big blocks of text into separate paragraphs.
- Use connectors—words like although, but and because—to join ideas together.
- Avoid pronouns—words like it, we, they and this. Use pronouns sparingly and you won't write a sentence like: Advise customers they are guaranteed to work 24/7 when we upgrade our servers.
- Be careful with directions—words like about, before, on and over—and you won't write a sentence like: Before lunch with the client we should hash out next year's price increases.
You can get the full download on clarity from "grammarphobes" Patricia O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman's You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online.