Ever read an annual report from Warren Buffet. Try it. Easy, isn’t it? Few successful business-people write so clearly. There is no pretension, no haughty references to obscure allusions and no strange acronyms. It’s all there in black and white. Here’s what Buffet had to say about other business writers, though, “For more than forty [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Style Guide'
Warren Buffet and the Benefits of Plain English Writing Techniques
July 12th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Plans
Double Your Words and Double Your Salary
June 28th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Writing
Do you make money from writing? I mean any type of writing? Business writing, proposal writing, technical writing? If you do, you probably get paid by output. The more you produce, the more you earn, right? If you do, here are some ways I write more words per day. My aim isn’t to win the Nobel prize for literature. I make money writing words. That’s it. I type all day long. The more I type, the more money I make. Real simple.
10 Incredible Adobe PDF Hacks
May 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Productivity
If you use Adobe PDFs to create technical guides, confidential reports and other business documents, then these ten PDF tips are for you. The web has many free PDF converters out there. That’s fine. But Adobe Distiller has some advanced features if you want more control of your documents, for example, increase download speed, password [...]
Tags:Adobe·Distiller·Documentation Plan·Font·PDF·Style Guide·technical writer
Detox your Technical Documents; put your Words on a Diet
October 24th, 2009 · Comments Off · Technical Writing
Goethe once wrote to a friend, “If I had more time, I’d have sent you a shorter letter.” Here’s why.
Tags:Cliches. Jargon·Grammar·guidelines·Style Guide·Technical Documents·Technical Editing
Style Rules for Job Position Names and Titles in Policies & Procedures
October 24th, 2009 · Comments Off · Technical Writing
Have you struggled with job position names and titles in your policies and procedures (P&P) content? Here are several style rules to follow. Read article.
BBC Style Guide Now Available for Download
October 4th, 2009 · Comments Off · Technical Writing
I have three style guides in the office and have now added this from the BBC. The BBC Style Guide represents some of John Allen’s extraordinary wisdom surrounding the use of English in written and spoken communications.
Tags:BBC·download·Style Guide
How To Mind Your Grammar On The Web
October 3rd, 2009 · Comments Off · Technical Writing
Ben Parr (Mashable) asks: “Say your project manager comes to you with his proposal that will be going out to investors, business partners, and potential clients. Then you find that your manager has used “4” instead of “four”, “r” instead of “are”, and abbreviations such as lol, atm, and idk. How would you react? “
Tags:Arts·Business·Business Writing·Facebook·Grammar·guidelines·Jargon·Mashable·Social network·Style Guide·Technical·Technical Writing·TLA·Twitter·writing
How to Improve your Style Guide
June 22nd, 2009 · Comments Off · How To
How to Improve your Style Guide. PerfectIt does not require any kind of configuration. Once you install it, you can use it straight away to find mistakes in any MS Word document. This article is for users who want to get even more out of PerfectIt by fine-tuning it to search for particular errors or to enforce a style guide.
Tags:Camtasia·checklist·download·flash·Flickr·form·Jing·MPEG-4·Screenshots·Snagit·Style Guide·Technical Writing·Techsmith·template·Vimeo·writing·YouTube
Writing a Style Guide: What you need to know
June 12th, 2009 · Comments Off · How To
In publishing and media companies, use of a style guide is the norm. However, style guides can also be useful for any organization that prepares documents for clients and the public. This article is for organizations outside of the publishing industry who can benefit from the introduction of a style guide.
Tags:Grammar·Help·Style Guide·Tips·writing
The Chicago Manual of Style Online Just Got Better!
June 12th, 2009 · Comments Off · Technical Writing
What’s the best style guide to use? I use Microsoft’s technical publications guide for my technical documents but have started to use The Chicago Manual of Style online. It’s been a while since I visited the site and there has been some very nice features added. Like the site says: Welcome to The Chicago Manual of Style Online—the indispensable online reference for all who work with words. For professional writers, book-mark this!
The Global English style guide: a review
November 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Tips
Mike Unwalla reviews John Kohl’s The Global English Style Guide over on TechScribe. Many people who do not speak English as a first language struggle to understand English texts. Human translation is expensive. Machine translation (MT) frequently does not work. Global English offers a solution to these three related problems.
How to Choose The Right Style Guide: Dos and Donts
January 15th, 2006 · Comments Off · Technical Writing
I’m setting up a Publications Dept. for a Financial Services company. What is the best style guide to encourage the staff to use? Ivan – The benefit of adopting a style guide is that it puts guidelines in place to ensure consistency across all documents that go out the door. Style guides don’t make poor writers better, but they certainly are a step in the right direction!
Tags:Documents·Format·Grammar·guidelines·interview·MS Word·Productivity·Sample·Style Guide·Styles·Table of Contents·Technical·Writers
What guidelines can you offer when interviewing writers?
January 15th, 2006 · Comments Off · Technical Writing, Tips
What guidelines can you offer when interviewing writers? Ivan – I’ve worked on both sides on the fence in the past, (i.e. interviewed and been interviewed) and picked up a few things in the process. Hopefully, these will be of some help. How much time should be allotted to complete the test? I’d suggest one [...]
Tags:Format·Grammar·guidelines·interview·MS Word·Productivity·Sample·Style Guide·Styles·Table of Contents
