goodcopybadcopy

The current financial crisis has been exacerbated by fear. Not fear of losing money, but fear of losing face.

At no point, it seems, were any of those self-declared smartest guys in the room brave enough to admit that they didn’t have a clue how the exotic financial derivatives they were spewing into the world worked.

Perhaps we’d have been spared financial Armageddon had one of them just put a hand up and said: “Actually, guys, can you run those CDO-cubed thingies by me one more time? How is it they make us money again?” (Hint: they don’t.*)

Why am I musing on this? Well, last week, two different clients told me they really appreciated the outsider’s perspective that I provided. It backed up what I’ve long said – that being able to admit you’re not an expert gives you an advantage. (more…)

I open every course I teach by asking participants what they find most difficult about writing. One of the most common things I hear is a lack of confidence when it comes to writing about topics on which the writer isn’t an expert. How can a marketer write knowledgeably about a complex new financial product? Or how can an HR person write clearly and relevantly about a highly specialist role in IT? (more…)

In his “Manage Your Writing” blog, Kenneth W. Davis is urging people to be more conversational this week. It’s good advice, and writing like you speak is a great way to connect with your readers. So here are seven practical tips on how to develop a more conversational writing style. (more…)

Occasionally I come up against resistance when I’m evangelising for plain English on one of the courses I teach. And the most common argument people give for refusing to change goes something like this: “But my boss wants me to use fancy words and jargon – it just sounds more professional and I’ll hold myself back if I don’t play the game.”

I’m not convinced that your boss really does like your bad corporatese, but if you believe this to be the case, perhaps you might like to direct your boss to a certain Warren Buffet. (more…)

In my last post I talked about rhythm – and how it feels to have your prose decimated by an editor who’s deaf to the cadences of your carefully crafted prose. There are many ways to put a little rhythm in your words – here I present five things you can do today. (more…)

I spotted this in Pseuds Corner in the latest issue of Private Eye (asterisks inserted for those of a sensitive disposition):

And worst of all. Dumbest, deafest, s****est of all, you have removed the unstressed “a” so that the stress that should have fallen on “nosh” is lost, and my piece ends on an unstressed syllable. When you’re winding up a piece of prose, metre is crucial. Can’t you hear? Can’t you hear that it is wrong? It’s not f***ing rocket science. It’s f***ing pre-GCSE scansion. I have written 350 restaurant reviews for The Times and I have never ended on an unstressed syllable. F***, f***, f***, f***.

Times restaurant critic GILES COREN rebukes his sub-editors, quoted in the Guardian. (more…)