Writing Craft Archives - Page 4 of 7

Learning how to write with confidence

I've been thinking lately about the process of learning how to write I'm particularly interested in how people learn to write workplace documentsIn workplaces, I frequently encounter a type of 'learned helplesness' - where people don't know how to go about writing, don't feel confident in their writing abilities, and don't feel that they can learn anything useful There's also often a feeling that what they write doesn't actually matter, because supervisors and approvers will change it...

Little mistakes that create confusion

My family got caught up in a little communication confusion during the recent school holidaysWe decided to see a movie -- 'How to train your dragon 2' (what else would boys want to see!) We decided to go to the Palace Barracks Cinema, and use the special offer flyer that the children had collected at schoolThen our little confusion began Here's the front of the flyer:My son thought that the discounted family deal for his movie of choice was only available on 19 June Pretty logical really, when...

Meet reader expectations to reduce mistakes

Here's an example of how my assumptions as a reader led to me getting a message back-to-frontMy family and I went to the Wet n Wild water slide park a few days ago We had been there for several hours before I realised that I was reading the map incorrectly, and this was encouraging me to draw the wrong conclusions about the height restrictions on different rides As my youngest child is only 7, the height restrictions were important for usHere's part of the map:Two strong assumptions guided me...

When written formality is helpful

There are times when communication requires a little formality – not the stuffy, difficult-to-read type of formality that we all try to avoid, but some formal record or statement for customers so that they feel confident that a process has been followed and a transaction is complete Removing the formality of written processes – under the guide of customer-friendliness or plain English – can leave customers feeling confused and powerless My recent experience with an absence of formality...

Holy Days or Holidays?

Sometimes typos are almost delicious - like this sign at a cafe that mixes up 'holy days' and 'holidays''Student night every Monday! (except school holydays)I must confess that I went through a thought process before deciding that 'holydays' is not an intentional pun I'll blame the effects of the lead up to Christmas The real give-away was the text at the bottom, which I couldn't capture in my photo: 'Conditions aply'I guess this is yet another example of someone who knows a word in...

Comma confusion

A few weeks ago, I bought a lovely book about typography: 'Type Matters!' by Jim WilliamsIt's a great sourcebook for information about type design, partly because it builds every point around clear examples The examples are mostly statements about typography, set in different ways so that readers can see the difference that typographic variation can makeThere's one statement in the book that I just can't get my head around, and it's all about the placement of the commaWilliams writes:Typefaces...

Indexes as a navigation tool

I'm always interested in the ways that readers navigate through documents - whether in a print or electronic environment How can we produce documents that are easy for readers to access without getting lost, and without getting frustrated And how can we produce documents that readers can refer back toContents lists and indexes are perhaps the most common navigation tools that function at the whole-document level The quality of the contents list and, in particular, the index, can be...

The extinguished bus … being precise with meaning

In everyday conversation, we're often not very precise with our words Most of the time, people understand our intention and our meaning is conveyed Usually, we don't even notice misplaced meanings because we're focusing on the intention and the overall content, rather than specific words and links within sentencesBut sometimes I hear something that makes me giggle Like a radio news report that I heard this morning The journalist announced:"Firefighters have extinguished a burning bus on...

Agreement in number

I was at the Queensland Museum yesterday, and was struck by the sign outside the cafe:Food and drink is not to be taken into the museumWhen did 'food and drink' become a singular collective To me they're two separate things I want to see 'are' not 'is'Picky, yes, but another demonstration of how agreement in number seems to be becoming less important in our...