Pretty much everything has changed since the 1980s, right? And the style of business writing is no exception. So it’s really strange that some people still insist on writing the way they did in those days. Business writing then was very formal, often very wordy and generally not that easy to read. Now, professional writers … Read more
No matter what your readers did, when writing at work we always need to respect them and we need to word a difficult topic carefully. If you forgot to pay your council rates and received a letter saying things like “an irreversible detrimental notation will be recorded against each property owner/s Australian credit rating record” … Read more
During the last few years our efforts to teach as many people as possible how to write faster and better have paid off. Learning how to write well for today’s business world has become rather trendy as organisations (and individuals) realise how good it is for business to write clearly and quickly. Most organisations have … Read more
Our clients often ask for useful resources about plain English writing. Here are three of our favourites: The “home-grown” (meaning Australian) Plain English Foundation com The UK based Plain English Campaign co.uk The book by Martin Cutts (Director at Plain Language Commission – UK): The Oxford Guide to Plain English
There is a lot of confusion about the different versions of Microsoft Office. The most common software related question clients ask us is “what is Office 365”. Signing up for Office 365 software gives you on-line access to the Microsoft Office applications you are familiar with and have learned to love or hate (Word, Excel, … Read more
Struggling to find time, a small legal practice had almost given up on staff training. It was simply not possible to be without their support staff for a day or two, even though the support staff really needed up-skilling. The solution was a series of short lunch time training sessions in Word, Outlook, Excel and … Read more
A top global energy company trying to complete very complex and highly confidential submission documents struggled with the final formatting of these documents. The submission was a critical step in getting a multi-billion dollar project off the ground. We supported the authors (senior engineers) via email, over the phone and in their office over a … Read more
A large Western Australian resource company asked us to review their document templates. Their templates reflected the branding, but were difficult to use and to maintain. We gave detailed feedback on how to improve their templates – and a quote for the suggested changes, which they approved straight away. Once they had implemented the new … Read more
Working with some of Australia’s most creative and successful brand designers we have transformed many outstanding designs into ‘workable’ templates for documents, presentations or spreadsheets. Businesses put a lot of effort and resources into brand development and design, but translating this brand into everyday documents is often not that easy. Well executed templates that make … Read more
Like many writers, business analysts at a large international resource company put extra effort into writing for their executive board in Europe – and ended up with long, complex and hard to understand documents their CEO refused to read. Our short intensive workshops, in the classroom or via video conference, truly transformed their writing style. … Read more