The reviews are in for Inferno, the new thriller from The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, and everyone pretty much agrees that it’s a terribly written book, which is nevertheless a page-turner and will make bucketloads of cash. Rest assured that if you borrow ideas from Dan Brown’s writing for your own communications and [...]
Author Archive: Chris
Le “Hashtag” Controversy: Why Legislating Language Doesn’t Work
Pity the poor civil-servant writer in France, who is supposed to follow the dictates of the learned men and women of the Académie Française when it comes to choosing words to describe the Internet and online activities. The Académie is charged with maintaining the purity of the French language, and in recent years, keeping English [...]
Lessons Learned from Obama’s Fundraising Emails
Email marketing campaigns live or die based on their ability to lure recipients into reading beyond the subject line—instead of hitting the delete key. In the wake of the election, President Obama’s digital analytics and email fundraising teams have revealed the tactics they used to convince fatigued campaign supporters not only to open emails, but [...]
Comma Commentary: To Splice or Not to Splice
If you want to set off a heated argument among a bunch of writers, buy them a round of drinks and say, “So, comma placement. What’s the big deal, anyway?” As Ben Yagoda, a professor of English at the University of Delaware, wrote in The New York Times earlier this week, “rules and conventions about [...]
Ideas for Valentine’s Day Procrastinators (or Those Who Otherwise Failed to Impress)
Valentine’s Day has already passed, but if that Whitman’s Sampler or bouquet of red roses didn’t win the affection of your sweetheart, it might be because your gift lacked creativity. (Consider that the aforementioned “gifts” can be purchased at the same place where you gas up your car.) But thanks to the Internet, you can [...]
Painting Pictures with Words
I am a “word” person, as opposed to a “picture” person. I can use words to describe a beautiful thing that I have seen, but in spite of years of effort, I can’t take a decent photo that captures what I can see in my mind’s eye—and forget about sketching or painting. I am the [...]
A Procrastination Tool for Any Communicator: PassiveAggressiveNotes.com
The old adage “Write what you mean” does not apply to the communications featured on this website, one of the author’s favorite online procrastination tools (next to shoe shopping, of course) …
I Frown on Smileys :(
A few years ago, teaching a class on business writing to young PR professionals, I explained that emoticons or “smileys” had no place in emails to clients. Too cute, too casual, too lazy, I lectured. Now, smileys have crept into my own client emails to a somewhat embarrassing degree. I’m caught between the desire to [...]
Kindle, I Love Thee—But Sometimes I Love Thee Not
Before Kindle: A few months ago, I was on an airplane reading my old-timey paperback, while the woman next to me read her Kindle. The flight attendant walked by and asked her to turn off her Kindle, in accordance with the ban on electronic devices during takeoff and landing. I wanted to smugly wave my [...]
Holiday Décor: A Mini Chicago Manual of Style
If a Christmas tree figures into your holiday décor, consider adding a bit of wordsmithing flavor to your ornament collection with a miniature Chicago Manual of Style guide. The creative folks at CMOS have crafted this downloadable teensy guide to adorn your tree (or Festivus pole, as the CMOS editors suggest), complete with miniscule text [...]
