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 [...]
Author Archive: Chris
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 [...]
Excuse Your Typos? No I Won’t, Actually
As our fingers fly across our smartphones, we’ve developed a shorthand way to dash off messages without spending too much time on the finer points of spelling and grammar. “C U later” and “gr8” substitute for actual language when we’re communicating via the small screen. Makes you wonder what the great writers would have done [...]
How to Write a Great Executive Tweet
Like it or not, the 140-character tweet is today’s version of the boardroom speech. Read about execs who have mastered the art of Twitter.
How to Write a Great Blog Post
The trouble with writing blog posts is you need to unlearn some of the skills for creating polished written communication that have taken you years to hone. A sense of casualness, or a bit of an “I just dashed this off on my way to a meeting” mood, is what readers expect from blogs. Posts [...]
Southwest Airlines Blog: Corporate and On-Message, But a Fun Read
If you’ve ever flown Southwest Airlines, you know that their corporate image is about having fun and embracing the inner goofball, while seriously and professionally moving you from point A to B. Witness the singing flight attendants, the gate agents that crack bad jokes, and the former CEO who challenged a competing exec to an [...]
Executive Blogs Need to Mix It Up to Lure Readers
The problem with CEO blogs, said marketing guru Seth Godin several years ago, is that they rarely have the qualities that make for engaging reading: candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, and controversy. “Does this sound like a CEO to you?” Godin asked. Well, no—for the most part, executive blogs are pure vanilla, and at worst, simply [...]
