5 things you can learn from a poorly des...

My son has just started middle school, and along with becoming oriented to an unfamiliar school environment, he now has “homework like never before,” and it is not just the amount of homework. His teachers no longer send home printed homework sheets. Students are expected to visit the teachers’ individual websites to download assignments, study guides, and watch lectures. And while going online is not normally a problem for technophile middle schoolers, it becomes a problem when the websites are poorly designed. Visitors come to a website to satisfy goals, to perform...

15 made-up words

Sometimes I like to take a break from being a wordsmith of cryptic corporate speak and read about words and language. Recently, I’ve been reading about made-up words, why they were created, and how they eventually make it into the dictionary. Though I’ll never be able to use any of these words at work, here are some of my favorite fictional words: 1. Adminisphere – The level of management where far-reaching, unworkable, and counterproductive decisions are made. The decision to move from Macs to PCs was made in the adminisphere. 2. Bellignorant – The state of...

Are you burying the lede?

When I was in journalism school we called it “burying the lede.” That is, the failure to mention the most important, interesting,or attention-grabbing elements of a story in the first paragraph. In corporate communications, “burying the lede” refers to the failure to mention the most important or actionable items at the beginning of your message. To use a recent example, let’s say you are writing an email to all employees explaining your company’s flu vaccination policy. The policy states that all employees must receive a flu shot or file a declination form or...

Quiz: Can you identify these first lines...

Most experienced, professional writers, have agonized over opening sentences. After all, opening lines set the tone, establish style, and are often the deciding factor in your reader’s decision to keep reading. No pressure. When I find myself struggling with a writing project, I read fiction to find inspiration. And recently, I’ve found inspiration in reading famous opening lines from the great works of literature. In the spirit of finding that creative spark and broadening our knowledge, I offer the following list of the famous first lines. Can you match these with...

27 tricky homophones

Last weekend, I was browsing in the Cajun food section at the grocery store. Near the shelf with all the mixes was a handwritten sign that said, “You’ll roux the day you don’t use our instant roux mix.” I love clever wordplay, especially when it’s found in unexpected places. This sign was a play on two homophones. Roux is a mixture of flour and fat that is used to make sauces. Rue means to feel regret or remorse. Homophones are words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings and are spelled differently. The English language is littered with...

Do you recognize these 6 types of trolls

Many organizations have a troll problem. Whether they lurk on external websites or intranets, trolls create conflict in online communities by starting arguments and posting inflammatory or off-topic messages, largely aimed at upsetting people. Trolls deliberately stir up drama and try to provoke readers into an emotional response or disrupt normal on-topic discussion. They are modern digital bullies. At my company, where our trolls mostly skulk on the intranet, we’ve discovered that we have a number of various kinds of trolls commenting on our site. They may all have...