Using Language to Achieve a Leadership Purpose
Using Language to Achieve a Leadership Purpose
Use business language correctly
The languge rules that Matter
The power of punctuation
Additonal punctuation rules
Sexist languge
Employ efficient editing techniques
Editing method
Document
Sentences
Mechanics
Final reminder
Making computer tools working for you
Achieve a positive ethos through tone and style
Do not try to imitate someone else's style
Read what you have written aloud to see how you sound, and if something is particularly sensitive, read it to someone else
Never send something out when you are angry or upset .
Be careful in your use of complex language
Use strong verbs and avoid passive voice
Select a positive over a negative construction when possible
Avoid using too many modifiers or empty words, such as "sort of"
Be careful in the use of qualifierss, such as "in my opinion"
Eliminate fillers, such as "you know"
Be careful with the use of jargon
Communicate in a style that is clear and concise
Avoid the overuse of the passive voice --the actor should usually come first in the sentence
Avoid expetives, such as "there is" or " it is "-- watch for the "it is ... that " construction in particular
Avoid the use of prepositional idioms
Avoide the overuse of relative pronous--"who," "which," and "that"
Avoid the repetition of words and ideas
Do not overuse descriptive words, particularly adverbs
Avoid weasel words, ambiguous noncommittal words
Be aware of jargon (language used in particular disciplines) and other kinds of gobbledygook
Avoid nominalizations(a jargon word used by linguists that means turning verbs into nouns by adding -tion
Avoid redundacies
Making comoputer tools work for you
When you use the computer to perform your idea generation, recognize that what you enter aat this brainstorming stage seldom qualifies as a final version ready for your audience because it will probably lack coherence or clear organization.
Take advantage of features such as word search to look for common redundancies, wordy expressions, unclear references with "this" and "that" or words you may tend to misuse, such as "affect."
Experiment with different formatting to see what makes your document more accessible and readable.
Recognize the limitations of spell checkers, but always run them to catch careless errors; just do not expect the spell checker to find all mistakes.
Also, be wary of style/grammar checkers.
Do the final proofreading from a hard copy, not on the computer screen.