Three ways to get more humor into your writing “I learned quickly that when I made others laugh, they liked me. This lesson I will never forget.” — Art Buchwald, American humorist and Washington Post columnist Humor gets attention, makes a message go down easier and helps people understand information faster and remember it longer. It even makes you sexier. What are … [Read more...] about Make ’em laugh
Archives for September 2010
Hit your number
Why write a thesis when what you need is a tweet? As a reality TV superfan, I’ve learned a lot about writing from “Project Runway” episodes. For one thing, time management counts. The most talented designers sometimes trip over deadlines: If your model walks down the runway in a bra and a button, you’re going home no matter how brilliant your sketch looked. The same … [Read more...] about Hit your number
Portion control
Let audience members target themselves I once worked with an education advocacy group that blanketed all of its audience members with the same communications. Teachers got the same information as students. Community members got the same messages as administrators. The mother of Billy the third-grader got the same level of detail as Washingtonian policy wonks. The … [Read more...] about Portion control
Driven to distraction
The Web makes it hard to … um … concentrate online Most Americans spend at least 8.5 hours a day looking at a screen, whether a TV set, computer monitor or mobile device, according to a study by Ball State University (PDF). Frequently, we use two or three of these devices at once. That multitasking costs. According to a study by Stanford University, heavy … [Read more...] about Driven to distraction
Make the grade
Get a report card on your writing Too often, the job of producing communications leaves little time for considering what you’re doing well and what opportunities you have for improvement. Our writing report card can help. Send us a sample of your work, and we’ll send you a report card on its strengths and weaknesses, plus more than two dozen metrics for improvement. Your … [Read more...] about Make the grade