Methods of Teaching Business Communication provides unique insights into how to teach your business communication or business writing course more easily and successfully.

Quit your browser, then click this link

After several decades of user-friendly software development, I would have thought that software companies would have mastered the simple art of writing clear instructions. Not Microsoft, though—at least not when they explain how to download and install the
“Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0”.

Read more

Please cover my mouth and nose

Perhaps I am too much of a rational mind, but I must confess
I am frequently confused by what I regard as inconsistent uses
of grammatical person and number in pronouns.

Read more

Notices no one wants to notice

Legal copy never ceases to baffle me. What are those lawyers thinking when writing those texts that no one wants to read? Are they actually kidding themselves to the point of believing that they are communicating anything useful to their audience?

Read more

You call this a “presentation”?

While viewing a LinkedIn ad that encourages users to “embed a presentation” on their profiles, I was struck by the conception of a presentation perpetuated by both the words and the illustration.

Read more

Is this a quiz?

In a page layout, prominence suggests relative importance. Periodically, I am reminded of how not to apply prominence, as I try to save an Excel spreadsheet in so-called CSV format (comma-separated values) and I get this ineffective dialog box.

Read more

Ah, the frustration of effectiveness…

An online review of Trees, maps, and theorems in June 2009 by Tom Johnson serves to illustrate what is in my experience a widespread misconception about the nature of noise.

Read more

Put your signs where I can see them

Just last week, as I was staying at a hotel near Washington, DC, it took me several days to notice a sign placed in the shower. I had to get down on my knees to be able to read what it said.

Read more

Preventing crimes before they happen

“Data help prevent crimes before they happen” said this ad by IBM, which I spotted at O’Hare airport in Chicago. Can you prevent anything after it happens? I didn’t think so.

Read more

A typical business presentation (sigh)

As we were revising a set of financial slides designed for the audit committee of a client, Geneviève and I were struck at once by three shortcomings, so typical of the business communication we get to witness today.

Read more

Are the French twisting your arm?

Every time I look at this sign, found at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, my right shoulder twitches and my right foot wants to tap dance. Why this unconventional, unintuitive graphical choice to represent a human being?

Read more
Page 16 of 17« First...10...1314151617
573