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Posted by: Rob Ashton
10 / 12 / 24
Disappointingly, the good people at the Oxford English Dictionary have chosen not to name Documentese as their 2024 Word of the Year. But as their pick was brain rot, I’m calling that a close second. After all, one definitely leads to the other (or to whatever the corporate equivalent is). In the last 12 months, […]
03 / 12 / 24
There’s one critical problem with most articles and videos on ChatGPT. And it’s glaringly obvious to anyone who works in a sizeable organisation. Not that there’s any shortage of professionals who are now leaning on AI to make writing easier. As each month goes by, more and more people on our training courses are telling […]
27 / 11 / 24
I faced a slightly awkward moment in a meeting recently. Some consultants were presenting their ideas to me, but I stopped them five seconds into their first slide. It was incredibly complex, and I really wanted to understand it. The trouble was that my mind kept being drawn to the separate, verbal commentary their leader […]
12 / 11 / 24
A colleague had a bizarre experience recently. While browsing the website of a well-known electrical-goods company, she idly clicked the Get Help button. But instead of taking her to an FAQ page or opening a live chat as she’d expected, to her horror, the button started a live video call. Suddenly, she found herself facing […]
11 / 11 / 24
Some rules are made to be broken – even ones that I laid down just a few weeks ago. You know how I said recently that it’s usually best to put your main points first? Well, there are some times when that’s not such a good idea. Obviously it’s still true that few of us […]
05 / 11 / 24
How much do big words and flowery phrases really impress our peers? A lot less than many people think, it seems. I’ve talked before about the strange, alternative language that we adopt whenever we sit down to write a document. I call this language Documentese, and it’s full of long or complex words and phrases […]
23 / 10 / 24
Have you ever wondered why you can never seem to get a document written until its deadline is looming? You might have been paralysed by writer’s block for weeks. Yet when you realise it’s due in at 5 o’clock today, you’re miraculously able to get on with it. It’s as if you’ve found a secret […]
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