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Advice and tips
Posted by: Cathy Dann
14 / 08 / 12
This is one of the trickiest homophones to remember, partly because the spellings are only one letter apart, and partly because there is no good reason for the difference (both stem from the Latin complere, meaning ‘to fill up’). Sadly, ours is not to reason why, but simply to learn the difference: to complement is […]
Posted by: Catie Holdridge
26 / 07 / 12
Nelson Mandela once said, ‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.’ Business letter writers may not have been his target demographic when he said it, but – if that’s your job – you […]
19 / 07 / 12
If you mix up your words, it can affect a reader’s opinion of you – and that, in turn, can have a detrimental effect on your business. So here’s how to get affect and effect straight. Almost always, the following will apply: effect is a noun and means ‘a result or a consequence’ or the […]
Adverbs convey information about how things happen, as well as when, where and to what extent. As the name suggests, they modify verbs – but they can also modify adjectives, other adverbs and whole sentences, writes Cathy Relf. For example, in the sentence ‘I need to see you urgently,’ the adverb urgently tells us about […]
Posted by: Tom Wilde
20 / 06 / 12
When inviting a bid, clients sometimes ask you to include mini biographies, also known as pen portraits, of the potential team. Here, we show you how to treat this as an opportunity to sell your company. Focusing on the client’s needs and objectives is just as important in this section as it is in every […]
Posted by: Jacob Funnell
At Emphasis, we’re always highlighting the importance of keeping your reader at the front of your mind. In the past, that reader would always be human. Today, there’s a second audience to play to – and it’s just as important. Search engines such as Google and Bing crawl the web, weighing up your words and […]
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