2024-01-24 Don’t try to be too formal in policy writing Don’t emulate legal language when writing policies for your community. The simpler the language, the easier everyone will understand. Categories Posts
2023-06-14 Managing the attention budget Contributors donate their precious time to your project. Make good use of it by managing the attention you require. Categories Posts
2023-05-24 Just because you write it, that doesn’t mean they’ll read it You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. What happens if you write all of those wonderful words and they don’t get read? Categories Posts
2023-05-12 Use your tools, but write like you We live in a time when we’re awash in tools (often free) that aid writing. You miss out when you don’t take advantage of these tools. Categories Posts
2023-04-05 Footnotes and asides are a warning Overuse of footnotes, commas, em dashes, and parentheses suggest your writing may be unclear. Keeping sentences focused helps your reader. Categories Posts
2023-03-22 Words mean things Choose your words carefully. You want people to discuss the facts, not the wording. Categories Posts
2023-03-01 Be clear about who does what If you’re not clear about who is supposed to act, people will assume that it’s not them. Be clear so everyone knows what to expect. Categories Resources
2023-02-15 It’s better to be clear than correct Your prose is not code; it will not fail because you forgot a semicolon. Prefer being understood to strict adherence to grammatical rules. Categories Resources
2023-02-01 AIANYF: Acronyms & Initialisms Are Not Your Friends Acronyms can be confusing when they’re unfamiliar to your reader. Err on the side of explaining, even if you don’t think you need to. Categories Resources
2023-01-18 Stop writing like an engineer Put the important part at the beginning of your post or email. Don’t assume people will read the whole thing. Categories Resources