Hurley Write, Inc.

Funny YouTube Video

2010-06-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

One of my clients sent me a YouTube video on grammar that was a spoof of Inglorious Basterds. He said that as soon as he saw it, he thought of me. Well, I am a good grammarian, but I like to think, and indeed try to teach, that while grammar's important, what's more important is content. In other words, too often writers can so get caught up in worrying about grammar that they overlook the "function" of the document; that is, the purpose the document is supposed to serve, who's going to read it, and what readers are looking for in the document. So, while good grammar is essential, content is king (or queen!).

Deleting words that add no value

2010-05-16T06:52:00.002-07:00

We've been focusing quite a bit on words lately in our newsletters, and our most recent newsletter focused on words that add no value. We always tell writers that if a word or words add no value or don't enhance reader understanding, don't use them. Some examples are the words that are subjective, such as "very" and "better," which, unless the writer provides some context for why something is "very" or "better" don't mean much. Other examples are "respond back" rather than "respond," "as well as" instead of "and," "send out" rather than "send," "write out" or "type up" rather than "write" or "type."

Buzzwords

2010-05-16T06:52:00.001-07:00

We've been running a contest on overused buzzwords and have gotten some pretty good entries. Am interested to know what you think makes a buzzword a buzzword? In other words, why is it that some words or terms "go viral" and others don't? I'm thinking particularly of the term "reaching out," which to me doesn't sound professional; it sounds instead like you're holding out a hand to help someone.

Dying Metaphors

2010-03-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

We're running a contest for dying metaphors and/or overused terms in business, and one of the funniest we've gotten is "not my dog to hunt." I laughed out loud when I read it. Some other good ones (and ones I've never heard) are "hard stop" (supposedly this means "the buck stops here"); spin up a conference call (how does one do that, exactly?); and "functional provider" (as the submitter pointed out, as opposed to "dysfunctional provider"?). Submit entries to us at pam@hurleywrite.com. Contest ends April 30, 2010. You can win a writing module.

Companies and Their (Lame) Apologies

2010-03-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

Seems like you can't turn on the radio or read the news without hearing about some company's misfire and the resulting chaos. What's even more telling, however, is how (and if) these companies apologize. Becky Quick's newest column in Fortune magazine (you may know Ms. Quick from MSNBC's Squawkbox) discusses the failings of these companies (http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/04/news/companies_apologies.fortune/index.htm). One of the more troubling issues that she discusses is the case of an 84-year-old man whose Boston Scientific defibrillator failed him. Boston Scientific, rather than apologizing or indicating that the device could be defective, wrote a letter that criticized the doctor who wrote about the incident and criticized the journal for publishing the piece. Interesting, isn't it, that companies (and individuals) seem less able to apologize and more likely to blame their problems on others. Communication at its best, or worst?

2010-03-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

Our March newsletter addresses the use of overused buzzwords in business. I'm always amazed how quickly these overused, and often meaningless, words make their way into the business mainstream. A couple that really grate on me are the use of "perfect!" (as when I'm setting up an appointment or doing some other mundane activity that requires little to no effort on anyone's part) or "reach out" (as in "I've reached out to Mary in R&D" rather than simply saying that you've contacted her). Another is "it is what it is." I get that, I really do, but does mean that we have no way of changing it? When I hear "it is what it is," I think: this person just doesn't want to deal with the situation, and that kind of attitude is "absolutely" unprofessional. To see if your firm is guilty of overusing buzzwords, visit www.thompsonwriting.com/overused words and phrases.htm for a great (and exhaustive) list.

Newsletter Error

2010-02-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

Just realized that we made an error in the subject line of our latest newsletter--we misspelled "ending." How embarrassing! The issue was that I was typing in one subject line, changed my mind about the word that I was using, and neglected to ensure that the previous word had been deleted! Damage control--what did I do? I wrote a second email explaining the issue and apologizing, and to make it less dramatic, added some humor: I told readers that my staff and I were enrolling in our own online course "Effective Editing and Proofreading Strategies." Received some great feedback from readers on the second email--some were very funny! To read them, you'll have to subscribe to our newsletters (www.hurleywrite.com), as the responses will be published in the next newsletter.

2010-02-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

Professional writing seems to be getting worse, rather than better, even with the technology we have, such as spell- and grammar-checks. Part of the issue, of course, is technology, in particular things like Facebook, Twitter, and even emails. I'm not against using those technologies, but too often people forget to consider the importance of ensuring that their writing, regardless of the medium, is grammatically correct. Not doing so can make folks look less than polished.

New article

2009-12-29T13:58:00.000-08:00

Our article based on a writing workshop we did for a credentialing organization has been published in Training Magazine. Check it out:http://www.trainingmag.com/msg/content_display/training/e3i5b1f69da4015d79cc9344feffa6e4108.

The article discusses practical things that companies can do to gain efficiencies in their written communication.

New article

2009-12-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Just found out that the article I wrote about our work with the organization mentioned in the earlier blog post will be published in the next four to six weeks--very exciting!

Got back from Vegas this morning (took the red-eye) after teaching a technical writing class in Boulder City, NV, for the Bureau of Reclamation. Interesting group in that all of the participants had to write different kinds of documents. Fun to analyze the differences and discuss. I've been asked to return in Feb. and April, and have already been out there two other times teaching business and technical writing.

Business letters

2009-11-14T05:20:00.000-08:00

Just got some great news from a medical credentialing organization about the class we taught there. They were sending out voluminous letters that were extremely convoluted. We were able to reduce the size of the letters, help them with understanding how to emphasize the appropriate information, and use technology to their advantage. They've actually gotten letters from their diplomates thanking them for making the letters clearer! The organization gained various efficiencies: it's saved money on postage because most correspondence is sent electronically, the Director no longer has to proofread and edit the correspondence that's sent because the firm has been able to create a couple of templates that its writers can use, and the organization is spending much less time answering questions about its correspondence. These are the kinds of stories we love to hear!

Online Writing Training

2009-10-14T09:09:00.001-07:00

Why Consider Online Training?

According to a recent study published by the Conference Board, “The Ill-Prepared U.S. Workforce,” many of today’s new hires lack “crucial basic and applied skills,” an issue that affects individual businesses and the nation’s overall economy. Since many businesses are looking to cut costs while attracting and retaining top talent, online training is becoming a more prominent solution. Online training is also more time-efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly since it saves money on materials and employee productivity lost through onsite training.

Hurley Write offers the solution! We’ve worked with large corporations, small businesses, and nonprofits for more than 20 years. One of these nonprofits, America Reads-Mississippi (ARM), recently leveraged our online writing courses to improve reporting and enhance member development. Before leveraging Hurley Write, ARM was finding it difficult to obtain clear written communication from its 350 full-time members. We developed a series of customized online writing modules that enabled ARM to gain efficiencies in the reporting process while saving significant time and money. We also recently developed an online writing course for MITACS in Canada and are working with roughly 75 of its students. Need a customized online solution? Contact us!

Case Study

2009-09-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

My marketing firm just completed a case study on us in terms of the impact our training has had on various firms. While people may say that you can't measure writing skills and/or their impact, I beg to differ. We did two case studies, and in both cases the firms said that they've seen marked improvement in the writing their staff does, which has resulted in fewer questions by readers.

Writing Business Letters

2009-08-23T05:34:00.000-07:00

We've been asked to create a half-day course on writing business letters, and the letters that this organization writes are unique in that they have to give either good or bad news without alienating the reader. We just completed an online module on writing business letters of this kind, so we're very familiar with the topic. The organization sent me an example of one letter: it was from a physician who was upset that the font on the organization's newsletter was too small for her to read on her computer. A valid complaint, of course, but the style that the physician used to voice her complaint gave the impression that her inability to read the newsletter was the end of the world! It was crazy--perhaps she should take the course to learn how to voice complaints so that they don't alienate readers! Writers often forget that how they write and how they broach a subject has much to do with how their complaint/request or whatever will be addressed. Readers have choices in terms of the action they take and when and how they take it, and writers should remember that and carefully plan how they're going to write the letter and what action they want their readers to take.

Fall Webinars

2009-08-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sitting at my computer (as always!) working on a series of writing webinars that Hurley Write can put on in the fall. These webinars are always immensely popular, but I'm always at a loss in terms of which modules I should offer (we offer about 25 online modules). For this fall, I chose "Writing the Informed Consent" (for the pharma crowd), "Editing and Proofreading," "Using Language Effectively," "Writing Business Letters," and "Writing Emails." People seem to like the more pratical, rather than the theoretical, modules. In addition, we're going to offer them as stand-alone modules after the webinars are over, so that people can listen to them at their leisure. It will be interesting to see how many people choose the latter option. We're sending out the info to those on our email mailing list; www.hurleywrite.com if you want to get on this list or request copies of newsletters or articles.

Do Writers Sometimes Add Unnecessary Words to Sound More Professional?

2009-08-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting question from a participant in one of my online classes. This person is a graduate student in engineering, and one of the writing options for the week was to find an article in his field and critique it based on the concepts discussed in the lecture. He found one and indicated that the article seemed to violate many of the concepts discussed in the module, especially in terms of being concise and precise. In fact, he questioned if many writers didn't purposefully include more words than necessary to get their point across so that they would sound more "professional." It's a good point and certainly worth considering. Anybody want to weigh in on this?

Writing SOPs

2009-06-19T02:45:00.000-07:00

Just returned from teaching a class on writing SOPs. I'm always amazed when companies either don't have written SOPs (and this happens quite a bit!) or when a company has them but they're written so poorly that they're virtually unusable! One of the things I focus on when teaching a class about writing SOPs is that it's important to remember that there's an actual human being who's going to have to use them to get a task completed!