Writing a report full of recommendations? Watch out for these 5 classic mistakes.- first of four posts written in reaction to Luc van den Brande’s Reaching out to EU Citizens: A New Opportunity.

Write a summary in a sentence or two at the start. Proceed straight to the recommendations, followed by the arguments for and against... Derek Sivers offers similar advice: to hone your writing, hire a translator.

cognitive psychologist Ronald T. Kellogg explores how work schedules, behavioral rituals, and writing environments affect the amount of time invested in trying to write and the degree to which that time is spent in a state of boredom, anxiety, or creative flow... High-intensity noise that exceeds 95 decibels disrupts performance on complex tasks b…

This principle of science writing... teaches the writer to lead the reader, step by step, from knowing nothing about a subject to understanding enough to grow enchanted with its broader significance.... Imagine science writing as an upside-down pyramid. Start at the bottom with the one fact a reader must know before he can learn any more. The sec…

For its genre, Dorsey’s memo is indeed admirably brief and to the point. But it’s still riddled with jargon. Why is it so hard for executives to write in a truly straightforward manner? Here is Dorsey’s memo, with our suggested cuts in strikethrough and additions in bold. - Jack Dorsey’s jargon-free firing memo, edited to remove the jargon - Qu…

I’m launching a weekly enewsletter to ensure I absorb something from the social media firehose... I’ve already written about research showing that people share stuff they don’t actually read... you need some mind/lifehacks to ensure you’re actually learning ... not just clicking, clicking, clicking to make yourself look more intelligent