What is Business Writing Solutions?
Business Writing Solutions is a two-day business writing seminar presented onsite by Jonathan Clark, the top business writing trainer in America. Jonathan conceived, wrote and presents the program to clients such as Southwest Airlines, Department of Defense, Fox Broadcasting, National Institute of Health, Los Angeles County and NASA-Kennedy Space Center. This unconditionally-guaranteed business writing seminar helps people write better and at least 30 percent faster. It is also available on CD and as a public seminar.
Look at business writing differently
Good business writing requires us all to think a little differently.
Good writing is not complex and dense. It does not require someone to work hard to grasp the message. It should not require a dictionary.
It should sound like conversation: business people talking with business people. That can happen if you picture [...]
Plain Writing and the Act of 2010
Everyone is talking “Plain Writing” these days. It comes from a federal mandate (a Congressional law, actually, The Plain Writing Act of 2010) requiring government writers to use a language the rest of us can understand!
This concept is not new, but the law itself is. The prolonged budget battle in Congress this year [...]
The plural pronouns “THEY” and “THEM”
I see and hear this a lot these days: people using the pronoun they (and sometimes them) in place of a singular noun. “If your employee has a problem, help them understand what they are doing.”
What’s that all about? The word employee is singular, and we learned our grammar rules back in school: “Use a [...]
Language insights from word origins
A good dictionary provides word origins as well as definitions. It’s no accident that English contains so many words. Over the centuries many peoples and cultures have contributed their words and concepts, and English has accepted them enthusiastically.
Look at these words, for example. Each came from another language, intact. And English is richer (if harder [...]
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, by an advertising exec
Fourscore and seven years ago (say “eighty-seven”) our fathers brought forth (”founded” would be a better word) on this continent a new nation (let’s get the name in there big), conceived in liberty (sounds awkward: say “with the idea of freedom”) and dedicated to the proposition that all men (we ought to have “women” in [...]
Full StoryMore pronunciation fun…
Or, why English is so difficult!
When I saw the tear in the fabric, I shed a tear.
He wound the bandage around the wound.
The hiker chose to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, you may present the present.
We must subject the subject to a series of tests.
Updating Your Resumé?
Time To Update Your Resumé?
If the word “layoffs” has crept into your organization’s vocabulary; or you’ve recently started wondering, “What else is out there?”; or you simply recognize the sense of always knowing who you are and what you have to offer; perhaps this is a good time to look at that important tool for [...]
Not EVERYONE uses e-mail…
E-Mail Taking Over? Not Necessarily!
Most of us use e-mail almost exclusively for contacting people in the world of work and business. But at least one successful (and profitable!!) company still holds out, at least on the customer service end, and I’m thankful for it.
The SOUTHWEST AIRLINES website lists only two ways to contact them: a [...]
Bravo, President Obama!
The inauguration is over, and one of America’s greatest speech-makers has taken the oath of office.
I’m not writing to comment on President Obama’s speech. I enjoyed it, and I felt good about the day (even though I did not vote for him in November).
In my classes, I emphasize the simplicity of America’s greatest speeches. Lincoln’s [...]
The origin of “OK”
Richard Lederer reports on Allen Walker Read, who died in 2002 at 96. Read enjoyed tracing words to their original sources, identifying “Dixie” from an 1850 minstrel show, tracing “Podunk” to an Indian name meaning “swamp,” and “almighty dollar” to author Washington Irving. He’s best known for hunting down the origin of “OK,” a word [...]
Full StoryCut writing time by 30%!
The six-step writing process from Business Writing Solutions cuts the time needed to write by at least 30 percent. That translates into an immediate reduction in writing costs, and an increase in productivity. To find out how much you can save, use our interactive Writing Investment Worksheet.
About my client list…
If you have just come across this web site, you may be wondering “Who has scheduled Business Writing Solutions?”
Many organizations all across the country have done so. They have scheduled onsite programs, and most of them have brought it back, many of them on a regular basis. It’s easy to persuade (with sales and marketing skills and techniques) a client to schedule a program once.
But I only get invited back if they like what they hear: if people benefit, their writing improves, and they say, “Everyone should take this program!” That’s why I make my unconditional guarantee. If you’re not delighted with the program, and if it doesn’t exceed your expectations, you owe me nothing. I have never had to make good on that!
Here are a few of my ongoing, regular, clients: NASA Kennedy Space Center…Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General…FedEx Office…CenterPoint Energy…Kaiser Permanente…Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)…Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General…General Services Administration…National Institutes of Health…Ryan, Inc.,…Smithsonian Institution.
I would love to add your organization’s name to my list! By the way, if you schedule a program, you get me…not a trained substitute. Use the “Send Information” box in the upper right hand corner!
Client Success Stories!
Fortune 50 Financial Corporation: The director of a project involving a corporate culture restructuring (of an old, Midwest-based company) contacted us about offering Business Writing Solutions to the members of his team. These individuals came from all departments, and were working together to make written recommendations to corporate headquarters concerning a “new” culture for the organization.
These people were already overwhelmed with their work and way behind schedule, with deadlines for completed recommendations documents fast approaching. The all traveled to a central meeting spot, taking two of the remaining days out of their work time, for this class.
Using the ideas from Business Writing Solutions, the entire team completed and turned in its work on time. Later, the director who had brought me in wrote and said, “This was the best Time Management course I have ever taken. Your ideas have saved me more than 30 percent of the time I used to spend writing. I would recommend this class to anyone!”
