What do business writing and climate change have in common? Both, at their core, are about connection and interaction.

I’ve been writing a lot lately about social media and business writing, because highly interconnected, disbursed business communication is increasing. Climate change affects every person living on our plant, now and in the future. Each action we take ripples over our environment, much as a networked business document streams across multiple audiences.

“The art of the concise” brings clarity of thought and expression to business writing. Conservation at work and home bring a balanced life and sustainability to our planet.

Communication and technology offer a great convergence of information. We have one issue, one day, and millions of voices: I hope this article heightens our connection and our awareness of our dependency on each other.

Watch the American Association for the Advancement of Science Discuss Climate Change:

How Can You Help Right Now?

Visit Blog Action Day.org to learn more about today’s world-wide blogging event.

U.S. Citizens: Tell President Obama the World Can’t Wait for Clean Energy:

This December, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a global response to climate change. As a world leader in greenhouse gas pollution, as well as clean energy technology, the United States needs to take bold action by implementing comprehensive clean energy policies to curb emissions. Sign the petition.

Business Writing Format and Style

• The Business Writer’s Handbook

Style Guides

• The Gregg Reference Manual
• The Chicago Manual of Style
• The AP Stylebook

Grammar Guides

• Garner’s Modern American Usage
• Common Errors in English Usage
• Grammarphobia.com
• Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips

Dictionaries and Thesaurus

• Dictionary.com
• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
  
• Macmillan Online Dictionary
• The Oxford English Dictionary – best dictionary; online access only by subscription

Language Guide

• The Elements of Style

Learn More in This Course: Effective Business Writing Techniques

Learn More in This Course: Business Grammar: Error-Free Writing

Hubspot has a helpful tool: Gobbledygook Grader. It gives you a score based on how many overused gobbledygook phrases you included. I tested two pages on Instructional Solutions’ website, and it did a good job flagging one overused term.

Results for Instructional Solutions’ home page, Business Writing Courses Online or Onsite:

Gobbledygook Grade: 0 out of 100

General Statistics:

• Word Count – 113
• Sentences – 9
• Links – 4
• Readability (minimum education) – Undergraduate
  

Gobbledygook Analysis

• The following gobbledygook words were found: flexible
  

Results for Instructional Solutions’ site page for online business writing courses:

Gobbledygook Grade: 100 out of 100

General Statistics:

• Word Count – 302
  
• Sentences – 19
• Links – 13
  
• Readability (minimum education) – Undergraduate
  

Gobbledygook Analysis

• This content contains 0 words that are considered gobbledygook (they are overused and lack specific meaning).

This tool is useful to diagnose any beaten-to-death business writing terms you might use in your documents. (As an aside: it is time to stop saying or writing “at the end of the day.” I heard this three times in one client meeting today!)

Pick a few random emails you wrote this week. Run them through Hubspot’s Gobbledygook Grader, and see if you you are using any terms that have become so overused they no longer have meaning.

1. Word of the Day – Learn a new word every day at Merriam-Webster Online. This site is most useful because the words chosen are valuable for precision in business writing.
2. Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day – another site similar to Merriam-Webster. (I just learned from Blue Pencil Editing that Dictionary.com has an application available for the iPhone and iPod Touch for easy mobile access.)
3. Vocabulary Tests – Take quizzes and make your own vocabulary lists at Vocaboly.com.
4. Free Rice – Presents more obscure words, but very valuable since this organization donates rice to the World Hunger Fund for each word you define correctly. It’s a wonderful charity and concept, but be warned – this site can be addictive!

You will be able to view resources whether or not you have a Facebook account.

If you do have a Facebook account, become a fan (Facebook’s term, not mine) and receive updates and access to the interactive forums where you can post questions. Instructors and I will answer all questions posted so it’s a great place to get individual help.

This is a central repository of our business writing support information. This blog and our monthly newsletter will be posted here, along with other resources. Most importantly, this is an interactive resource, so you can post questions, ideas and comments and we’ll respond.

Please remember, “Write as if your career depends on it. Because it does.”

Join Our Community

Being New England born and bred, I still have to stop myself from adding an “s” to toward and afterward, as “towards” and “afterwards” are New England colloquialisms. Do you misuse any of these words?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
~Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Read the Copyblogger article here.

Mary
Instructional Solutions

DropCard is a free web service that lets you send your full contact information, which you customize, via text message from your mobile phone to someone’s email account. DropCards have another advantage: you can link your social networks on them as well, greatly enhancing networking opportunities.

Envision yourself at a coffee shop Saturday morning in your comfort clothes, waiting for your coffee order, chatting with a new acquaintance also waiting for his coffee. He mentions his company is soon beginning an initiative that is in your field. You fumble in your pocket, but probably have no business card with you. However, you almost certainly have your mobile phone with you. You would simply text “drop and their email” to 41411:
* Example: “drop johndoe@email.com”

Your new business contact will receive all of your contact information in his email. Additionally, he will see your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or whichever social network you provide, which business cards do not convey via click. This lends immediate credibility, and a single-click opportunity to connect further.

A vcard is also attached, for easy import into your contact’s address book. Furthermore, you can set up both business and personal DropCards, or multiple business cards if you hold multiple positions.

I have been testing this for a few weeks, and it has been hugely helpful. This past Sunday was a beautiful crisp fall day, so I went for a walk with my dog at noontime. I had my dog, a leash and my cell phone with me, and nothing else. I ran into a woman at the park who looked familiar to me, and we realized we had both attended the same conference a few weeks ago. I texted her my contact info with DropCard, and now we’re connected on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Business people should still carry good-quality business cards at business functions, but DropCard is a very handy tool for managing and sharing your contact information and saving resources.  I’ve begun using DropCard far more than my paper cards. This morning, I sent my contact info to a new client through DropCard, and he signed up for the service right away. So, I believe DropCard will be helpful to you, as well, and highly recommend it.

Mary
Instructional Solutions

You may publish a blog, or post a white paper, sales copy, product details, a newsletter or best practice tips on your company site. CopyScape is a free site that quickly runs a search for duplicate content from your site, offering an easy protection check for your content.

Enter your site URL on CopyScape, and you will see a list of sites that have similar text to your site. Of course, if a site has used your content, it should be linked and credit stated.

What steps should you take if you discover your writing has been used without credit to you or without permission?

1.  Contact the site.
Most sites list contact information, so a politely worded email is a good start: “I wish you well in your endeavor, but you need to find your own words to promote it.”  In nearly all situations, you will receive an embarrassed apology in response, and your material will be removed from the offending site immediately. If you received no response, proceed to step #2.

2.  Run a Who Is domain search, where you can find detailed contact information. Save this in case you need to escalate the issue. Email another much more firmly worded demand for the content to be removed, or call. I recently had a newsletter swiped and called the company and explained I was the author. That call resolved the issue right away, but if the offender stonewalls or refuses, move on to step #3.

3.  Notify the Site Host , alerting the web hosting company that the site contains plagiarized content, especially if the offending site is profiting from your work.

4.  Notify Site Advertisers, which cuts off the offending site’s revenue.

5.  Name (shame) them on your blog!
I don’t recommend this, unless your audience is a very narrow community, because flame wars generally help no one. State the site, link to it, and expose the offender. This is only effective when your audience knows with full certainty that the material was certainly yours originally.

6.  Legal Action
If all else fails. You can always start here, but I’d rather try to resolve it myself before incurring legal fees. And, I confess I’m territorial about my writing, so I want the opportunity to talk directly to the plagiarizer. Usually, it’s a learning lesson and ends well.

Steps 2 – 6 will very likely be unnecessary, because most content thieves apologize and remove the content when caught, but do protect your writing by occasionally checking your site on CopyScape.

Enjoy your writing, knowing credit stays with you.

Mary
Instructional Solutions

“I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened.” – Mark Twain

For all of us reading this blog, despite recent hysterical headlines to the contrary, this quote by Mark Twain rings true. While our world economy is admittedly shaky, if you are reading this, you almost certainly have a job or else have the education and skills to obtain work that sustains you. Our worries do not include deep, entrenching poverty, from which there is little hope of relief.

Today is October 15, 2008, and over 9000 bloggers, with an estimated 10,000,000+ collective readers, have committed to writing about poverty – within the subject of our individual blogs. By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation for one day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause.

As business writers, what can we do about poverty?

A very easy action is to donate rice and build our vocabularies and practice grammar at the same time on Freerice.com. This site donates 20 grains of rice to the World Food Bank for every correct answer you submit correctly. 114,283,760 grains of rice were donated yesterday. Over 46 billion grains have been donated to date.

Here is how it works. When you test your vocabulary or grammar, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people. FreeRice has generated enough rice to feed more than two million people since it started in October 2007.

To build your vocabulary, and help provide rice to those in deep poverty: visit this link.

To review your grammar, and help provide rice to those in deep poverty: visit this link.

As business writers, we are deeply fortunate to have the education and skills that allow us to find work that provides a comfortable and well-fed life, advance our careers, foster economic growth and communicate with meaning. Let’s join with each other to donate rice, while we hone our own writing skills on FreeRice.com.

I was so touched to read blogs today where Islamics, Hindus, Jews, Shintus, Bhuddists and Secularists offered their thoughts and prayers about poverty, all within the topic of their individual blogs. In this spirit, I offer my prayers from my Christian faith:

Litany on the Millennium Development Goals (Episcopal Office of Government Relations, United States):

Let us pray for the poor, hungry, and neglected all over the world, that their cries for daily bread may inspire works of compassion and mercy among those to whom much has been given.

Let us pray for schools and centers of learning throughout the world, for those who lack access to basic education, and for the light of knowledge to blossom and shine in the lives of all people.

Let us pray for the health of women, children, and families around the world, that in building healthy families, all people may be empowered to strengthen their communities and repair the breaches which divide nations and peoples.

Let us pray for an end to the waste and desecration of creation, for access to the fruits of creation to be shared equally among all people, and for communities and nations to find sustenance in the fruits of the earth and the water God has given us.

Let us pray for all nations and people who already enjoy the abundance of creation and the blessings of prosperity, that their hearts may be lifted up to the needs of the poor and afflicted, and partnerships between rich and poor for the reconciliation of the world may flourish and grow.

Hear our prayer.

Mashable.com’s post today provides an excellent resource list on poverty issues and organizations.

To put a face to this problem, please visit the Digital Photography School’s blog.

When you are searching for a new job, you are in essence “branding” yourself. Lyn Chamberlin writes The Brand Dame, an excellent blog on branding I highly recommend. In June of last year, she wrote a post about branding yourself during your job search, entitled “How NOT to Get a Job.” It addresses the need to make certain your documents are 100% correct, properly targeted and she offers great suggestions on how (and how not) to submit them.