Give your company a voice
With the US elections on the horizon, victory could hinge on which side’s slogan is the best. Elections really can be won or lost on the basis of a snappy slogan. Think of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” in 2016 or, closer to home, the Tories’ “Labour isn’t working” poster in 1979.
According to a new book on American presidential slogans called ‘Words to Win By’, election slogans work best when they are clear,
Don’t be afraid of giving instructions when you write.
Did you know that today’s teens increasingly see the use of full stops in online communications as being abrupt, angry or passive-aggressive?
Do you automatically lapse into stiff, formal business-speak when you write? Here are some tips to help you keep it personal and communicate in a warm and friendly tone of voice.
Are you, like many people, highly articulate when talking to someone face-to-face but find you struggle to find a personal writing style?
If you find yourself lapsing into stilted business-speak or rehashing industry jargon, here’s a simple tip I find keeps my writing style warm, friendly and personal. Picture the person you’re talking to in your mind as you write (if you’re writing for a group of people choose just one) and you’ll find you will automatically adopt a more conversational tone of voice.
Capital letters – a handy guide
I’m often asked whether certain words should start with a capital letter. Yes, we all know that sentences always start with capitals but what about other words mid-sentence where the answer doesn’t seem as cut and dried?
If you’re confused, it’s for a good reason. While some capitalisations are logical, many are not. Some capital letters are consistent throughout the language while others are arbitrary, differing from country to country and even from one newspaper to another!
The Huawei spying allegations raised one big question in my mind. And it wasn’t “Did they do it?”, but rather, “How on earth is the company name pronounced?” If you experience similar problems, I’m pleased to say help is at hand with the publication of a survey showing the most commonly mispronounced words.
The British Institute of Verbatim Reporters (BIVR), a professional body for captioning, subtitling and advising newsreaders and the courts, surveyed its members to identify the words and names that frequently cause pronunciation problems.
Do you know what a homoglyph is and would you recognise one if it was used to empty your bank account? Spotting this type of modified text – a text character with shapes that are near identical or similar to another – could prevent you from being scammed in what is known as a homoglyph attack.
In this example, the ‘o’ with a dot is not a character that many native English speakers will be familiar with,
Just in case you missed it, online fashion retailer asos gave us all a masterclass in how to own up to a spelling mistake in style. The company inadvertently made a spelling mistake when printing a prominent promotional message on its bags used for shipments of online orders. This was supposed to read, “asos – discover fashion online” but due to a typo, mistakenly said “onilne”. (Imagine being the employee responsible for that one).
Realising the blunder,
Poor spelling pushes you down the search rankings
In today’s online world, typos sometimes come with a hefty price tag. A BBC report[3] suggested that a single spelling mistake on an e-commerce website can harm credibility so much that online revenues are cut in half.
If that doesn’t convince you, consider that search engines look for strings of characters in sequence so if your website contains misspellings, it is unlikely to rank highly in search results.
