New Video Online Course: "Learn Plain Writing Today!"

© Ugur Akinci We are happy and pronounce our newest online video course: Learn plain writing from a veteran writer with over 15 years of hi-tech Fortune 100 experience. Learn the basics of communicating in plain English for maximum success and productivity in your business and personal life. What’s more, if you happen to work…

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Survey: British Office Workers Hate Business Speak

If you’re miffed to hear hackneyed expressions like “think outside the box” you’re not alone: a lot of office workers in Britain reported they also can’t stand the expression, according to a British survey of 2,000 cubicle dwellers. Tweny five percent of those surveyed ranked “blue sky thinking” and “hit the ground running” as number…

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How to Ensure High Quality in Technical Writing

“Can you tell us more about quality in technical writing?” a reader asked yesterday, in a private email. Here are my thoughts on the topic: 1) Quality starts with intra-team cohesion if you are working as a part of a technical writing team. If you’re a lone writer, this means you should either have your own…

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Plain Writing Online Course

(Copyright-free photo by Nick Morrison at Unsplash dot com) © Ugur Akinci Plain Writing is not only a good idea but it’s now the law of the land in the United States since October 13, 2010. See: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/obama-signs-law-understand/story?id=11902841 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-946 Very soon all U.S. Government departments and agencies will have to produce all their documents in…

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6 Different Ways to Distribute Large Technical Documents

© 2011 Ugur Akinci Large files have always been a distribution headache for technical writers. PDF files, book files of all kinds, PPT files need to be planned and generated always with an eye towards their distribution. If your files are too big to send around, review and approval processes will be jeopardized. Here are…

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7 Great Tips to Edit Your Own Document

It’s best to have a colleague or an outside reviewer to read and edit your technical or business documents. But sometimes you might now have that luxury and you may be all alone. So how should you edit your own stuff? I can only give you a few tips that worked for me in the…

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How to Explain Things "In Other Words"…

When writing to explain and convince, it’s sometimes necessary to reexplain things bu using different words and phrases. It is unrealistic to expect people to understand what you’re talking about the first time you write about it. Sometimes you need to explain the same concept or idea multiple times and in different ways to make…

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How to Write a Corporate Form 10-K Annual Report

Annual Report All U.S. companies that issue publicly traded stock shares must file an Annual Report with the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) by law. They have to disclose their financial dealings, strengths and vulnerabilities, by filing Form 10-K every year. Another name for this form is the “Annual Report.” If a company has…

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