Remember that cultural context is always key
Sitting in our office it’s easy to forgot that the cultural context of what you read and write is so important. Although we have been writing and editing for more years than we like to remember (think...
View ArticleCollective nouns: why they have stood the test of time
I remember years ago sitting in a pub quiz in London, and being asked what the collective nouns were for various types of birds…. My memory is always a bit shaky. But one of those nouns I always...
View ArticleApostrophes…let’s stop mocking their misuse
Apostrophes divide the nation. There are those who are not sure how to use apostrophes and seem to slap them down willy-nilly, and those who draw comfort from the fact that they know where to place...
View ArticleXmas or Christmas…that’s the question
A lot of people take a dim view of Xmas. Not the festival or festivities, but the spelling. The Times, the Guardian and the BBC no less all try to avoid its use, according to their style guides. They...
View ArticleAbstract nouns can’t taste a thing
An everyday tale about queuing for chips, abstract nouns and clear language… Queuing up for something to eat outside a popular south London chip shop recently, I glanced around to look at the other...
View ArticlePurdah and why general elections remind us of exams
At ProseWorks, Purdah and the political cycle always have a big effect on how we work and who we work for. The last general election in 2010 reminded me of sitting exams in my school days. The...
View ArticleWhy the term ‘Hung Parliament’ is prefered to ‘No overall control’
After five years of coalition government here in the UK, most of us know what a hung parliament is. It’s a parliament in which no one political party has an overall majority of seats in the House of...
View ArticleWhat we learn from resignation speeches
Politicians making speeches isn’t news. Three politicians making resignation speeches all in the same day, is news. Of course we are talking about Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage who – in the...
View ArticleCorporate blogs: are they a contradiction in terms?
Most big companies’ blogs are as faceless and uninspiring as their corporate headquarters. They do try. They have corporate blogs … a section of their website where they try to open up their...
View ArticleCEO blogs: ten reasons to get your boss blogging
Does your CEO flinch when someone proposes they write a blog? If so, you are not alone. Research indicates that in the US, fewer than a third of CEOs of leading companies have any social media...
View ArticleThe difference between news and features
The terms ‘news’ and ‘features’ are common currency in our business. We use them all the time. Recently, though, a client asked for clarification on the difference between a news piece and a feature....
View ArticleValentine’s Day: take the passion out of business writing
Passion is in fashion. Of course it is. Valentine’s Day is on Sunday. I’m also talking about the word passion – and its close associate passionate – which now seem ubiquitous in business...
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The onward march of the exclamation mark
The exclamation mark is everywhere. Or perhaps I should write: The exclamation mark is everywhere! Its popularity continues to grow. It even appears to be threatening the supremacy of the full stop as...
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Why do creatives struggle with their own creative projects?
We are creative people and we work in the creative industries. Why then is it so hard for us to produce our own creative content? When we recently embarked on a revamp of our website, we thought it...
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Five copywriting principles…whatever the project or platform
In the copywriting business much is made of the different types of writing. Channels, platforms, concepts, voice and style are often all discussed, dissected and agreed before any writing begins in...
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Origins of the Christmas cracker
For our Christmas message this year we explain the origins of that slightly strange phenomenon… the Christmas Cracker. Unless you collect plastic frogs that don’t jump or paper hats that always split,...
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Read something different: five recent novels that will improve your writing
I’m sure there’s a business survey out there somewhere that tells you how many hours you spend during the working week reading… The answer must be quite a few. Most of us read the same kind of...
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The problem with jargon… and why we need more plain English.
The NHS is under attack… Not from budget cuts, waiting times or staff shortages. This time it’s from the Plain English Campaign for the language it uses. It seems the NHS is suffering from a bad dose...
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The term ‘Hung Parliament’ sounds quaint but isn’t ‘No Overall Control’ better?
Well, well, well…few people expected that election result. It’s a Hung Parliament with no one political party commanding an overall majority in the House of Commons. We’ve been there before in 2010....
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What we learn from Dylan Thomas…
While on holiday on the Gower Peninsula, we dipped into Swansea to visit the Dylan Thomas Centre, a museum and arts centre dedicated to Swansea’s most famous son. Love the Words is the title of the...
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