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Emphasis has been enabling organisations and individuals to make their communication work for 25 years. Find out more about our story and our work below.
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Welcome to the blog – advice, opinions and musings on how to make words work
Organisations are full of documents that don't work. The CEO of a London bank recently told me that he'd spent 20 minutes of his last board meeting arguing over the meaning of a single paragraph in a report. And the board had to get through ten other similar reports...
If you're putting off writing a tricky email or text right now, you're not alone. According to a recent poll by YouGov, almost one in three adults...
Getting someone to read a document is often a bit like pushing a car that won't start. You have to overcome a ton of inertia at first. But it then...
People read your documents until they can stop. Then they do. But that's not because we have limited attention spans. The truth is that we can focus...
One of the biggest business-writing myths has to be that shorter is always better. 'Less is more,' say those who claim to be in the know. Keep it...
Imagine you've just got a text from a friend. Which of these two messages would you react to more strongly? A: 'The forecast doesn't look great...
Our newsletter Writing Matters will help you to get your point across, supercharge your writing and make sure you stand out from the crowd. We've helped over 80,000 professionals achieve their goals.
Have you ever written what you thought was a perfectly clear email, only to get a reply ten minutes later that left you scratching your head?...
Have you ever missed an obvious typo and wondered how? Maybe it was even in a title in bold, 24-point type. Or perhaps you overlooked a howler in a...
Have you ever noticed how something strange happens whenever we sit down to write a document? In person, we might be able to explain even the most...
When most people set out to write something like a report or proposal, they make one fundamental error. They might adapt a similar one that they...
Once, in pre-Emphasis days, I found myself in a training room full of people whose body language told me that they really did not want to be there....
It's one thing when stress intrudes on your own working day. But when you're responsible for a team, their stress is your stress too. If you're...
If you're ever feeling down about what you've achieved in life, this surprising fact might cheer you up. You managed to rewire your own brain before...
As you read this, a miracle is happening. Your eye is detecting dots and squiggles on the screen in front of you and your brain is...
A while ago (OK, quite a while ago), I announced that I was starting a research project on the science of written communication, with a view to...
As a learning and development professional, you'll know only too well the wide range of documents, updates, posts and messages you have to write in...
You may or may not be tempted to visit a tailor the next time you want to buy a suit. But you probably know that if you did, you'd end up with...
The first draft of a document is usually something like the proverbial first pancake: a less-than-ideal shape, a little thin in some parts and...
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