Bloomberg Businessweek recently ran a story about how to close emails. Do you say Best, All best, Sincerely, Sincerely yours—or any of the many words and phrases we have long used to end correspondence? According to Rebecca Greenfield, the Bloomberg reporter, the answer is none of the above.
“Just end... (Read More)
A revolt took place at The New Republic last month. A new editor came in and out marched a troop of veteran editors and staff members.
In the first of many articles about the strife, The New York Times cited something the magazine’s new chief executive said in a memo... (Read More)
Grow is a trendy business word that works in some capacities—We hope our business will grow this year is A-OK—but is clunky in others. There’s a grammatical explanation, which I provide farther down. But first, consider these examples. I hope you agree that replacing grow with increase, expand, or build... (Read More)
A certain celebrity told a reporter from Fortune magazine that she was being mindful of her alignments. She wasn’t referring to her yoga poses. She was talking about her decision to get involved with a company that reflects her values and her lifestyle brand.
Corporate America loves the word align... (Read More)
“There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough.” So wrote William Zinsser in On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. Zinsser, who died last week at 92, implored people to write simply, clearly, and briefly. “If you find... (Read More)
Maximize and optimize crop up a lot in business communication. We blithely use them to make upbeat—yet ultimately hollow-sounding—statements that prevent us from saying how we’re going to make the most of the thing in question (maximize) or make it perfect or fully functional (optimize). When that happens, we miss... (Read More)
“As CFO she helped improve resource optimization across different businesses through better capital and funding allocation, as well as expense reductions.” That line appeared in the press release Google issued last month announcing it had hired Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, Ruth Porat.
The words improve and optimization are a clumsy... (Read More)
New York City has a new program to encourage parents to talk to their babies. Its tagline is “Talk to Your Baby, Their Brain Depends On It.” When I first read that, I had a vision of some sort of collective baby with a single brain.
In spoken language, it’s... (Read More)
“Any woman should run a mile from a man who uses the verb ‘incentivize.’” So wrote Anthony Lane in his New Yorker review of the movie Fifty Shades of Grey.
Sound advice—and not just for women on the dating circuit. People in business should run from the word, too. It’s... (Read More)
What is off in these three sentences?
