Conquering Email in the Workplace

Conquering Email in the Workplace How the right approach is a key ingredient to your future success.

Whether you are just starting your career or simply settling in at a new environment, the initial adjustment period can be a bit tricky. One important discipline that threatens the spirit of many new hires is deciding how to craft their emails appropriately. And by craft, I am alluding to all factors: the length, tone, style, closing signature and even who to copy. The pressure to fit in, collaborate efficiently, and to ultimately prosper can be daunting and anxiety-inducing. And, worst of all, email is one area of socialization in the workplace that typically comes without training of any kind, relying mostly on sink or swim Darwinism.

So, what is the right way to approach work emails and build your clout when joining a new team? While the best practices vary by trade and culture, here are some guidelines to help you sail the seas of corporate communication with confidence:

Step 1. Master the Objective & Avoid the Subjective

When you start a new job, no matter what your title is, you are essentially still in tryout mode, whether you realize it or not. Your number one goal should be to build trust. To this end, focus your energy on what you can control: proper grammar, etiquette and clarity.

Remember that email is intimate, but it is also very much extremely open to misinterpretation and that you are only granted one first impression with everyone you meet. Because of this, try to avoid symbols, all caps, and slang to reduce confusion and potential misunderstandings.

Finally, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or propose a face-to-face meeting if a thread is dragging on. It will show maturity and is a great way to build trust and solve more complex problems.

Step 2. Modestly Inject Your Personality to Build Your Brand

As a general rule, you won’t likely get in trouble for keeping your tone in emails short and a little dry. But you could almost certainly get in trouble for being a little too cheeky, sarcastic, or for making personal references to something that may have occurred outside of work hours.

This being said, life is short, work is hard, and some calculated humor can go a long way towards building your relationships. Some guidelines:

Rule #1: Know your work culture deeply, and use this as your north star. Rule #2: Make sure you know everyone on the email chain if you go with an inside joke. Rule #3: Never insult a team member, client, or anyone else for that matter. (See rule #4.) Rule #4: Remember that emails are essentially permanent and you are always accountable for what you write!

Step 3. Maintain Your Discipline & Save the Spotlight for Other Mediums

In other words, keep repeating steps 1 and 2 with an understanding that email doesn’t have to work harder than any other medium to build your relationships. Being a rockstar in your work emails is not the same thing as being a rockstar in a meeting or phone call. Keep your writing focused, the grammar correct, and the aspirations high, and you’ll build your credibility one day at a time.

Top 5 Books on Copywriting

Words influence our thoughts, our decisions, and our actions. They have a palpable effect on our lives. You can accomplish anything by saying the right word to the right person at the right time. That’s the power of words. (And of good timing, but mostly of words.) No one is more acutely aware of this than copywriters—people who use words to persuade other people to do something, like buying a service or a product. But even copywriters can be influenced by words. In fact, if they want to be any good, they have to be. It’s just a matter of choosing the right words to be influenced by.

Tested Advertising Methods (Fifth Edition) by John Caples

“They laughed when I sat down at the piano—But when I started to play!” is often cited as one of the best advertising headlines of all time. It sat on the top of a very long ad for the U.S. School of Music, giving the readers precisely enough information to make them want to find out what happened when the protagonist started to play, and why the people were laughing in the first place. The headline was written in an era when long-form ads were printed regularly, long before sponsored content was invented, even before the first television ad was aired. The man who crafted it ninety years ago was John Caples, and he did it in his first year of working as a copywriter. Caples wrote many other great headlines, but to aspiring copywriters, his more important work is a book called “Tested Advertising Methods.” The reason it’s still one of the best books on copywriting is Caples’ willingness to go beyond simply teaching us how to write a killer headline. He also advocates a scientific approach to writing ad copy, constantly emphasizes testing, and always reminds the reader of the folly of resting on one’s laurels.

Mastering the Craft of Writing: How to Write With Clarity, Emphasis, and Style by Stephen Wilbers

Because copywriting is a form of writing, it goes without saying that copywriters need to know how to write with clarity. To be effective in their work, they need to know what to emphasize. And to write flawlessly, they need to know a whole lot about writing style. Exactly the things Stephen Wilbers wrote about in his book. They’re even mentioned in the book’s title. Wilbers’s approach in the book is to give us fifty-two techniques we can use to make our writing better. Among the topics he covers are eliminating wordiness, using strong verbs, structuring sentences and paragraphs correctly, using punctuation for effect, and dozens of other techniques that every writer should know.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath

This book is not about copywriting. However, if you rummage the Internet for lists of books about copywriting that professional copywriters would advise you to read, you’ll find Made to Stick on almost every one of them. The book, written by the Heath brothers in 2007, became an instant hit with people whose work has to do with communicating ideas and concepts. The Heaths’ book explores the world of ideas and concepts and dissects them to understand what makes an idea or a concept memorable and worthy. The writers boil it down to six traits, and if you read the book, you might learn how to make your own ideas stickier. And if that’s not important for copywriting, nothing is.

Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis

For all of its usefulness, the Internet is a hard place to survive, let alone thrive in. As any online marketer knows, the competition is tough, sometimes even dirty. Customers are always in danger of chasing after the next shiny thing that catches their eye, and keeping them on a website means keeping their attention fixed. You can achieve that with clever website design. But then what? Then, as the Eisenbergs and Davis point out in their book, the customers should take action. They should buy the product or subscribe to the newsletter—whatever it is you need them to do. With Persuasive Online Copywriting you can learn how to write effective copy that actually works online. The whole book is teeming with humor and wit, but its no-nonsense style drives the point that good copy is the copy that sells.

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman

Joseph Sugarman. The man who once lived in Germany as a CIA agent, later founded JS&A, and put pocket calculators, cordless phones, and digital watches on the map. A true legend of marketing and advertising, Sugarman is the author of what might be the definitive copywriter’s manual: The Adweek Copywriting Handbook. You can find all the sound advice on copywriting you ever needed to hear in Sugarman’s book. It reminds us that we need to know the customer to write good copy, but we also need to be experts in the products or services we’re trying to sell. It says we should write quickly, come to terms with lousy first drafts, and learn to polish them. It teaches us how to create compelling copy that people will want to read. The book is a real copywriting handbook, helpful to both novices and all the Peggy Olsons and Don Drapers out there.

Avoidance Tactics: Common English Mistakes

by Laura K. Lawless, writer at eLearnEnglishLanguage.com

Everyone makes mistakes when writing, sometimes due to simple typos, and other times because they just don’t know any better. Most people can spot their own typos when proofreading, but that only works when you know that it’s a mistake—what about when you don’t? Even native speakers mix up words that either look similar or have similar meanings, but there are simple techniques that can help you avoid some of these common mistakes.

It’s vs Its

For some reason, it’s seems to have become the default spelling of these homophones, but there is a difference between the two spellings, and it’s easy to remember. It’s is the contraction of either “it is” or “it has,” so if you can replace the word with either of those two phrases, then you know the spelling must be it’s.

It’s early. – It is early.

It’s been over an hour. – It has been over an hour.

Its is a possessive like “my” or “his.” When you can’t use “it is” or “it has,” you can’t include an apostrophe.

I don’t know its name. NOT I don’t know it is name.

What is its purpose? NOT What is it is purpose?

Its’ does not exist, period.

Your vs You’re

Here’s another common mistake with an apostrophe, but in this case the word without the apostrophe is becoming the default—and often incorrect—spelling.

You’re is a contraction, so you must always use it when you can replace the word by “you are.”

You’re welcome – You are welcome.

I’m sure you’re right – I’m sure you are right.

Your is a possessive adjective, so it can’t be replaced by “you are,” but it can be replaced with another possessive like my, his, or our.

This is your book – This is my book. NOT This is you are book.

Here are your keys – Here are our keys. NOT Here are you are keys.

I vs Me

I suspect the reason so many people don’t know whether to use I or me is that when we were kids, parents and teachers were always correcting us: “No, not ‘Me and John’ —say ‘John and I!'” So we started thinking that whenever we say “John and ___”, that blank has to be filled with I. In fact, it’s not that simple.

I is a subject pronoun, which means it has to be the subject of a verb:

John and I like swimming.

John and I are going to the park.

You know that I is correct because if you take out “John and” you still need to say I, not me.

I like swimming. NOT Me like swimming.

I am going to the park. NOT Me am going to the park.

So when do you use me? When it’s the object of a verb or preposition.

They told me to go swimming. – They told John and me to go swimming.

The park is only for me. – The park is only for John and me.

Again, if you take out “John and,” you immediately realize the right word to use: “They told me to go swimming,” not “They told I to go swimming.”

Between you and I vs Between you and me

Like to, about, for, etc., between is a preposition, which means it must be followed by object pronouns: between you and me.

Since between has to be followed by more than one person, you can’t take out “you and” in order to make it obvious that me is required instead of I, but what you can do is replace it with a plural pronoun: “we” or “us.” We is a subject pronoun like I, and us is an object pronoun like me. Would you say “between we” or “between us”? Of course, you’d say “us,” so of course you need “me.” Between you and me, I’d be thrilled if no one ever said between you and I again.

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About the Author

Laura K. Lawless is a language lover, writer, and online teacher. Her blog eLearnEnglishLanguage.com is full of tips to help native English speakers avoid simple and silly mistakes.

Happily Ever After, or Not: The Influence of Mother Goose

May 1 is Mother Goose Day, established in 1987 by Gloria T. Delamar upon the publication of her book, Mother Goose; From Nursery to Literature.

The day is a time for reflecting on fairy tales, acting them out, making and wearing Mother Goose costumes, or reading fairy tales aloud. It also could be a time to consider how much these stories have influenced modern writing. Of course, this includes works such as Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series, based on L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books, or novels like Brom’s Child Thief, which paints a much darker picture of Peter Pan and the lost boys. There are countless novels based on fairy tales.

Consider, for example, romance novels. In many fairy tales, we meet a prince who is at first a frog—until he receives a kiss. For the heroine, it is rarely love at first sight. The same holds true in romance novels, which often follow a general pattern: the heroine and hero meet and at first don’t like each other, or at least the heroine doesn’t like the hero. She thinks he’s too arrogant or too self-centered—in some way, he’s a frog. Gradually, however, as they spend more time together and learn more about each other, these feelings change. Maybe the hero isn’t as arrogant as it first appeared. In fact, maybe he’s a pretty good guy, somebody worthy of love. And soon the two characters do fall in love, and in fairy-tale fashion, live happily ever after.

Fairy tales have influenced modern writing in many ways. Many of the tales are dark, providing a nearly endless supply of ideas for horror and revenge novels. For example, the wicked stepmother appears as a man in novels like Emma Donoghue’s Room. Undoubtedly, the story was influenced by tales like “Cinderella,” in which the central character was kept prisoner and maltreated. There are echoes of “The Pied Piper” in various revenge novels like Stephen King’s Carrie, in which the main character seeks revenge just as the Pied Piper did when those who hired him refused to pay him for ridding the city of rats.

Most often, the themes of fairy tales are transparent. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” regrets his folly in asking for help when he doesn’t need it. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” shows the folly of pretense. Such themes appear in countless modern novels.

According to Bill Gray, “there are fairy tale elements in some of the great Victorian novels, for example Jane Eyre and Great Expectations, not to mention darker works such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula itself.” Gray goes on to site the influence of fables in Orwell’s Animal Farm and in the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

It’s not difficult to think of many modern novels that rely on fairy tales. In many cases, such themes are also observable in fantasy novels. So-called “Sword and Sorcery” novels certainly fit the category, as do those with magical creatures such as elves and dwarfs.

To celebrate Mother Goose Day, perhaps you and a group of friends can try to think of the fairy tales behind your favorite modern novels. Have fun!

7 Simple and Quick Editing Tips That Will Elevate Your Writing

Guest post by Matt Banner

It doesn’t matter if you’re a New York Times bestselling author or a blogger from Kansas, everyone has to edit their work. The first draft is always a mess of disorganized thoughts and uncertain tangents. Writing begins as chaos and ends with order. It has been this way since the dawn of time.

Saving time while also polishing your work is every writer’s goal. These seven editing tips will help you achieve that goal.

Present Your Best Work with These 7 Editing Tips

When your first draft is finished and it’s time to edit, use these seven strategies to ensure that you hit all of the right literary notes and end up with a perfect final draft.

1 Eliminate Empty Filler Words

Phrases like it takes, here is, and there will be take the focus away from the nouns in your sentence. They basically combine with other filler words like who and when to pad out your sentences.

Look for phrases like these and train yourself to correct them:

• It’s fun to blog – Blogging is fun
• There are many people who blog – Many people blog
• Here are some ideas for you to try: – Some ideas for you to try are:

If you’ve already described the subject, then it’s okay to use words like here, it, and there. For example:

I love to blog. It’s a really great profession!

2 Use Strong Verbs

Look out for words that lessen the impact of what you’re saying. Try to replace these phrases with powerful and concise verbs.

Some examples:

• He went around the world – He traveled around the world
• Give out free items – Offer free items
• Make up a new idea – Create a new idea

3Focus on Powerful Adjectives

When you’re describing something, don’t use words like really or very. Instead, use words that get the point across confidently:

• Really gross – Disgusting
• Really great – Phenomenal
• Very large – Massive
• Very pretty – Gorgeous

Even if you cut out those two words before your adjectives, remember to focus on telling your readers what something is as opposed to what it isn’t. Take a look:

• It’s not that fun – It’s boring
• She’s not ugly – She’s gorgeous
• Blogging isn’t hard – Blogging is easy

For example, take a look at this food blogging article. Descriptive adjectives are imperative for this type of blog.

4Trim Fat from Your Phrases

People read fast these days, in most cases skimming content without reading every word. Make it easier for them by keeping your sentences short and to the point. Look at these sentences and imagine them without the bolded words. See how they read better?

• Every single person should love blogging.
• But the real issue here is people love to talk.
• You’re going to have to remove the extra words.

5Avoid Nominalization

Nominalization is when a sentence has a weak noun where a stronger verb or adjective should be. These tend to include several other words that pad out the sentence.

• Give your blog posts a good proofread. – Proofread your posts.
• Interruptions are the cause of slow work days. – Interruptions cause slow work days.
• He has a high level of intelligence. – He is intelligent.

6 Don’t Overcomplicate Commas

Punctuation in the English language brings a lot of rules with it. Even the poor comma is subjected to countless rules and regulations. Shane Arthur over at Boost Blog Traffic has a great policy on comma usage:

Here’s a tip: Use commas sparingly, but if you leave one out and it makes the reader stop reading, then add another comma!

Read your sentences out loud, and if they sound odd, add a comma to clarify the ideas in place. Otherwise it all runs together, and your reader has to stop to reread the sentence.

7Use Noun Modifiers

When you combine two nouns in a way that the first modifies the second, you’re using a noun modifier. They are useful because they shorten sentences. Try these out:

• Tips on blogging – Blogging Tips
• Great advice on how to boost focus – Great focus-boosting advice
• Information regarding your award – Award information

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to get swept up in the editing process, but it’s important to present your best work every time. Share your own editing tips in the comments below!

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Matt Banner is the author of On Blast Blog, a website that provides easy-to-read information on how to start and grow a blog. You can follow him via twitter @blastyourblog.

Six of the Best Holiday Books for Students

During the holiday season, students and everyday readers alike love to settle down with a good book, getting nice and cozy to escape the rush. Ideally this literary refuge takes place by a warm fireside, while the snow falls outside. While that might not always be possible, there are a few staples of holiday literature which are guaranteed to put readers in the mood for Christmas while providing some literary value.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

There’s no avoiding this classic novella, first published in 1843, in the world of holiday literature. A quintessential piece, A Christmas Carol is often the first story anyone reaches for to represent Christmas. Charles Dickens is often credited with crafting or popularizing the image of the modern Christmas in this tale. What gives A Christmas Carol true value is that it’s not just a story, but a fable. From the repeating structure to the strong moral message, this story is about changing our ways and learning the values of charity and humility, which have been themes of Christmas tales ever since.

Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien

“If you find that not many of the things you asked for have come, and not perhaps quite so many as sometimes, remember that this Christmas all over the world there are a terrible number of poor and starving people.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, best known for this epic fantasy tales like The Lord of the Rings, also produced a fantastic set of short Christmas stories that can warm cold hearts during the holiday season. These stories, in the form of letters, tell tales of various hijinks taking place at the North Pole. In typical Tolkien style, these adventures include fantastic creatures like elves and goblins, along with a charming take on European mythology. While reading about the misadventures of the clumsy Polar Bear, readers will get a taste for Tolkien’s classic literary style and a slice of whimsical Christmas magic.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

“What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?” said Snape softly. “Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.”

The Harry Potter books have a notable Christmas feel, despite only mentioning Christmas briefly in each book. Even Harry’s first Christmas at Hogwarts, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, when Harry is alone at school without his family, is heartwarmingly poignant as he finds unexpected gifts. The Prisoner of Azkaban details Harry’s first trip to Hogsmeade, a village which could come straight from a holiday postcard. From the snow and decorations to the scarves and candy, this and other trips to Hogsmeade highlight the relationships (or lack thereof) that Harry has with his friends and family, as the holiday season does for us all. Along with the moral and adventure themes of the books, these scenes make great light reading for the holidays.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

“DO I DETECT A NOTE OF UNSEASONAL GRUMPINESS? said Death. NO SUGAR PIGGYWIGGY FOR YOU, ALBERT.”

Hogfather is a truly priceless item of holiday literature. This tale starts out as a little theatre of the absurd for comedy’s sake; Death (the iconic, skeletal Death with robes and scythe) must “fill in” for the absent Hogfather (an analogue of Father Christmas) and so hilarity ensues. On one hand, we have excellent comedy as the morbid Death attempts to emulate the jollity of Christmas. On the other hand, Pratchett’s talent for weaving heartfelt truths about the nature of humanity and magic into fantastical situations shines in abundance. This tale has a surprising amount to say about the meaning of Christmas, without ever mentioning it in the usual terms.

The Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot

“A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.”

This seasonal poem is a great example of holiday literature that doesn’t directly follow the usual pattern of Christmas iconography. The forty-three-line poem was written in 1927 and captures the religious air of Eliot’s work after his conversion to Anglo-Catholicism. The poem tells the story of the Magi from the Gospel of Matthew, who traveled to Palestine to meet the baby Jesus. This powerful piece therefore touches little on the modern concept of Christmas but has familiar themes of isolation and stark wonder. Reading this poem is like glimpsing the origin of Christmas, without the typical Victorian aesthetics or Nativity scenes we’re used to.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

“Always winter but never Christmas.”

Some of the best holiday stories are not directly concerned with Christmas, but rather capture the feel of winter and the themes of morality, adventure, and nostalgia. The second tale from The Chronicles of Narnia truly represents Christmas for many readers, and even features a cameo from Father Christmas, who brings magical gifts for the four travelers. This story sees Christmas from the point of view of English folklore. While it is often cited as a Christian tale (and of course all the more festive for it), there are themes which could be called pagan, or perhaps a missing link between the old world and Christianity, such as the way that self-sacrifice is handled as part of the cycle of nature.

Why Do We Need Style Guides?

If you don’t like to follow the rules, style guides are a necessary evil. They give uniformity and structure to writing and are an invaluable resource when writing papers in university; the skill of writing according to a style guide will also help you in your career. They teach you how to avoid plagiarism by correctly citing works that you’ve read and obtained information from.

Style guides outline the standards for writing citations and formatting a document. The rules vary among different style guides; the best one to use depends on which publication, organization, or field you’re writing for. Four of the most commonly used style guides in universities are:

APA Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The standard for educational, social, and behavioral sciences Citations in APA style include the last name of the author and year of publication. APA-style documents almost always have a title page. Sources will be on a “references” page.

Chicago The Chicago Manual of Style: For arts and humanities Citations take the form of footnotes or endnotes. Chicago style doesn’t necessarily require a title page, but it does require a bibliography page.

MLA MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: Used for humanities and literature writing Citations include the author names and exact page numbers. MLA style doesn’t necessarily require a title page. Sources will be on a “works cited” page.

Harvard Used primarily for scientific writings Citations include the last names of authors and years of publication. Sources will be on a bibliography page.

If you find style guides burdensome now, you may take comfort in knowing that the more frequently you reference them, the less likely you’ll need to do so in the future, because the rules may become part of your memory over time. Another option is to use a tool like Citation Machine that will do the work for you, but these tools aren’t flawless, so you may need to cross-check with a style guide anyway. No matter how you do it, what matters most is that you reference your work properly.