Someone you know is transgender. They deserve to be treated like a human. Look. My job here is normally to pick apart public statements by people, to show you how things can be written better. I try not to get into taking political positions. But I am making an exception today. If this bothers you,…
I was puzzled when Donald Trump indicated that he doubted that the Saudi government had been involved in the disappearance, and likely murder, of Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi. But he said he was sure, because of the Saudis’ “strong denial.” Here’s a quote: “All I can do is report what he told me. He told…
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh defended himself in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He says you can trust him to be impartial. Did he undo the damage he did during his hearing last week? Just a reminder: the purpose of this blog is to reveal what’s really going on with written communications. I’m…
Like several hundred million other Americans, I received a lump of passive voice in the form of a Presidential Alert yesterday. This was a huge time waster. So I fixed it. I was out at a farmers’ market when all of our phones and radios started hooting and whining. People got annoyed and kept shopping….
The objective of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election was never to elect Donald Trump — it was to create chaos. So let’s game it out. You are the head of Russian intelligence. You’re out to build on your success in 2016 and make America as impotent and divided as possible. What would you do?…
Regardless of what happens when Christine Blasey Ford testifies in the Senate today about Brett Kavanaugh assaulting her in high school, we now have a written opening statement from her to review. It’s straightforward and detailed. If you have a difficult story to tell, you could learn from this. I’m under no illusions about this…
As I watch bluster, posturing, and insults dominate the national (and international) debate, I’ve been appalled. It’s not just the bad manners. It’s that anyone who has studied negotiation knows those are failed strategies. I received training in negotiation from the leaders of the Harvard Negotiation Project (HNP), the insightful team behind the the book “Getting…
According to CNN, Mike Pompeo wants all State Department staff to stop using commas improperly. This obviously warrants all of our attention. The article, snarkily titled “Pompeo cracks down, on improper use, of commas at State Department,” reveals that Pompeo is an admirer of the Chicago Manual of Style and the Oxford Comma, also known…
The European Parliament has voted for a new copyright directive that changes the rules of the internet. Dozens of prominent internet pioneers and thinkers, including Web inventor Tim-Berners-Lee, issued a statement condemning the directive. The spirit of the letter is on target, but the execution is a muddle. The European Union Directive on Copyright in the…