The Upward Path

your message matters

writing skills

Do you have a one-way website?

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There’s a lot of it about. Sites where someone has a bucket of info and just keeps throwing handfuls in the general direction of the audience.

Do you have a one-way website?They haven’t thought about what those people need to know or how they need it presented so that they feel welcome and get the benefits.

That’s not communication. That’s being a megaphone robot. (There’s one on the right, look.)

You want to help people and make things happen, right?

Then make a site that’s about respecting and serving your audience at least as much as it is about you.

You can chuck up a website with a bunch of blurb pretty easily these days, if you just want to tick the “get a website” box. But it won’t do much actual work for you.

There can be luck and magic in communication. But mostly it happens through understanding and skill.

Communication habits that hold people back

Some sites have a few one-way bits, and others are mostly that way. It’s rooted in very understandable human thinking and behaviour on the part of the site owners – usually one or more of the following.  [Read more…] about Do you have a one-way website?

The Radio-Controlled Message Bottle

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Cover image

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I was working on an ebook. I had to hold back on promotion while a formatting glitch was fixed, but now I’m happy to announce that The Radio-Controlled Message Bottle is available from major ebook stores!

This is the written-up version of my reflections over the last few years on writing to get a message across; how difficult that can be; and guidance on how to approach it and where not to go wrong. Some of it covers the same topics as blog posts here. People who have to write stuff for their work – pretty much everybody! – and would like to get better at it should find it particularly useful.

You can get it through Amazon Kindle store, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, and eBookPie, with more outlets to follow, recommended price $2.99. A print version is coming soon. There is a Google+ page for the book.

I’ve you’ve liked any of the stuff you’ve read here, this is an opportunity to get more of it on the reading device of your choice!


Back cover blurb from the print edition:

The information age seems to demand ever more writing in our work and personal lives: emails, letters, reports, essays, websites, blogs, tweets, brochures, tipsheets…

But for most of us, writing to communicate isn’t our main skill. Sometimes it can be like putting your message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea, hoping your audience will see it, understand it, value it and act on it.

In a quick read with a light and humorous style, this book helps you build up the skills and mindset for clear, effective communications that make you look like you know and care what you’re doing.

It covers guiding principles; writing style and process; writing persuasively; layout and design for documents and websites; and a selection of common grammar and word use mistakes to avoid.