The Biggest Principles That Make All the Difference

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When people first interact with a document, they're not beginning by actually reading the language. So one of the fastest things you can do to make any document look a bit easier to your reader is put more empty negative space on the page. The other one I would do at the visual level is bottom line up front. Whatever it is that you came to this document to tell your readers, you need to get it really near the top in almost every type of business writing or utilitarian writing.

Casey Mank shows how to make your writing more effective by making it simpler.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) Why writing matters tremendously—even when you’re not a writer

2) How to make your writing more powerful in three steps

3) Why people aren’t reading what you write—and how to fix that

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep829 for clickable versions of the links below.

— ABOUT CASEY —

Casey has taught in writing classrooms for over 10 years, most recently at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and School of Nursing and Health Studies. She has taught writing to professionals at organizations including Kellogg’s, MasterCard, Sephora, the Aspen Institute, Viacom Media, the EPA Office of the Inspector General, the PR Society of America, the National Association of Government Communicators, and many more. Casey serves on the board of directors at the nonprofit Center for Plain Language and is proud to have helped thousands of writers get to the point and reach their audiences with greater impact.

• Email: casey@boldtype.us

• LinkedIn: Casey Mank

• Website: BoldType.us

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Tool: WebFx.com

• Tool: Hemingway

• Tool: Difficult & Extraneous Word Finder

• Tool: Grammarly

• Study: "How Little Do Users Read?" by Jakob Nielsen

• Study: "The Impact of Tone of Voice on Users' Brand Perception" by Kate Morgan

• Website: PlainLanguage.gov

• Book: "Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies)" by Janice Redish