The Shape of Information

All of the written content we create must have some sort of structure. Whether it’s straightforward data like population or crop production statistics, or more semantically rich information such as a corporate handbook or a biography, selecting an appropriate framework increases the odds that people will find it useful. And isn’t that the point?

Learn about the different structures you can use, and get some ideas how to make your words even more useful. (PDF format.)

Document Testing: The Missing Step

You can’t be confident that a document will meet it’s goals until you take one final step: testing. Here are some methods you can use. (PDF format.)

Update on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 02:35PM by Roy Jacobsen

I’ve updated this ebook to include information about Google’s Website Optimizer.

Practical creativity boosters

Everyone needs a creativity boost now and then. This free ebook will give you a shove in the right direction.

10 Tips for Effective E-mail

Since its inception as a tool used by a few computer users in the mid-60, e-mail has risen to be a dominant business communications medium. Surveys show that workers spend anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours a day writing, reading, and answering e-mail.

Follow the ten tips (plus one more for good measure) in this free ebook to help ensure that your messages do what you want them to do. Right-click here and choose Save As to download 10 tips for effective e-mail.pdf.

Bah, Humbug! Business Jargon Needn't Be a Done Deal

Editor’s Note - I’m trying something different with this article: It’s a downloadable Adobe Acrobat file. It’s licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, which means you are free to distribute copies of the work. (Click here for more information.)

The Bad News: Business writing is mostly painfully bad. The Good News: We can do something about it. Right-click here and choose Save As to download Business_Jargon.pdf.