Warning: Your Readers’ Batteries May Run Out

Have you ever felt drained just looking at an e-mail that was one long, unbroken paragraph of text? A long sentence can have the same intimidating effect. Here’s an example about the short battery life of the iPhone 4S: For now, Apple isn’t saying anything about the issue – a spokeswoman didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment – in what has become a typical pattern of silence for the company after customers begin complaining about a technical problem with a new iPhone. The sentence is 42 words long; we recommend that you keep most sentences in business documents under about 25 words

Use Parallel Structure to Hand Ideas to Your Readers

Repeating the same part of speech can help busy readers understand you faster. This list of adjectives by David Pogue is a breeze to read: Windows Phone 7.5 is gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent

Carefully Using Words That Build Suspense

Busy readers appreciate it when they can follow your meaning quickly. Some words automatically build suspense; if you don’t use them carefully, they can make your sentences frustrating to read. Four words that build suspense when they start a sentence are “Although …,” “Despite …,” “Unless …

Highlighting and Defining Your Terms

Business writers sometimes need to define specific words — especially when an everyday word refers to our products or services. (E.g

Why Does Anyone Capitalize the Words after Colons?

Colons are slightly advanced punctuation marks, so it’s important to use them carefully. Some writers still capitalize a word after a colon, as in this sentence: Mary Ann thinks the presentation is flawed: She finds it too long and unfocused. The capital letter in “She” is a bit old fashioned; we recommend lowercasing all words after colons except for proper nouns