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Writing Effective Leadership Emails

Adam Smith | February 1, 2019 | 4 Comments

7 Tips On Writing Effective Leadership Emails

Today’s guest post is from Freddie Tubbs. He is a communication manager and business writer at Australian reviewer.

Writing emails is an essential activity in our everyday life. So much so, that most of us can’t even remember the world before email and how everything worked. Well, it’s that much more difficult if you are spearheading a project or company.

Your emails need to express leadership. They should be powerful, effective, and informative. However, that’s not so easy to achieve. That said, here are some tips to help you achieve the best results: 

Keep it short and readable

Short emails work best because they can keep the focus of the recipient until the very end. However, shortness doesn’t always imply clarity and conciseness. Make sure that you have made your point in half a page at most. Also, be as clear as possible about what it is you want. Rambling on won’t get you anywhere. 

Use simple language without any jargon or slang. Make it easy for people to understand. For instance, highlight the most important areas and have enough white space in your emails so that people can rest their eyes. If you have a complex issue, separate it into bullet points. Write short paragraphs as well. 

If your email needs to be longer, create a “need to know” part at the beginning of the email, as an executive summary. 

Have a clear subject and CTA

Subject lines are important because they let people know how important your email is and what it’s about. This is why your subject line needs to reflect both of those things. 

So, for instance, when you need a response urgently, your email subject line would have to say “HOT” or “URGENT” in order to make the recipient aware of how essential a quick response is. 

Make it relevant to your topic as well–no mystery is necessary there. 

Calls to action should be the same: clear, concise, and relevant. The recipient should be clearly aware of what they need to do. 

Be direct and stay on a single topic

Rambling on, as mentioned, is not a good email writing technique. It bores readers, confuses them, and leaves you without a proper response. Staying on a single topic is crucial. For example, focus on one problem that you have or one idea that you want to implement. Talking about several different things in one email is just confusing and overwhelming. 

Use Online Tools

Editing and proofreading are essential if you want your recipients to take you seriously. You want them to act, not laugh at you over a typo, or bad grammar and spelling. This is why you should consider using some of the following tools to check the accuracy of your email:

– Study Demic and Resumention are email formatting tools that will help you make your emails readable by offering the best formatting tips. 

– Big Assignments is an email editing tool that will show you excess words or sentences, and also show how to remove them without tarnishing the context. 

– Academ Advisor and Elite Assignment Help are tools which offer grammar tips and checkers that you can use to improve your writing. 

– Academized and OxEssays are business writing tools which can help you find the perfect expressions for your thoughts. 

Reply on time

Just like you want the response to your emails to come quickly, your recipients want it too. Lead by example and answer as quickly as possible. Make sure the response is accurate and meaningful, but still send it quickly enough so that the other party can have time to act. There is nothing more annoying than doing something as quickly as possible, and then having your team leader not respond, or even notice the email for hours.

Don’t send emails when you are emotional 

When you get angry over a problem or a situation, wait before you send out an email. Being angry is normal, but it’s not a good behavior to show it directly to your employees or team members–especially not in an email. Wait some time, cool off, and then send an email that makes sense and influences people to take action and solve issues. 

Allow yourself up to two questions

“Too many questions leads to either poor responses or no responses at all. This is why you need to limit yourself to two meaningful questions with each email. Ask something that really matters and don’t get too caught up on the details.” says communication manager, Reed Trent.

Emails are your number one tool in communication when you are a leader. And it’s a good way to demonstrate good leadership by sending proper, meaningful emails. Hopefully, these tips will help you do so.

Tips and Tech Tools You Can Use to Keep Your Writing Accessible

Adam Smith | January 11, 2019 | 3 Comments

Tips and Tech Tools You Can Use to Keep Your Writing Accessible

This is a guest post from Grace Carter. She is a tech writer at Essayroo and Paper Fellows. She also teaches business writing at Academic Writing Service, educational portal.

People are always working on making their content more accessible to wider audiences. But writing quality content that is accessible means more than just making the text readable and understandable. Content being accessible also means that you have to lead your reader through the text in a way that offers value and an understanding of what the content is all about. 

What is Accessible Writing? 

Writers are supposed to create content that different people can consume. The content should be accessible to people who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or braille interface, as well as people using mobile and desktop devices, and people of various cognitive capabilities. 

You should consider things like:

  • Is there too much jargon? 
  • Is the message still clear without the images, videos, or colors? 
  • Is the markup clean? 
  • Does it work on mobile? 
  • Is the content scannable?

In order to make the content accessible, you need to:

  • Use headings. They make the content more scannable.
  • Avoid directional language. Put directions just below the title. 
  • Create a hierarchy. Put the most important information first and elaborate later. 
  • Label required fields in forms clearly. Carefully think about what is required.
  • Use descriptive links. Don’t use ‘click here’ or ‘learn more’. 
  • Use simple language – shorter sentences and paragraphs, no jargon or slang, elaborate the abbreviations, and so on. 
  • Use alt text. This means that you should add a text that describes an image, in case a user can’t see the image.
  • Put transcriptions on all videos.
  • Have high contrast between background and font. The text needs to be easy to read. (Green text on a black background is a terrible option, for instance.)
  • Avoid images if you can describe it in writing. Even though people love images, there are those who can’t see them, and this makes your text inaccessible to them. 

Tools to Make Your Writing Accessible 

Luckily, there are many tools out there that can make your writing more accessible for all audiences. Here are some of the best tools that can help you improve your content:

Via Writing and Writing Populist

Grammar is one of the most important things when it comes to the overall readability of your text. If grammar rules are not followed throughout the text, it can be hard for your readers to understand what it says. This is why these tools could make your life easier. These two are grammar checkers that work in a simple, yet effective way. You paste the finished text in their editor, and in a few seconds, you get a finished report on your grammar accuracy. The only difference between them is that Writing Populist offers a plagiarism checker. 

Boom Essays and UKWritings 

Proofreading is a tedious task that no writer likes to do, but even the strongest of writers need it. Tiny mistakes can happen to anyone, but they make the text really confusing. 

Luckily, there are tools that can help you out, and these two have been recommended by Revieweal. All you need to do is copy the text into their software and it discovers all of your mistakes. 

My Writing Way and Simple Grad

There are many great blogs on the subject of writing, but these two are some of the best. You can visit them and read many accessibility writing tips and guidelines for better content, as well as find some tips from professionals who have done research and tried many different approaches to writing. 

Essay Writer and OXEssays

These editing tools have been reviewed by OXessays reviews and their quality has been confirmed. Editing is quite time-consuming on its own and you can never be sure that it’s really up to code. However, with these tools all you need to do is enter your content, and they will let you know what should stay and what should go. 

State Of Writing and Letsgoandlearn 

Writing is always easier if you break it down into a series of simple steps or milestones. These tools give you an idea on what steps to take in order to finish the content properly. For instance, if you have a text of 2500 words to write, these tools break it down into small paragraphs and tasks related to SEO and accessibility. 

how to remember post-it stickies brain power for memory

Erik Tyler | July 23, 2015 | 14 Comments

How to Remember Things PART 1: Tricky Spelling – Erik Tyler

 

In my first official post here, back in June, I talked about the real magic involved in communication. I trust you were sufficiently convinced that a growing mastery of language is essential for success as a leader.  In my second post, I made this statement: “Becoming an effective communicator is a lifelong process that requires continual investment.” And that is absolutely true.

But it occurred to me that not everyone has a great memory, and less so for academic information since the days of classrooms and teachers and report cards ended.  Maybe you’ve just given up on becoming a better speller, relying on spell-check to cover for you in your adult life. Maybe you’ve tried in the past to increase your vocabulary; but you just never seemed to remember the new words after a day or so, so you threw in the towel.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you can improve your memory. In fact, I have spent decades teaching students – even the cynical ones – this very thing: how to remember stuff. If you’ll give me a chance, I’ll prove that even you can learn how to remember things without hurting your brain or spending hours drilling boring lists and the like. Imagine finally being able to remember those tricky words you’re always spelling incorrectly, or looking at any new word and remembering its meaning forever.

It can be done.

[Read more…] about How to Remember Things PART 1: Tricky Spelling – Erik Tyler

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Hi, my name is Adam Smith and welcome to asmithblog.com. I am the author of the book, The Bravest You. Because of my work as an entrepreneur, consultant, writer, and speaker, I have been named a top industry influencer by American Genius. I live with my wife, Jasmine, and three children in Shenandoah, IA.

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