Simplifying ASKO’s complex instructions
This week I've had the great joy of learning to use new kitchen appliances (I’ve waited a long time for this new kitchen) Mixed with the pleasure of having appliances that are new and clean comes the challenge of re-learning things that are almost automatic I've spent a week referring to manuals as I try to understand the simplest things At the moment, I can't imagine that I'll ever remember how to set the timer or choose the right cooking program Instruction manuals have a bad reputation:...
Read moreSentences need to make internal sense
Writing sentences that make internal sense - with content that connects across a sentence's various parts - is an easily missed editing task Here's a sentence written by my son's school this week:'If successful in the preliminary round, the state final will be held at Griffith University on Saturday 14 November'The problem in this sentence relates to content agreement: it's about two different things And while I understand what the author means, I have to work to get there What they've...
Read moreIs PR really dead?
I’ve recently been reading a book called ‘Trust me, PR is dead’ by Robert Phillips, which I bought on the basis of its title at the Hay Festival earlier this year (and if you think that perhaps I included that phrase simply to gloat about being at Hay, you’d be right) Phillips is a former CEO of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) division of Edelman, one of the world’s largest PR agencies He ‘saw the light’, realised that PR was dying, resigned from Edelman, and...
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