Dianna Huff, this week's "Candlepower" contributor, reads these marketing blogs and websites:

Web Ink Now

Blogging for Business

MarketingSherpa (Dianna also writes for them)

Marketing Profs

ClickZ

Early in my marketing communications (marcom) career, my supervisor gave me a pretty typical writing assignment. "This datasheet needs to be written pronto. Here's some information -- it should give you everything you need." I looked over the material and thought, "How am I supposed to write a datasheet using this? I don't even know what this product is!" Being new at the job, I didn't want to appear "dumb" by asking too many questions.

You already know that stories are the foundation of comic books, novels, biographies, and screenplays. Here's what may not seem so obvious: the principles of storytelling are equally as important in successful business communications.

Everyone can write. But not everyone can write well.

We all learn to write at school but then society makes a distinction between 'writers' and 'the rest of us.' A writer sits in a garret and writes poetry. The rest of us write memos. It's a false division.

If you've heard them once, you've heard them a thousand times: "Back to the drawing board." "Get our ducks in a row." "Do the heavy lifting." "Think outside the box." We're talking clichés, the banal staples of business meetings, conference calls, speeches, and web content. You're tired of them; I'm tired of them. Yet when push comes to shove, when our feet are to the fire, and--especially--at the end of the day, we keep coming back. Like moths to that bright, hot, flickering thing. It's a losing battle, the fight against clichés. But I'm tanned, rested, and ready; I have my game face on; I came to play; I'm good to go! Clichés, prepare to meet your unmaker.

My company, Articulate, runs regular seminars in London aimed at getting companies (rather than individuals) to write better. Two questions always resonate: how to encourage staff to write better and how to give feedback. Get them right and you are on your way to being an articulate business.