The Church of the Customer blog, written by marketing gurus Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, recently ran a post on the power of the company memo: "The lowly memo still has juice. Maybe more so today, thanks to social media. Several recent memos that leaped over their corporate moats illustrate three types of company communications that create waves in the word-of-mouth waters." How? Read the post here.

Sparrow, a pundit poet from Phoenicia, New York, graciously contributed the following column.

Nouns are becoming verbs faster than ever before. I've been "journaling" on this phenomenon, and here's my report:

In the Old Days, every new invention did not immediately become a verb. No one said: "I must electric canopener this tuna," or "Well, it's time to dishwasher." But ever since the Fall of Communism, new consumer items have been verbified. We do say: "I'll fax you that receipt," "Can you e-mail me the final figures?" "Let's microwave the taco," and "Shh! I'm text-messaging!" (In fact, "text-messaging" is giving way to the more direct "texting.")

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When you write full time, it's very easy to fall into bad habits without realizing it's happening. Like the clutter in your house, which eventually becomes "invisible," you don't see the mistakes and glitches in your own copy.

So how do you improve your writing? Here are my five proven methods -- all of which I use regularly.

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These websites write about the impact online "social media" is having on business, the tools available and how companies are using blogs to communicate with their customers. Check them out:

hyku

Like It Matters

Business Blog Consulting

PR 2.0

In this lesson, students analyze a writer's use of sensory details and descriptive language in a New York Times article reviewing the Apple iPhone. Then, students are asked to write original product reviews which incorporate some of the descriptive writing techniques identified and evaluated in class.  Continue reading...

Indiana University professor and communications consultant Dr. Ken Davis authors a terrific website called Manage Your Writing. On it, he lists these ground-breaking books about communications for business:

What to Say to Get What You Want

On Communicating

Leading Out Loud: Inspiring Change Through Authentic Communications

Information Anxiety 2

The Brand You 50

At the outset, a famous novelist warned me that if I insisted on writing Finn I ought to be constantly on my guard. "Mr. Clemens," he said, "will be looking over your shoulder." He didn't know the half of it. And frankly, neither did I.

Only when I showed early bits of the manuscript to other writers did I begin to understand. There was plenty of encouragement, of course, and lots of praise, but beneath it all was an undercurrent of, How dare you?

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