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Culture

Culture

Hot off the press: our thoughts on what's happening in the world of brand language and business writing. Warning: may contain the occasional rant.

Culture

Storytelling should be companies’ bread and butter

Lots of food and drink firms are telling stories these days. But what's stopping other kinds of companies from getting in on the act? (Hint: not much.)

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Culture

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin

To celebrate National Storytelling Week, here's a rundown of a few (non-businessy) tales told by Writer folk past and present.

Writing, Learning & development

Culture

Let's play Consequences

Keep an eye out for our story blogs, in honour of National Storytelling Week.

Writing, Learning & development

Culture

Ticuh ticuh ticuh ticuh ticuh

What do Frankenstein's monster's head and our Neil have in common? (It isn't what you think.)

Writing, Learning & development

Culture

On the twelfth day of Christmas, The Writer gave to me:

Our video advent calendar's nearly finished...

Consulting, HR & internal comms

Culture

Can you see me smiling?

Smileys at work? Winks on LinkedIn? A poked-out tongue on web chat? Our Georgina's not a fan.

Writing, HR & internal comms

Culture

It's nice when a company sees the funny side

Our Meg reckons We Buy Any Car got it spot on when they saw the funny side of a prank. Companies should take note – we like it when you show a little personality.

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Culture

The wrong side of the tracks

Our LC takes on 'leaves on the track' and explains why honesty is always the best policy.

Consulting, Learning & development

Culture

Get well soon: you can do it!

A while ago I wrote about American optimism and how it was rubbing off on me. Here’s a typical example that made me chortle through the coughs and sniffles.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Culture

Undesirable elements

I’ve been spending another week running workshops in California. And every time I come over here, I’m struck by the esteem in which two texts on language are held: the AP Stylebook (I mean, Stylebook? One word?), and Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Culture

Peppa Pig and the unintended audience

If you’ve hung out with anyone under the age of four recently, you’ll have come into contact with one of the biggest brands to come out of the UK in ages*: Peppa Pig.

Consulting, Brand & marketing

Culture

My eureka moment

Is company culture as important as people make out? Does it really affect the morale and motivation of your people? And can it really be the thing you love most about your job?

Consulting, HR & internal comms

Culture

Pancakes the old-fashioned way

The British Library have just tweeted this pancake recipe from 1585. If you fancy a taste of the 16th century, here’s the same recipe made a touch more legible.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Culture

When practicality beats personality

We’ve been at it again. Fresh from encouraging more people to fly again with The Writer Airways™ than Virgin, we thought we’d put our linguistic hunches to the test in the banking world.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Culture

Robots need not apply

When people hear I’m a recruiter, the first question they ask me is: how do I make my application stand out from everyone else’s? The definitive answer to this is: with the language you use.

Writing, HR & internal comms

Culture

The Writer speaks French

Certain(e)s pourront être surpris(es) mais c’est bel et bien vrai, The Writer (L’Ecrivain) parle français. Pour ma part, j’ai rejoint l’équipe internationale de The Writer l’année dernière. Très vite, on a compris deux choses. On peut travailler en français avec les Anglais…

Writing, Brand & marketing

Culture

Should Scrabble letter values change? Of course they should

Scrabble letter values haven’t changed since the 1930s. They’re based on a page from the New York Times which inventor Alfred Mosher Butts (yes, really) painstakingly analysed for letter frequency.

Writing, Customer experience

Culture

And the award for ‘worst case of language abuse in 2012’ goes to…

Every time America flirts with economic meltdown, a metaphorical ‘fiscal cliff’ magically appears. On the news, in the papers, online – it’s been everywhere lately. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Culture

Why it really is better to give than to receive

The other week we won a CMA award for a Twitter thing we wrote (woohoo!). Here are Michelle and I accepting the little round statue (next to a very bored looking Russell Kane):

Writing, Customer experience

Culture

The Writer’s proprietary Rewrite Bravery Leadership Correlation Index™

‘This company is an equal employment opportunity employer.’ That beautiful line is from the website of one of our big US clients. In workshops this week, we’ve been asking their people to rewrite a bit of the website which includes that line, to see if they can make it feel a bit more sincere.

Writing, HR & internal comms