The Knowledge Translator

When you invite an improv actor into your communications class, you have to be ready for anything. Thank goodness, my class was alone in the basement of the business school that evening.

I'd asked my actor friend, Chris, to give my students some coaching to help with oral presentations. We started with a few vocal warmup exercises and some practice with delivery stance. So far, so tame. And then, Chris asked everyone in the room to stand up and project their voice--not at public speaking volume…

The transition from academic wriiting to business writing can feel a bit like leaving the highway to go off-roading.

In the academy, the communication path is paved with clear expectations.The goal is usually to inform, explain, or teach. That means, the focus is on the subject matter, and the approach is to explore the subject systematically and thoroughly.

In the business world, however, the road to successfully communicating your ideas tends to be rockier. When you're writing for an indus…

Since social psychologist Amy Cuddy became a TED talk star, many of us have become aware of the nuanced ways in which our body language shapes not only our social interactions but also our self-concept.

If you’ve watched Cuddy’s TED talk, then you may already be practicing some of the “high-power poses” she claims boost your assertiveness and confidence. (My favorite is the “Wonder Woman” pose: legs shoulder-width apart, hands on the hips, chest out.)

By the same token, you may also consciousl…

To answer this question, we first need to understand what “tone” means when it applies to a piece of writing,

Your writing tone is your attitude toward both your reader and your subject. Many writers mishandle tone in business writing because they think about their relationship to just one of these elements. This tends to happen when the subject is deemed so serious that it’s more important than the reader.

But here’s the key thing to remember: in a business context, nothing is ever more impor…