The Knowledge Translator

This past December, I had the pleasure of facilitating my first design-thinking session for a group of about a dozen project stakeholders. When I first took on this task, I felt intimidated. Who did I think I was to mess with this trendy design-thinking stuff? I don’t have a black belt in user-centered design or any kind of credentials in journey mapping. So what had I let myself in for?

But, to my great delight, as soon as I dove into the facilitation methodology, I found myself able to swim…

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…

How can anyone resist a book on healthy living that’s based on the premise of snacking?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee’s new title, Feel Better in 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life, takes a brilliant approach to making positive lifestyle changes, one bite-sized habit at a time.

Forget trying to commit to virtual Pilates classes or promising yourself you’ll attempt a 21-day sugar detox… again! Instead, integrate five-minute health breaks, or “snacks,” into your daily routine.

Chatterjee presc…

I happily rent my home now, but in a past life, I was both a homeowner and landlord. In those roles, my motto used to be, “If it’s broken, get a professional to fix it.”

I’m a writer and a teacher by trade, not a dry-waller or a plumber, and I don’t enjoy any task you might put into the category of “home repair.” So I don’t see why I should spend my precious time learning skills others have already developed and are delighted to put to lucrative use.

As an entrepreneur, I try to apply this sam…

We live in a world where sound bites rule the airwaves and tweeting contests among political candidates have replaced intelligent public debate. In business, the one-pager rules. Strategic plans are now compressed into placemats and funding requests into short pitch decks.

At the same time, the huge challenges we face as a planet—and the solutions needed to address them—defy easy simplification. If it were truly possible to boil climate change issues down into an infographic or blog post, we wo…

Too many home pages read like damp doormats. Instead of inviting web visitors into the site, they push them away by using a writing style that’s impersonal and indistinct.

Your website should attract your audience to you with a unique, powerful voice. The words shouldn’t just lie on the page—they should sing out with the personality and strengths that define your brand.

Why do so many websites, especially those of science-based or tech-based companies, fall flat? 

The reasons might surprise y…

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…

No two writing projects are alike, and the differences don’t always show up in the statement of work.

Much of what determines a writing project’s success comes from the chemistry between writer and client. Differences in personality and working style make each project unique.

You might think, then, that the most important questions to ask before hiring a writer would relate to the writer’s character, experience, and approach. While those questions are important, even more critical are the ques…

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of delivering a workshop for the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Our topic was writing web copy, so of course, our first order of business was to discuss the challenge of zeroing in on your target audience.

Through our conversation about that, I came to recognize something I’d long felt in my bones but had never really articulated: the whole notion of “niching down,” defining the target market as a narrow segment, has always felt wrong to me. And now…

Hope, we know, is not a strategy. And yet too many startups anchor their marketing efforts in web copy that’s based on mere hope. They hope that mimicking content they admire on someone else’s website will produce jaw-dropping results. 

But there’s more to crafting compelling web copy than trying to keep up the Jones’s. Just because a site features content that reaches out and grabs you by the collar doesn’t mean that copying it will work for your company or your audience. 

Some of the most en…