accuracy 40–1, 51

acronyms 12, 21, 24–5, 42

active voice 19–20, 52

Adams, Douglas 62

apologies 58, 59

Apple 5, 6, 7–8

Aristotle 31

Arnold, Matthew 70

audience

email 11, 12, 13

infographics 15, 16

interpretation 13–14

knowing 11–12

making a case 29–31

picking your platform 12–13

social media 11, 13, 14

writing for the internet 40, 41

Aviva 65

bad news 54, 56–60

bad writing 1–2

Bank of England 35

BCS 13

‘best in class’ 26

borrowing costs 35

borrowing ideas 4–6

Boyle, Susan 67–8

BP (blood pressure) 25

breaks 63–4

brevity 13, 20, 41, 50–1

bulleted lists 22

‘burning platform’ memo 66

Business Bullshit Bingo 25

buzzwords 1, 4, 24, 25–8, 55

‘call to action’ 10, 44

capitalisation 51

case, making a 29–37

audience 29–31

ROI 33, 34, 35–7

writing presentations 31–2

cash flow calculations 36

clarity 22, 60

clichés 21, 26, 28, 52

clickbait 46–7

cliffhangers 46

Compaq 18

complaints 57–8

context 13

Corporate Bullshit Generator 4

criticism 49, 50

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 24

cultural differences 11–12

‘curiosity gap’ 46

customer satisfaction 30, 34

‘customer-focused’ 26

Damore, James 66–7

deadlines 62

Design for Real Life 14

Dorsey, Jack 67

Dropbox 43

editing 49–52

effectiveness 51–2

ego 49–50

elevator pitch 30

Elop, Stephen 66

email

audience 11, 12, 13

bad writing 1–2

borrowing ideas 6

‘call to action’ 10, 44

goodwill 54

intended recipients 65

newsletters 43–6

embedding 43

empathy 60

endless paragraphs 20–1

euphemisms 59

‘exceeding expectations’ 27

excessive text 20–1, 42–3, 50–1, 52, 60

exclamation marks 55–6

executive summary 30, 34

Facebook 11, 14

flab 17–23, 44

excessive text 20–1

passive voice 18–20, 50

weak verbs 18–20

woolly writing 22

floppy disks 12

foreign words 23, 25

formal language 54, 56

Game of Thrones 50

generation gap 12

goodwill 54–6

Google 38–41, 66–7

grammar 51

Greer, David 68–9

Hamblin, James 46–7

Harvard Business Review 1, 30

hashtags 67–8

headlines 47–8

honesty 56, 59

HR departments 59, 65

humour 14, 45–6, 60

IBM 18

infographics 15, 16, 31

informal language 11, 56

interest rates 35–6

internet, writing for 38–48

audience 40, 41

clickbait 46–7

email newsletters 43–6

excessive text 42–3

Google 38–41

headlines 47–8

search engine optimisation 40–1

interpretation 13–14

IoT (Internet of Things) 24

iPhone 5, 6, 7–8

jargon 1, 2, 4, 24–5, 31

buzzwords 1, 4, 24, 25–8, 55

keywords 38–9

large projects 34

LDL (low density lipoproteins) 25

level of knowledge 12

links 10, 41, 43, 44–5

Linn 4–5

long documents 43

long sentences 20–1

Martin, George R. R. 50

memos 1, 50, 66, 67, 68–9

Meyer, Eric 14

Microsoft 12, 18, 66

MoD (Ministry of Defence) 25

momentum 63

Moscow Times 69

needs, identifying 30, 32

newsletters 43–6

Nielsen, Jakob 42–3, 44

Nokia 66

NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) 25

O’Hara, Carolyn 30

offence 14

operating costs 33, 35

Orwell, George 23, 25

outlines 63

passive voice 18–20, 50

Patton, General George S. 68, 69

PDFs 43

perfectionism 63

persuasive writing 1, 5, 29–30

Pichai, Sundar 67

pictures 15, 16

platform, picking your 12–13

‘Politics and the English Language’ 23

positivity 52, 56–7, 60

PowerPoint 15, 31

prediction 33, 35–7

preparation 3

presentations, writing 31–2

press releases 17, 28

printouts 52

project definition 34

project discount rate 35–7

project organisation 34

promises, keeping 46–7

punchiness 15, 17, 19, 45, 50

punctuation 51

responsibility, taking 59

ROI (return on investment) 27, 33, 34, 35–7

Royal Dutch Shell 68–9

rule of three 31–2

SaaS (Software as a Service) 24, 25

Savard Saucier, Cynthia 14

search engines 38–41

selling 5, 7–9

email newsletters 43–6

making a case 29–32

‘sizzle’ 7–9, 46

a story 8–9, 32

SEO (search engine optimisation) 40–1

Shariat, Jonathan 14

showing off 21

simplicity 23, 41, 42, 50

‘sizzle’ 7–9, 46

smartphones 8, 42, 43, 44

social media 10, 38, 41, 46, 67–8

audience 11, 13, 14

Spartacus 28

spellchecking 51, 66

story, selling a 8–9, 32

Strunk, William 20

subject line 44, 45

Sun 66

Swift, Jonathan 14

talent 3

Technically Wrong 14

The Atlantic 46–7

The Elements of Style 20

The Office 69

time 3, 33

timeliness 54–5

tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) 42–3

Tragic Design 14

Trello 5

trustworthiness 1, 40, 48

‘turnkey solutions’ 27

Twitter 11, 13, 67–8

unconscious bias 14

unnecessary expertise 18

vagueness 1, 22, 23

‘value-added solution provider’ 27, 28

Wachter-Boettcher, Sara 14

waffle 1, 13, 23, 31

weak verbs 18–20

White, E. B. 20

woolly writing 22, 52

writer’s block 62–4