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By Stu Slayen The trophy arrived in one of those obscenely messy shipping envelopes in the dark days before bubble wrap. I tore it open with the excitement of a nine-year-old. Grey dust and coloured flecks made of Lord-knows-what flew everywhere, but I didn’t care. I had just won a writing contest. As a young…

By Stu Slayen When I bought my Looney Tunes poster years ago, it was simply because I was a fan. The cartoons cracked me up as a kid, and I still laugh when I go down the occasional YouTube rabbit hole (joke intended) searching for my favourite snippets of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig,…

By Stu Slayen      I once read an article in a newspaper that described a memorial service. One prominent guest was so overcome by emotion, the paper reported, that he broke down in “teats.” I’m glad I wasn’t there. Spelling errors typically aren’t that embarrassing, of course, and we’re all human so mistakes happen….

By Stu Slayen      Over many years of working in communications, I have sent countless projects to the printer. There’s nothing that beats the smell of a box of freshly printed newsletters, books, brochures, or reports. OK – that’s not entirely true. The aromas of a good scotch or a fragrant rose are not…

By Stu Slayen      “The designer wants $750 to do this poster for us so I’ll just do it myself to save money.” I’ve heard this before and – full disclosure – I’ve said it before. Yes, back in the day I would hammer together rudimentary flyers in MS Word (or Wordstar back when…

By Stu Slayen      A former colleague, noticing that I had started to work on my first annual report for the organization, made a passing comment to the effect of: “Sorry you have to work so hard on the annual report. No one’s going to read it.” The comment didn’t exactly motivate me, but…

By Stu Slayen      I apologize to fans of the famous musical, My Fair Lady, for messing with the popular “Rain in Spain” lyrics, but I couldn’t resist. And there’s method to my madness. The best business writing is lyrical, memorable, colourful, and plain.

By Stu Slayen      Let’s say you work at the Canadian Society of Picklers and Pastry Chefs. Do you tell people that you work at “CSPPC” or at “the CSPPC”? How do you use the organizational acronym in your newsletters, correspondence, and on your signage? If you work for an international organization, do you…

By Stu Slayen      One of the most moving assignments I have ever had was to help Linda*, the elderly wife of a man with Alzheimer’s disease, write about her experience for the annual report of the nursing home where her ailing husband, Michael, lived. Linda was 85 at the time. She drafted some…

By Stu Slayen      If you want to know how to plan that perfect evening to impress someone special, there are probably better resources than this blog. In fact, I know there are. But I have some other dating advice for you. I often see words like “new” or “recent” or “last year” or…