Not another post about AI

No, seriously. This is not a newsletter about AI and writing, because that's already been done to death.

But it is a newsletter about adding humanity to your writing – because when you resort to formulas that everyone else is using, you start to sound like a machine.

"I hope this email finds you well" isn't human. Who speaks like that? No one (sensible) that I know. It sounds boilerplated, because it is.

There are so many examples:

• move the needle
• blue sky thinking
• synergy
• core competency
• drill down
• bleeding edge
• take offline
• low hanging fruit
• etc.

And then there's the tendency to over-formalise everything. If you got home with a bag of groceries and said to your significant other, "Attached hereto for your kind utilisation, the provisions you asked me to procure," they would (quite correctly) look at you as though you were barking mad. But we cross the threshold of the office (real or virtual) and suddenly we channel our inner Victorian lawyer.

How do you fix this? Plain language. Everyday language. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. You will be more eloquent, more clear, more effective, more productive. There will be far few misunderstandings and miscommunications.

And then, when you write something – and business writing is just talking onto a "page" – you will come across as (gasp) an actual human being. And people will appreciate you for it.