Re: Business Writing Course - Any advice?

["Rebecca Downey" <rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com>]

I work in an office of mixed languages. The primary two are english and
french. While I've never had to teach good writing to my co-workers, I do
try to promote good habits:

1. I post the word of the day from the Oxford English Dictonary
(http://www.oed.com/wordofday.htm)and try to engage as many co-workers as
are interested in using the word in a sentence during the day. Most just say
their sentence as they walk by.

2. I ask them to show me grammatical errors they find in the books or web
pages they read during the regular course of the week. They all dread the
question "why is it wrong?" but most are good sports at trying to answer the
question.

3. I try to keep a copy of the How to Write Good
(http://techwriting.about.com/arts/techwriting/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=h
ttp://www.jagtek.com/how%2520to%2520write%2520good.htm) handy as a guide for
those people who know english grammar, but may not be familiar with its use.

4. I offer to edit and review any document which they have to write.
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R. Downey
Matrox Electronics System (Networks Division)
1055 St-Regis Dorval, Quebec Canada, H9P 2T4
Voice: (514) 822-6000  x. 2073
Fax  : (514) 822-6272
Email: rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com
Web  : http://www.matrox.com/networks
Quote: "You can lead a horse to water, but you'll never get him to write a
good techical manual." -- Anonymous