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Today’s business writing style is less formal and far better.

Clarity and brevity must take priority in our fast-paced, information-overloaded world.

Remember the old days when people wrote to impress others rather than to communicate with them?

Many writers used formal language and multi-syllable words that no one ever said out loud, like “notwithstanding” and “heretofore”. Now only
Lawyers talk like that.

Here are five tips for better business writing:

1. Write below the 8th-grade level. Some writers worry that this may insult the intelligence of their readers. But in reality, no one ever complains that something is too easy to understand! Studies show that writing below the 8th-grade level achieves the best results. It’s not that your readers are dumb; they just don’t have time to process complicated messages.

Note–Here’s how to check the readability of your writing when using MS Word: Under “Tools” click “Options” and then “Spelling & Grammar.” Select the “Check grammar with spelling” box and the “Show readability statistics” box then click “OK.” The next time you complete a spell check, it will display information about the reading level. If the “Flesch-Kincaid grade level” is above 8, edit your document to make it easier to understand.

2. Get to the point immediately. As a general rule, state the reason for your correspondence in the first sentence.

Good: “We’ve already filled the position for which you applied.”

Bad: “We wish to thank you for inquiring about employment opportunities at Joe’s Networking, Inc. We are an equal-opportunity employer and are always looking for talented individuals to join our team. Your experience and educational background are truly impressive. Unfortunately, the position for which you applied has already been filled and we are therefore no longer accepting applications.”

3. Get active (use active voice, not passive). It not only burns more calories, it clarifies your writing and gives it more impact!

Good: “We like your ideas and will implement them by the end of the year.”

Bad: “The ideas you proposed have been reviewed and found to be acceptable and appropriate. An implementation schedule has been developed with the goal of being completed by the end of the year.”

4. Use fewer words. People are busy; be brief!

Good: “We will not tolerate sexual harassment. Please read the attached policy. Call Mr. Write if you have questions.”

Bad: “This is to inform all employees that sexual harassment of any kind will not be tolerated under any circumstances by this organization. Be advised that, in order to clarify the company position on this subject, the attached policy has been developed and provided for your reference. Your cooperation in this important matter is appreciated. Please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Wright if he can be of further assistance or provide you with additional information about this issue.”

5. Include a clear call to action. If you are writing for a purpose other than to inform, tell your readers exactly what you want them to do.

Good: “Please sign the attached form in Block 10 and return it to me by May 1st.”

Bad: “It is our desire to receive an indication of your concurrence as soon as possible.”

Here’s a bonus tip:

6. Do not repeat numbers. Spelling out numbers and then repeating them as digits within parentheses is redundant and unnecessary. Use this basic rule: less than 10 or beginning a sentence, spell it out; more than 10, use digits. Do NOT do both!

Good: “We collected 13 samples.”

Bad: “Thirteen (13) samples were collected.”

It is recommended that individuals who prepare written business correspondence follow a format and style similar to that of their verbal communications.

Umm, I mean, write like you talk.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. The Empowered Soul

Of course you want to have a positive outcome to an important discussion!

But sometimes it just doesn’t happen and you’re not sure why.

Let’s look at five possible ways you may have been jeopardizing the success of a conversation. Each of these can have a huge impact on how the communication will develop.

CANCEL THE APPOINTMENT AT THE LAST MINUTE

What better way is there to show that you don’t value the meeting you’ve scheduled?
Setting a time and keeping to it AND being right on time shows the importance you have placed on the discussion.

TALK MORE THAN YOU LISTEN

You may feel as though you have so much wisdom that you just have to share it all! The fact is that your listening will make all the difference in knowing how the situation could be improved. By your intent listening you are able to hear the nuances that may not have been so obvious and you’ll know what needs to be said to be resolve a conflict or have a positive influence.

AVOID TALKING ABOUT ANY FEELINGS

Sure it may be a business meeting, but we are all human beings and the feelings that are present can make a huge difference in how productive a company can be. When there are concerns that are not being addressed, there can be an energy drain and less work can be accomplished. So take the time to inquire about feelings and listen carefully to what is being said and avoid reacting defensively to what you hear.

ANSWER EVERY CALL THAT COMES IN DURING YOUR MEETING

Ouch! Having a conversation interrupted by phones ringing AND your answering the calls is so disrespectful of the other person in the discussion. The interruption can also break the flow of thoughts and good ideas can be lost. Turn your cell phone off and forward your phone or turn off the ringer if possible. If there are any calls the do come in, ignore them and let them go to voice mail.

DON’T WORRY IF YOU RUN OUT OF TIME

Yes, you do need to be concerned if you run out of time and don’t come to closure. Running out of time during a discussion and not determining the next most important step means that the time and energy expended to have the meeting may have been wasted. It is really important to allow time for winding down from the discussion. With both people working together to determine the next steps, it creates a strong forward moving direction. Set intentions for what both of you would like to see happen and what needs to be handled first.

If these five fatal flaws can be avoided, you will be guaranteed to have more satisfying and productive discussions. This can result in a better relationship, increased productivity, and employee retention.

If you’d like to have more positive outcomes from your important discussions, perhaps you could benefit from working with a business coach.

Visit exuberantproductivity.com to find out more about coaching and access resources and research that may be helpful in resolving the sticky situations in your life. Suzanne Holman, MAEd is your Exuberant Productivity Coach and can be reached at suzanne@suzanneholman.com.

Twin loop wire (also known as Wire-O) binding provides an exceptionally elegant and professional looking solution for report and proposal binding. Perhaps you have seen proposals that have been bound with wire binding and would like to try this type of binding in your office. This article is intended to give you a few tips to help in deciding what wire binding machine is best for your needs. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Find a wire binding machine with a good wire binding closer on it. Many of the twin loop binding machines on the market are fine for binding a few books a month. However, if you are looking to do any volume of twin-loop binding you definitely want a good wire binding closer.

Less sturdy wire closers will slip over time and you will find that the spines of your books will be closed more on one side than the other. Both the GBC w400 and w200 wire binding machines are known to have this problem over time. Look at the Akiles WireMac binding machines, the Renz Manual Wire binding Combos or the stand alone wire closers from Rhino, GBC or Tamerica for excellent wire binding closing performance.

2. Choose the wire binding machine that will best fit the size of books that you need to bind. Wire binding machines are available with two different hole patterns. Some wire-o machines punch a 3:1 pitch or 32 hole pattern (for 11″ documents). These wire-o binding machines will accept wires as small as 3/16″ and as large as 9/16″. For documents larger than 9/16″ binding machines are available that punch a 2:1 pitch or 21 hole pattern (for 11″ documents). These pieces of binding equipment will accept wires between 5/8″ and 1-1/4″.

Most twin loop machines punch either a 3:1 pattern or a 2:1 hole pattern. However, if you are looking to bind both large and small books you might want to consider the Akiles WireMac Duo. The WireMac Duo will punch both a 3:1 pitch pattern and a 2:1 pitch pattern and will close all sizes of wire up to 1-1/4″. It is currently the only wire binding combo machine of its kind on the market and is reasonably priced at under $700.

3. Look for a twin loop binding machine that is built for the volume of wire binding that you need to do. If you are only looking to bind a few books then by all means purchase the Akiles Offiwire, it will handle the job. However, if you are looking to bind hundreds or thousands of books don’t buy a machine made of plastic.

Look at the Akiles WireMac line of binding machines. Akiles makes the WireMac, WireMac Duo and WireMac E wire binding machines, ranging from under $500 to over $1500. Or, if you are really going to do a lot of wire binding consider a modular wire-binding system from GBC or Rhin-O-Tuff wire binding machine. Either way, ask yourself how many books you plan on binding and buy accordingly.

4. Decide if you are going to need to bind books that are longer or shorter than 11″. If you need to bind books shorter than 11″ then you are looking for a wire binding machine with disengageable dies. This simply means that you can stop one of the pins from punching so that you don’t have half a hole hanging off the end of your paper.

If you are looking to bind documents longer than 11″ you need to find a machine with a punching throat that is either longer or is open. The Akiles WireMac series of punches comes equipped with a 14″ punching throat for legal sized wire binding and has a small pin on the right side of the open throat for punching longer documents. If you are looking for something a lot bigger for large volume calendar jobs you might look at the Rhino HD7500 (a 24″ modular punch) and the Rhino HD8024 wire closer (a 24″ wire closer).

Overall, your best bang for your buck right now in double-o binding machines is the Akiles WireMac line of punch and bind combos or the Renz manual wire combos. However, look at the options, compare the features and decide for yourself.

Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com. He has written over 100 articles on binding machines, laminators, binding supplies and more.

Just imagine, you have finally finished binding your proposal that you have spent the last week preparing and a coworker walks by and mentions in passing the spelling mistake right on the first page. If you have ever experienced this type of situation, you understand how important it is to add and delete pages from your bound documents. Fortunately, if you are using a thermal binding system you can add pages and make changes in your bound documents allowing you to correct errors or make editorial additions/deletions.

Even though addition and deletion will not replace proofreading to catch errors or correct grammar, it is a viable feature with thermal binding machines. One or two sheets can easily be added or deleted once or twice. However, we are being conservative in describing this adding and deleting feature because we don’t want to oversell this feature. The addition and capability of thermal binding machines is not the same as the looseleaf flexibility of a mechanical fastener binding system (strip binding, comb binding, or looseleaf). Thermal binding users must still try to accurately complete any document before it’s bound. The speed and multiple book-binding capabilities of this system allow the operator additional time for proofing prior to binding.

Here are a few simple steps for adding and deleting pages from thermal bound documents. These instructions should work with any thermal binding machine:

Deletion:

Place the document to be edited into the throat of your thermal binding machine. Locate the sheet(s) to be removed. With your left hand separate the sheet to be deleted from the balance of the document.

-Grasp the front cover and sheets to be removed with your left thumb and index finger, leave the sheets to be removed between your index and middle finger.
-Hold the balance of the document and the back cover with your middle finger and fourth finger.
-When the bind cycle signals complete, grasp the sheet(s) to be removed (by the top left corner of the document) with your right hand, and gently test the removal of the sheet by slightly sliding it to the left.
-If the sheet moves easily, lift it up by the left corner, and tip or peel it out of the document. Maintain your grasp on the sheets to remain in the document. If it does not move easily, let it continue to heat for a few more seconds.
-After you have removed the pages, tap back any pages that may have risen out of the adhesive and recure the document.

Addition:

Addition of the sheet is just the reverse of deletion.

-Insert the sheet to be added in the proper place
-Place the document into your thermal binding machine and run it through a binding cycle
-While the document is in the binding machine, manually position the added sheet. Using both hands, push the sheet down into the document to make them even with the rest of the document. You may have to move the sheet(s) from left to right for correct centering.

Addition and deletion of pages to thermal bound documents takes a little bit of practice. Just try editing a few documents and you will get the hang of it.

Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com. He has written over 100 articles on binding machines, binding supplies, binding covers, 3-ring binders and more.

If you have ever attempted to bind a book using large sized color coil (larger than 30mm) you will understand just how frustrating the process can be. For smaller sized book binding you can easily use your spiral inserter to quickly spin the coil binding onto your document. However, inserting coil on large books is a slow manual process that can be tedious. In order to make the process a little bit easier and to save a lot of time, here are some tips for binding large documents with spiral binding:

1. Make sure to form the spine of your book to match the curve of the coil binding you are inserting - If you simply line up the holes of the book and attempt to insert the coil onto the book you will find that the curvature of the spiral coils will make in nearly impossible to insert them. However, by curving the spine of the book you should be able to insert the coil more easily. Most spiral coil inserters have a small curved section on the top of them to help you get the appropriate curve on your documents. However, if you are planning on doing a lot of larger book bindings with color coil binding you might consider investing in a coil book binding former. A Coil book spine former allows you to form the spine of the book and holds it in place while you insert the coil.

2. Consider using an oversized oval hole pattern - As the diameter of spiral coil increases, the thickness of the filament also increases. Inserting the larger coil binding through standard sized holes often proves difficult. Using an oversized oval punch pattern provides larger holes making inserting considerably easier.

3. Put away your coil inserter - After trying to use your electric coil inserter to spin larger sizes of coil bindings onto a few documents you will soon discover that it doesn’t work very well. Inserting large sized coil onto books is actually faster if you simply insert the coil binding by hand.

4. Try using a different pitch of coil - Using a different pitch of spiral with fewer holes is another option that is available to make binding documents with large diameters of coil binding a little bit easier. Many printers who bind a lot of larger documents with coil binding use a 2.5 HPI .400 pitch coil. This spiral coil can be used with a 2:1 pitch square hole wire die but is much easier to insert since the coil binding is a little bit more rigid and it has considerably fewer spirals to insert. This type of coil binding is also available in sizes up to 2-1/4″ (56mm) where regular 4:1 pitch coil is only available in sizes up to 2″ (50mm).

Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com. He has written over 100 articles on binding machines, laminators, shredders and more.

Enthralled by the ability to easily edit documents and the low cost of the Proclick book binding machines many users have jumped at the new GBC book binding style. However, these same users often discover that the convenience of the Proclick book binding system also comes with a price.

Unfortunately, Proclick binding spines are only available in four colors (black, white, navy and frost) and three sizes (5/16″, 1/2″ and 5/8″). This presents a unique challenge when companies want to bind reports or documents with a unique color or in a specific size that doesn’t fit well with the offerings of the Proclick book binding systems.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution for companies who wish to use their existing GBC ProClick (or twin loop wire binding) equipment to bind documents using color coil binding spines in many sizes. With a small investment of approximately $30 in a pair of coil crimping pliers and a box of 3:1 pitch color coil, you can now use color coil binding with your Proclick or Wire Binding machine.

You simply punch your document using your ProClick punch and then manually spin the coil binding through the holes onto the book. Use the coil crimpers to crimp the ends of the coil binding and your presentation or proposal is done. Suddenly, you have over 60 colors and 25 sizes of color coil binding that are available to use with your Proclick Binding Machine.

This also provides a new option for individuals looking for a cheap Color Coil binding machine. At less than $70, the Proclick P50 book binding machine is over $100 cheaper than the least expensive coil binding machine on the market. Now using 3:1 pitch coil a new low cost coil binding option is available to individuals who want to do coil binding.

Just remember, that you can’t use standard 4:1 pitch color coil binding with the Proclick binding systems. Standard 4:1 pitch coil is designed for use with documents that have 43 or 44 holes and the Proclick binding machines punch 32 holes. Simply order 3:1 pitch coil binding and you are ready to go.

It is important to note that the holes used by the Proclick P50 book binding machine are slightly larger than the holes used by standard coil binding machines. This is not a big deal. However, when crimping 3:1 coil it is important to ensure that as much of the coil is crimped or bent over as possible so that the coil does not spin back off the book. To accomplish this it can sometimes be helpful to give the spiral coil hand pliers an extra squeeze and a twist with your wrist during the crimping process.

Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com. He has written over 100 articles on binding machines, binding supplies, binding covers and more.

If you are looking to purchase a pouch laminator I am sure that you have discovered that there are a plethora of options available on the laminating pouches market. In order to sort out the options and decide what laminator is right for your application there are a few decisions that you will need to make. Here are some questions that you should ask yourself when choosing pouch laminators:

What size of documents do you need to laminate? - Pouch laminators are available with throats as small as 4″ and as large as 24″. Depending on the size of the documents that you intend to laminate, your options for laminating pouches will be narrowed. If you plan on using letter sized laminating pouches you will need at least a 9″ throat. If you plan on using Menu Size or Double Letter Sized Laminating Pouches you will need a 12 - 13″ throat. Poster sized laminating pouches would of course require a laminator with a larger throat.

What thickness of laminating pouches do you intend to use? Laminating supplies are available in a variety of thicknesses including 3mil, 5mil, 7mil and 10mil laminating pouches. Many lower end laminators will only run 3mil and 5mil laminating pouches. If you expect that you might need to run heavier laminating pouches in the future you should consider choosing a laminator that is capable of laminating 7mil and 10mil laminating pouches.

What type of materials do you plan on laminating? - Most of the lower end laminators on the market are designed to do an excellent job in laminating standard paper thin cardstock. However, if you plan on using your pouch laminator to mount documents, to laminate thicker materials or to laminate photographs you might consider a higher end laminator. Some of the better laminators include both heated rollers and heated plates to provide even heat distribution for thicker substrates. These laminators and other laminators with multiple sets of rollers are the best choices for photo lamination.

What other features does the laminator have? - Several other popular features that you might want to look for on your laminator could include: A reverse function which comes in handy in case a laminating pouch gets jammed in the laminator machine. Variable speed and temperature controls can be helpful in making small adjustments for variations in laminating pouches and differences in substrate thicknesses. Some laminators also come equipped with silicone rollers to prevent laminating pouches from getting stuck to the rollers when running through the machine without a carrier.

These questions are simply meant as a starting place when evaluating various pouch laminators. Ultimately, factors such as brand, machine construction and warranty will most likely also play into your decision concerning what pouch laminator you will ultimately choose. However, if you know the right questions to ask, you will have a much greater chance of choosing the right laminator for your needs.

Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com. He has written several articles on pouch laminators, laminating pouches, roll laminate film and more.