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I write about the thing that probably fills most of your working day. No, not Zoom calls – it only feels like you're doing those all day.
I mean all the other stuff: email writing, instant messaging, social media writing, live chat (because that's not chatting – it's writing too), report writing, proposal writing, customer writing and now AI writing. (I see you, ChatGPT.)
Why? Because writing goes wrong all the time, for the simple reason that our brains didn't evolve to read and write. And as writing is now central to everything we do at work (and beyond), improve that and you improve everything (well, most of it, anyway). Ideas flow, projects progress, relationships flourish and customers buy.
I've spent the last seven years researching the psychology and neuroscience of how we read and combine what I've learned with more than 30 years' experience of improving written communication in the workplace. That combination may make me unique. (But if that describes you too, do get in touch – I'd love to compare notes.)
I set up a business-writing training company called Emphasis from a 10x10 foot rented cubicle almost 25 years ago. It's since grown to become probably the most successful organisation of its kind in the world. Now – 8,000 courses and 80,000 delegates later – I let my brilliant team run that while I focus full time on researching and writing about the brain science of reading (and what that tells us about how we should write).
Communication advice is one of those areas that's full of hearsay, pseudoscience and wishful thinking. Lots of people give it out, but much of what's shared online (and even published in some bestselling books) has very little grounding in science. Often, it's just plain wrong.
I have a science background, so I set out in 2015 to redress the balance, by uncovering peer-reviewed research and sharing it with the wider world. But what started out as a side project has turned into a seven-year odyssey (and counting).
I also:
- used to be a molecular biologist and worked on one of the first tests for HIV
- spent (way) more than 10,000 hours honing my skills as a copyeditor
- live in Brighton, on the south coast of England, with my family and a small menagerie
- am neurodivergent (ADHD with autistic traits)
- hate coleslaw.
Curious? Follow me and hit the 🔔 at the top of this page to make sure you never miss my posts. Or just send me a connection request and let's have a chat. If you got this far, we probably have a lot to talk about.