Entries by Matt Wright

We do not like, as a society, talking about death

“We do not like, as a society, talking about death” – Mark Mardell

So it’s been quite a big week for obituaries, with first David Bowie dying, followed by the sad news that everyone’s favourite screen villain, Alan Rickman, passed away today.

However, it was Bowie’s demise that sparked an outpouring a grief and tributes rarely seen in the UK….and this is where the written word becomes so important.

“Deaths are a punctuation mark – some at the end of a sentence, other a paragraph, still others a chapter” 

Mark Mardell’s excellent article on the BBC website – ‘Bowie death underlines the power of the obituary’ – touched upon a number of reasons why we prefer to write about death than talk about it. read more read more

January 14, 2016 /0 Comments/by

The Grammarian – 10 commonly misused words….if only you’d learned Latin you’d know!

If only you’d been taught Latin at school…..then you  certainly wouldn’t be making so many English language errors. Here are 10 of the most commonly misused English words and their original Latin meaning to stop you from going wrong in the future.

  • decimate – originates from the Latin decimus “a tenth”, so to ‘decimate’ means to lose a 1/10th of something….nothing less, nothing more!

    • read more

    January 9, 2016 /0 Comments/by

    The Grammarian – How English words reinvent themselves…

    Where Do Words Come From?

    New words have entered (and continue to enter) the English language in many different ways.

    Here are some of the most common:

    Borrowing

    Although most of our vocabulary comes from Latin and Greek (often by way of other European languages), English has borrowed words from more than 300 different languages around the world. Here are a few examples:

    • futon (from the Japanese word for “bedclothes, bedding”)
    • smorgasbord (Swedish, literally “bread and butter table”)
    • slogan (alteration of Scots slogorne, “battle cry”)

    Clipping or Shortening

    Some new words are fairly obvious shortened forms of existing words:

    • indie from independent
    • exam from examination
    • flu from influenza
    • fax from facsimile

    However, some very common words have less obvious beginnings. read more

    January 4, 2016 /1 Comment/by

    Social Media – think ‘Research’ not ‘Sale’

    The honest sale?

    Everybody is obsessed with digital sales, with social media frequently seen as the main conduit.

    But is it?

    Stop a think for a second – if people are (as the quote above suggests) ‘bad’ at telling the truth, especially when they know they are being canvassed online, then are companies over-estimating the importance of social media in driving sales?

    Should they be looking at social media from a different angle; e.g. from a research rather than sales perspective? read more

    December 21, 2015 /0 Comments/by

    The Annual Report….but not as you knew it

    MailChimp 2015 Annual Report

    This dropped into my inbox today.

    Annual Reports are not usually the most interesting of topics, so what made this one so appealing?

    1. Countup

    Social Media - Countup Brilliant – grabs attention from the off!

    Take a well-known phrase, tweak it, then demonstrate its relevance – it could even be a new word for 2016?

      Each number relates to a story, from 1 (Visits from a Mariachi Band) to over 203bn (number of emails sent), complete with click-throughs to the underlying story. read more

    December 15, 2015 /0 Comments/by

    Technical Corner – WordPress Blog shortcuts

    Technical Shortcuts

    If, like me, you write a lot of WordPress blogs, it’s worth having some technical shortcuts to hand.

    Here are 3 which I use most frequently:

    1. The Shoutout Quote

    The Shoutout Quote is a great way of breaking up the flow of text on your blog and drawing attention to a key point. You can format the size & colour of the text as required – this is using my Nobleword ‘red’ in an H4 font size.

    HTML code: su_quote cite=”Name – Company”  insert quote  /su_quote read more

    December 14, 2015 /0 Comments/by

    Business Book Review: ‘The Ignorant Maestro’

    Book Review: Great leaders ‘The Ignorant Maestro’ by Itay Talgum

    What is this book about?

    A world-renowned music conductor who also teaches leadership to blue chip companies. It is split into 3 parts:

    1st part – The Music of Business

    “If you look at zero, you see zero – if you look through zero you see infinity”
    * There is no one size fits all solution
    * However, looking at companies through the lens of music will help to define your unique leadership style.

    2nd part – Three New Themes of Leadership 

    “Let go of knowledge and embrace ignorance” 
    * Music itself is one to interpretation using vague terms such as ‘Fast’, ‘Slow’…etc.
    “The notes I can handle no better than other pianists, but the pauses between the notes – that’s where the art resides”
    * Make a void into a gap – a well defined space – where something creative can happen to close this gap
    * However, business abhors gaps and either ignores them or fills them with routines read more read more

    December 9, 2015 /0 Comments/by