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Entries Tagged as 'Communication'

The Word Is ”Typical,” Not ”Average” or ”Median”

August 20th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Writers seem to struggle to express the lot of the average person. Let’s talk about the average savings of an American in their 50s, i.e., born in the 1970s. We want to understand their lot in life and all that. The figures are somewhere. Hmm, average means to sum everyone’s savings and […]

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Tags: Choose · Communication · Language · Writing

Asynchronous Meetings and Eternal Optimism

August 17th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are occasions when we spend the resources to have everyone in the same room at the same time. We can do this review and do this meeting asynchronously. The documents are online. Everyone review them when they have time today and leave your comments —said an eternal optimist. We have some […]

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Tags: Agreement · Communication · Management · Meetings · Questions · Writing

The Shortest True Sentence

August 6th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I find, or re-find, a basic concept of writing non-fiction. I recently worked through a piece of rewriting and revision. I used several AI systems combined with the best writing advice I accumulated through the years. When it was over, I attempted a summary. Surely there was something to pin on the […]

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Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Learning · Simple · Word · Writing

AI Didn’t Write This

July 30th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I guess we live in an age where we have to state this, even though many disbelieve. If the grammar is too good, AI must have written it. If the style has changed, AI must have written it. If fill-in-the-blank, AI must have written it. It is possible to write with good […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Communication · Technology · Tools · Trust · Writing

No One Calls Me

July 16th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I receive about one phone call a week from an actual person. What happened? I have a cell phone. I still have a landline phone. Several times a day, the landline rings and a nice computer voice tells me about home improvement. These computer voices are becoming nicer. I guess that is […]

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Tags: Authentic · Communication · Family · People

The Paramedic Method of Editing

July 2nd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I find an old method of editing that I was using without knowing it. I recently discovered the paramedic method of editing from UCLA professor Richard Lanham. I think I have been using this method for years without knowing it had a formal beginning and technique. I referred to what I was […]

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Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Writing

Important to Me. Important to You?

June 15th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, some things are important to me. It is usually a mistake to extend that importance to another person. The idea hit me. This is IMPORTANT! I will dig into this topic. I will expand it in many ways. Me: Hey, look at the results of my analysis. I have looked at […]

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Tags: Analysis · Communication · Conversation · Ideas · Information · Listening · Management · Relevant

Interesting

June 4th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is interesting to me. Is it interesting to you? interesting, adjective, something that attracts your attention, arouses your curiosity, or holds your interest because it is unusual, exciting, or engaging. It is highly subjective, meaning what is fascinating to one person may be dull to another.—Google search The answer to my […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Communication · Concepts · Expectations · Ideas

Words from the Dictionary

May 18th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It seems we haven’t learned much as we still read stuff that makes no sense. A long time ago, I heard a political commentator read part of a political party’s platform. Parties used to do these platforms to inform everyone of what they were saying. The commentator would read a sentence and […]

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Tags: Communication · Meaning · Mistakes · Reading · Vocabulary · Word · Writing

Making Verbs out of Nouns

May 14th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let’s turn these nouns into verbs. Let’s not. We are going to modernize the application to optimize it and maximize our efforts. — Wrote someone who shouldn’t have been writing In other words, we want maximum free time. Let’s make the application modern and optimal. Turning a noun into a verb (I […]

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Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Simple · Word · Writing