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	<title>The art of explaining</title>
	<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog</link>
	<description>ideas for clearer written communication</description>
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		<title>Older people write better digital content</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve just turned 41. I played football on my Birthday, ruptured my Achilles tendon and now I’m here with my leg in plaster. So I thought I’d mention one benefit of getting older. Age (like laziness) makes people do things more efficiently. No unnecessary movements. The young squash player sprints about while his wiry old [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/older-people-write-better-digital-content/</link>
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		<title>Why communication failure is an unaffordable risk</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Too many financial institutions are failing to turn the mistakes of others into lessons of sound governance. So what’s missing from the myriad rules designed to safeguard this industry? Only clarity and wisdom. Your message read: send three and fourpence we’re going to a dance! No, we definitely said: send reinforcements we’re going to advance! [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/how-to-explain-the-costliest-communication-failure/</link>
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		<title>Why medical information will get better</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve been taking pills. They&#8217;ve done wonders for my backache. And the name of this rejuvenating cure is ‘Rheumatac Retard 75’. Rheumatac Retard. Can you feel the healing power? The warm glow of wellbeing? Me neither. Describing medicines has been a litigious, closely guarded business for as long as people have been taking them. So we [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/why-medical-information-will-get-better/</link>
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		<title>How to explain first time</title>
		<description><![CDATA[‘If you’re explaining you’re losing.’ That phrase recently came out to bite President Obama, after he gave a 17-minute answer to a short question about healthcare and taxes. Healthcare and taxes, human rights, banking, the environment … too many of the most vital messages get beached like whales in our attention deficit disordered world. People [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/how-to-explain-first-time/</link>
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		<title>How computer code can improve your writing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As a writer, more and more of my words are published online. The more I work with web developers and designers, the more I see of the dark arts of coding. And do you know what? Writing code is just the same as writing words. Developers and writers are doing the same things – the only [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/how-computer-code-can-improve-your-writing/</link>
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		<title>Unusual advice on how to begin a proposal</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Decision makers love to say ‘I only ever read the executive summary’. And the way you start your proposal tends to seal its fate. It’s your Dragon’s Den moment: 45 seconds to convince a tough audience. Better make it good. But I see many proposal writers get overwhelmed by the occasion. The point gets lost [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/unusual-advice-on-how-to-begin-a-proposal/</link>
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		<title>Why you should start at the end, and why we don&#8217;t</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Remember science at school? That’s where I learned to dice rats, mix volatile substances, handle electric shocks and melt biros with a Bunsen burner. It’s also where most of us were conditioned to save the main point until last. Writing up experiments was always the same: start with objectives, talk through the method (saying ‘this [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/why-you-should-start-at-the-end-%e2%80%93-and-why-we-dont/</link>
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		<title>The writer&#8217;s job: looking after gorillas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tell me if this sounds familiar: you write a report in which you carefully deal with items A to Z, then your boss or client asks why you didn&#8217;t mention item G. ‘It’s there, you idiot’ you say (to yourself) ‘all covered on page 17, third paragraph, with a diagram too.’ Why did your reader miss [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/the-writers-job-looking-after-gorillas/</link>
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		<title>The benefits of sounding like Jamie Oliver</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You may not want to resemble Jamie Oliver in any way, but his writing has qualities of energy, confidence and ownership that any organisation can harness by changing a few writing habits. So let’s take a peek at The Naked Chef. Here’s a passage I sometimes use in workshops: “I do love food – I’m [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/beware-the-layer-cake-of-negativity/</link>
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		<title>Toxic language</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Language that failed to explain is partly to blame for the state of our economy. The system that relied on confidence fell to a confidence trick, because it trusted jargon that hid the truth about value at risk. Share/Save]]></description>
		<link>http://www.thomasheath.tv/blog/writing/toxic-language/</link>
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