One of my favorite just-for-fun podcasts is The Splendid Table, "the show for people who love to eat." I fall quite heavily into that group and rarely miss an episode.
 
Recently, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi was a guest. He shared his love of entertaining friends in his home--and his anxiety about doing so. His prescription for nervous hosts was this: Get the first cocktail and dessert right, and the dinner party will automatically be a great success. He'd already learned this lesson in fashion. "I told my models, 'Get the hair and shoes right and you'll look fabulous.'"
 
A corollary of the Mizrahi principle is used in effective direct mail. It says repeat the key message in a p.s. at the end of the letter. Studies show that when people scan (which is how we all tend to read items perceived as "junk mail"), their eyes move quickly from top to bottom--very little left to right--and then linger just long enough at the end of the letter to read the final line.
 
Why not apply the Mizrahi principle to your sales letters, site copy, even your elevator speech? Grab their interest with a fabulous headline or opening statement. It should touch on a critical customer need. Then drive home your most important message with a powerful concluding sentence. That sentence should add force to the reader's perception that your company can meet her need.
 
And if you enjoy cooking and eating, definitely check out The Splendid Table.

I'm enough of an English geek to be excited by the arrival of my copy of Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage. 

A 700+ page tome, the Dictionary contains thousands of entries on words and phrases that are often misused. Each entry poses an argument for the word's best usage, based on actual usage by educated speakers and writers--and based on Garner's own principles of effective communication.
 
The Dictionary also includes entries on each of several jargon-y business buzzwords. After sharing Inc. Magazine's list of "15 Buzzwords We Hate" in last month's issue, I thought you might find interesting his entry on one particularly ungainly word, "incentize:"
 
 
A neologism is a new word. Garner points out elsewhere in the book that new words are rarely good for the language, impeding rather than enhancing communication. The English language's vocabulary is more than 300,000 words strong (compare with French's 100,000 words) and Garner believes neologisms should fill demonstrable voids.
 
I willingly concede that some dictionaries have added this word in recent years--making it more legitimate. Also, it carries a financial compensation connotation that other words like "motivate" do not. But Garner reminds us that, as with all jargon, "incentivize" is recognized or understood only by a small swath of the English-speaking population. Speakers and writers who want to be sure they are communicating effectively and to avoid being seen as odd, or even pompous, would do well to use it--and all jargon--very carefully, i.e., only when you know your audience won't be off-put or confused by it.