A recent Wall Street Journal front page article made my favorite point about business writing. The number one element of every message should be clarity. Is that clear?

The journal featured Chrissie Maher and her 30-year-old Plain English Campaign. Chrissie crusades for clear language -- particularly in financial, insurance and government forms. She succeeded in convincing the British government to rewrite thousands of forms. Her bank recently sent her a mailing entitled, "Keeping You Informed." When Chrissie found the mailing's wording "tortuous and ambiguous," she wrote back to them suggesting they rename the mailing, "Keeping You Confused."

In business we don't write so people will say, "My, what a wonderfully voluminous vocabulary Chris has," or "My, that Chris certainly knows his gerunds from his gerbils." Write to express, not to impress.