Last week, the design company Quirky made a very public
claim that a competitor, OXO, had stolen one of Quirky’s product designs. OXO issued a response on its website that
was clear, respectful and refreshingly free of legalese. Instead of using lawyer-crafted jargon like, “We
categorically deny this accusation and intend to defend our patent vigorously
in the court of law,” OXO went with language like:
"We were surprised that Quirky didn’t first address their
issue with us before taking it public. Our companies are two blocks apart. We
have about the same number of employees. We know the people that work there and
they know us. Our leaders have spoken. Isn't it a little strange that they
didn't think to pick up the phone and call first? Wouldn’t that have been the
right thing to do?"
I write a lot here about communicating like a human when you
write. It’s not just important in
college essays. Companies, high schools
and colleges could stand out a lot more effectively by crafting messages that
sound like they were written by a person, not a marketing, PR or legal team. When you write, read it out loud. Does it sound like you would sound if you
were talking to someone? Writing doesn’t
need to be so formal that it becomes impersonal.