How AI uses rhetorical techniques to sound melodramatic (and why your writing is more likely to be laughable if AI writes or edits it)
By Dan Kaufman on November 11, 202500Since Ancient Greece, great communicators – from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Jr – have been using rhetorical techniques such as antithesis and the tricolon to become more persuasive. Most people never learn these techniques, but AI did: and now it overuses them in the most ridiculous and inappropriate ways whenever it writes.
The rise of AI workslop – and why it’s bad for business (and your reputation)
By Dan Kaufman on October 12, 2025People are likely to think less of you if you send AI workslop, according to new research. Here’s why:
How to write in the active voice
By Dan Kaufman on August 20, 2025Writing in the active voice is key to making your copy sharper and easier to read. Yet although many have heard about it, there’s a lot of confusion about what it means – even amongst professional writers and editors.
Some think it’s about tone or style; others think it’s about tense.
This article explains why it’s important and how to use it – in addition to explaining why there are also times when passive voice might work better.
Why you should use the dash (even if AI uses it too)
By Dan Kaufman on May 12, 2025The dash is a crucial punctuation mark, which is why AI uses it – and so should you.
Professional-sounding words such as outcomes, engagement and stakeholder are awful – and here’s why:
By Dan Kaufman on January 14, 2025Business writing is filled with abstract words such as stakeholder and outcomes – so much so, we now take them for granted. The problem is, they’re so vague they don’t paint a specific picture. Here’s what you should do instead:
