A man is shipwrecked on a desert island. The only things he has in his possession are a flint, a can of lighter fuel, a penknife and a packet of cigarettes. How could he make a cigarette lighter?
Whenever you write something in an email or a letter that you want to be clearly understood, say it twice. One phrase that’s very useful for this is quite simply, ‘In Other Words”.
In other words, if you offer to accept payments on a monthly basis and set out a schedule to refer to in your letter, you could also say in the next paragraph, “In other words, the firm is prepared to accept monthly payments of $3,000 until your account is fully up to date”.
In other words, by repeating the same message but using different wording, you’re reinforcing your point and can be sure that the point being made cannot be misunderstood. In other words … well, I guess you get MY point.
(As far as the riddle above goes, if I’d added the phrase … “In other words, what could he do to a cigarette to make it weigh less?” it wouldn’t really be a riddle, would it? Your answer could be “He could take some tobacco out of it” … and you’d be right!!
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