The dea(r)th of clear writing

In the age of e-mail, writing skills are all-important for clear communication.

Alas, as the New York Times points out in a story bearing the amusing headline What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence, such skills are not nearly as commonplace as we might like:

Millions of inscrutable e-mail messages are clogging corporate computers by setting off requests for clarification, and many of the requests, in turn, are also chaotically written, resulting in whole cycles of confusion.

Or, as Craig Hogan, head of an online school for business writing, puts it: "E-mail has just erupted like a weed, and instead of considering what to say when they write, people now just let thoughts drool out onto the screen."

Fighting ID theft

Wall Street Journal columnist Terri Cullen shares some details on new rules meant to combat identity theft.