Susan Adams presents the 8 keys at Forbes.

"These days, unpacking the secrets to viral success has been the mission of researchers, media organizations and businesses alike.

"People don’t have the time or the attention span to read any more words than necessary.

Helen Coster (photo, left) presents "10 Tips for Better Business Writing.

"A great piece of writing is like a great piece of art.

"Back when I was a journalist," writes Victor Lipman (photo, left), "an old editor of mine had a great saying he used to tell his writers: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long letter.

"In writing a speech, you have two objectives: Making a good impression and leaving your audience with two or three takeaways.

"There is a lot to like in Mary Norris’s Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.

"I asked everyone around me, people who’d been working longer than I had, 'Why do we write this way?

"There’s real power in sending a handwritten note to a customer: a card to thank a customer for subscribing, to celebrate with a customer for completing her first project with you, and so forth.

We check in with Ken Makovsky (photo, left), contributor at Forbes.

"Many companies' help lines are usually crowded with customers trying to find an answer for their questions.

"The slideshow not only acknowledges the long-lasting nature of digital information, but also suggests ways that employees can avoid incriminating themselves and GM by not using words like "catastrophic" and "spontaneous combustion" when talking about GM products.

Christina Desmarais of Inc.

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"For word nerds everywhere (this author included) the yearly additions to the Associated Press Stylebook are always met with great intrigue.

Jessica Stillman shares a suggestion from author Gretchen Rubin (photo, left).

Is it "first-come, first-serve," or "first-come, first-served?

Watch the video at BusinessInsider.

"I went out with a guy based on his use of dashes once.

Farhad Manjoo (photo, left) doesn't like it when people put two spaces after a period.

Bianca Nogrady reports on the topic over at ABC Science (Australian Broadcasting Corporation's online gateway to science).

"There’s nothing more irritating to a pedant’s ear than someone saying “mischievious” instead of “mischievous,” and nothing more embarrassing than realizing you’ve been pronouncing the word mischievous with an extra i for your whole life.

Jennifer Frost presents an infographic on the topic.