Instant-Answer Guide to Business Writing: An A-Z Source for Today's Business Writer

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: After reading and using this great book I gained the confidence I needed to write more professional business documents and e-mails. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to communicate clearly within the workplace and with clients. Great easy-to-use tips and guidelines made it easy.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: After reading and using this great book I gained the confidence I needed to write more professional business documents and e-mails. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to communicate clearly within the workplace and with clients. Great easy-to-use tips and guidelines made it easy.

Rating:
Summary: A useful business tool
Review: I should start by declaring an interest here - I have attended workshops at Better Communications, the company whose founder wrote this book, and have a friend who works for the company. I think I can say, though, that that has not swayed my judgment on the book (and no money or other favors have changed hands for this review...).

The Instant-Answer Guide to Business Writing, subtitled "An A-Z Source for Today's Business Writer", is a remarkable compendium of contemporary English. Although it contains many of the elements of Fowler's Modern English Usage, it also does a lot that is different. One reason for that is that it was written by Deborah Dumaine, the founder of Better Communications, a company that offers workshops on writing for the corporate world.

This is reflected in the book's opening section, which gives an introduction to the company's "Reader-Centered Writing" technique. References throughout take you back to this method, whose goal is to enable people to compose compelling business documents.

The book, however, is largely self-standing as a guide to writing English in the modern business world, arranged alphabetically by topic. It covers the basics of grammar and syntax, as well as the more strategic issues of writing well for one's reader.

At the most basic level of punctuation, the book sets out clear rules on where to put that apostrophe (and on whether you should be using one at all); guides you on how to write dates; and suggests where to use a dash rather than a colon. At the level of grammar, there are sections on how to ensure that you are consistent in your use of singulars and plurals; on "that" and "which" in different kinds of modifying clause; and on the avoidance of the "dangling" participle.

On the broader issue of communicating effectively, there are many entries on writing clearly and concisely, and on presenting your words visually in a way that draws in the reader.

Throughout the book, there are frequent examples of the right and wrong ways of doing something, and there is a substantial (and useful) appendix of model documents. The index works well; it enabled me to find almost everything I was looking for.

The book keeps pace with the times. There is an entry on "sexist language: how to avoid it" and a long one on "e-mail: how to write a compelling message". If the more abstruse grammatical entries might seem pedantic to some readers, there are a good many which have obvious and immediate relevance to the contemporary workplace.

Process is a big thing in the Reader-Centered Writing world: what steps do you need to take to get to the well-structured, cogent piece? This finds expression in the introduction, in the entries on drafting and editing, and in the long section on writing as a team.

The book does not stop at language as narrowly defined, but includes pieces on charts and graphs, on the use of color in documents, and on presentations. The last gives an example of one of Better Communications' Focus Sheets, a means of ensuring that what is written conveys the writer's purpose and meets the needs of the reader.

Better Communications' workshops are as much about getting business done effectively as they are about the language that acts as the medium. So the book has sections on broader business issues, seen through the prism of language.

Some may find this mixing of entries on language and business disconcerting. That, however, is the message of the book. Organized writing is the key to being organized and effective in business. The link is not an accident: the processes of thought, the expression of that thought and its execution in the workplace can't be separated. If someone writes well by the Better Communications standard, they start off with a distinct advantage in the corporate environment over someone who does not.

Others may think that the many sections devoted to the minutiae of grammar are unnecessarily picky, bordering on the pedantic, and not really relevant to the fast pace at which the modern world works. That may be true to a degree, but another message of the book is that detail is important, both to conveying one's precise meaning and to giving the right impression to business colleagues and customers.

While the book is nothing if not thorough and meticulous, it is not pompous or patronizing. Neither is it objectionably prescriptive: it acknowledges that language evolves and that there can different ways of doing things; but there are limits and where something is simply wrong the author says so. No sloppiness in this classroom...

Who is the book for? Certainly for people who are fascinated by language - they will take immense pleasure in dipping into the entries. However literate they think they are, they will find something they did not know before, whether they agree with it or not.

Should every executive have one on his or her (or should it be "their"?) bookshelf? Yes, if they are at all concerned about the quality of their writing and see improving it as one of the keys to being more successful in the workplace. The Instant-Answer Guide is an outstanding reference source for pretty much anything to do with written business English.

To make the very most of the book and the method which inspired it, though, they may have to attend one of Better Communications' workshops. But there, I said that I was going to be objective.

Rating:
Summary: A useful business tool
Review: I should start by declaring an interest here - I have attended workshops at Better Communications, the company whose founder wrote this book, and have a friend who works for the company. I think I can say, though, that that has not swayed my judgment on the book (and no money or other favors have changed hands for this review...).

The Instant-Answer Guide to Business Writing, subtitled "An A-Z Source for Today's Business Writer", is a remarkable compendium of contemporary English. Although it contains many of the elements of Fowler's Modern English Usage, it also does a lot that is different. One reason for that is that it was written by Deborah Dumaine, the founder of Better Communications, a company that offers workshops on writing for the corporate world.

This is reflected in the book's opening section, which gives an introduction to the company's "Reader-Centered Writing" technique. References throughout take you back to this method, whose goal is to enable people to compose compelling business documents.

The book, however, is largely self-standing as a guide to writing English in the modern business world, arranged alphabetically by topic. It covers the basics of grammar and syntax, as well as the more strategic issues of writing well for one's reader.

At the most basic level of punctuation, the book sets out clear rules on where to put that apostrophe (and on whether you should be using one at all); guides you on how to write dates; and suggests where to use a dash rather than a colon. At the level of grammar, there are sections on how to ensure that you are consistent in your use of singulars and plurals; on "that" and "which" in different kinds of modifying clause; and on the avoidance of the "dangling" participle.

On the broader issue of communicating effectively, there are many entries on writing clearly and concisely, and on presenting your words visually in a way that draws in the reader.

Throughout the book, there are frequent examples of the right and wrong ways of doing something, and there is a substantial (and useful) appendix of model documents. The index works well; it enabled me to find almost everything I was looking for.

The book keeps pace with the times. There is an entry on "sexist language: how to avoid it" and a long one on "e-mail: how to write a compelling message". If the more abstruse grammatical entries might seem pedantic to some readers, there are a good many which have obvious and immediate relevance to the contemporary workplace.

Process is a big thing in the Reader-Centered Writing world: what steps do you need to take to get to the well-structured, cogent piece? This finds expression in the introduction, in the entries on drafting and editing, and in the long section on writing as a team.

The book does not stop at language as narrowly defined, but includes pieces on charts and graphs, on the use of color in documents, and on presentations. The last gives an example of one of Better Communications' Focus Sheets, a means of ensuring that what is written conveys the writer's purpose and meets the needs of the reader.

Better Communications' workshops are as much about getting business done effectively as they are about the language that acts as the medium. So the book has sections on broader business issues, seen through the prism of language.

Some may find this mixing of entries on language and business disconcerting. That, however, is the message of the book. Organized writing is the key to being organized and effective in business. The link is not an accident: the processes of thought, the expression of that thought and its execution in the workplace can't be separated. If someone writes well by the Better Communications standard, they start off with a distinct advantage in the corporate environment over someone who does not.

Others may think that the many sections devoted to the minutiae of grammar are unnecessarily picky, bordering on the pedantic, and not really relevant to the fast pace at which the modern world works. That may be true to a degree, but another message of the book is that detail is important, both to conveying one's precise meaning and to giving the right impression to business colleagues and customers.

While the book is nothing if not thorough and meticulous, it is not pompous or patronizing. Neither is it objectionably prescriptive: it acknowledges that language evolves and that there can different ways of doing things; but there are limits and where something is simply wrong the author says so. No sloppiness in this classroom...

Who is the book for? Certainly for people who are fascinated by language - they will take immense pleasure in dipping into the entries. However literate they think they are, they will find something they did not know before, whether they agree with it or not.

Should every executive have one on his or her (or should it be "their"?) bookshelf? Yes, if they are at all concerned about the quality of their writing and see improving it as one of the keys to being more successful in the workplace. The Instant-Answer Guide is an outstanding reference source for pretty much anything to do with written business English.

To make the very most of the book and the method which inspired it, though, they may have to attend one of Better Communications' workshops. But there, I said that I was going to be objective.