Bidnes Cummunication is sooo impotent, it is literally won of the most impotent tings eye cann commiserate to you! Your judged ever day by you’re writin & oral communications. Literally. “It is sooo important that that I cant overemphasize it enuf”. The interwebs havent improoved this stuff any; and dont git me goin on twutter!!! LOL!?&*$#. Literally.
Have I made my point? Good. Today’s blog about the importance of clear written communication in business and specifically, a book review of The Business Writer’s Handbook, Twelfth Edition, by Alred, Brusaw and Oliu. This is the third version of this wonderful book I’ve purchased as the updates are always worthwhile. The latest version includes updates for CMS (Chicago Manual of Style) and APA (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) styles.
Simply put, this is the best guide to business writing and communication I am aware of. The book is a model of clarity and straightforward advice on every form of business communication in written form. For anyone who writes as part of their job (that is everyone, I think), this should be a book you own and refer to often. The hardest thing about reviewing this book is that it is so full of goodness that I can hardly start to cover it all.
The real beauty of this book is that it takes an enormous amount of useful content and presents it with such clarity and organization that it is easily accessibility. It is so easy to use while being extraordinarily helpful. They have changed this version of the book, at least compared to previous versions I’ve used, to a spiral binding, allowing it to lay flat when opened on a desktop. There is an eBook version, but I like casually leafing through the ink-on-paper version and making new discoveries.
I can’t begin to review everything covered here, so I’ll just provide some examples. You probably would expect the rules of grammar, parts of speech and punctuation and they are all here. I do a lot of proofreading and wish more people paid attention to this sort of thing. When I’m editing text, the most common problems I find are misuse of apostrophes and misplacement of quotation marks.
The book covers many words that are confused, such as affect/effect, insure/ensure/assure, all together/altogether and every day/everyday. Clear concise explanations are provided. Then there are issues such as data and datum. The current correct usage is that data is plural, and datum is singular in formal or technical writing. In more casual writing or writing aimed at a general audience, data is a collective singular, so writing “data is” is correct.
There is advice about absolute words such as unique (something cannot be so unique) and perfect (it either is or it is not). There is wise counsel about not using jargon and avoiding misuse of intensifiers. Such as people using “literally” when they mean figuratively and causing me to become homicidal.
Another area that is extremely helpful to the business writer is the book’s advice on different formats of writing. For example, there is guidance on writing for a job search, interviewing, business plans, collection letters, meeting minutes, mission statements, note taking, website content and on and on. There are even sections on proper writing in spreadsheets, for instant messaging and for live chat! The authors even provide a Writer’s Checklist tailored to most of these tasks.
As part of clear business writing, there are sections on typography, design principles, logic errors and my favorite, listening.
The book runs over 600 pages but there is a five-way access system to help you find what you are looking for:
- Alphabetically organized entries.
- Content by Topic.
- Checklist of the Writing Process.
- Comprehensive Index.
- Model Documents and Figures by Topic.
Here is a confession. In school, English was always my worst subject; it did not come naturally to me. In my senior year of high school, I developed a love of reading and early in college I became interested in improving my writing skills. I have worked hard at it and now do a lot of writing, including this blog, and I enjoy it. A book like this one is a huge aid to someone like me.
By the way, this is the first time I have reviewed a reference book in this blog. At $75, it is not cheap, but it may be the most useful book you buy in your career.
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