Description
The Business Style Handbook is an accessible, practical and comprehensive writing reference guide to business style for the millions of people who write and communicate on the job. In today’s workplace, employees must write and deliver at Internet speed. Letters, Proposals, emails, memos and specifications are all in a day’s output. It is important to write clearly and correctly — the end product, after all, reflects on the writer. The trouble is that guidance is rarely available to non-professional writers. In fact, most employees are on their own when it comes to matters of style and usage. Relying on the writer in the group — such as the administrative assistant or the corporate librarian — is no longer an option. Everyone who works with a computer needs to know the basics of grammar and punctuation — and then some. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, an executive from Verizon offered the following quote about the importance of communications skills. “The people who get ahead in business are the ones with good presentation skills of which good grammar is a critical component. And the explosion of email means that writing has again become important.” Written for nonprofessional writers and focused tightly on those writing issues that frequently arise at work, The Business Style Handbook is built around feedback from communications executives at Fortune 500 companies — such as Intel, Nike, Wal-Mart, Coca Cola, Ingersoll-Rand, Viacom, GTE, and others — about the common mistakes people make in their everyday writing. Authors Helen Cunningham and Brenda Greene conducted a yearlong survey of communications pros of the Fortune 500 and the results of their survey indicate that millions of employees are writing ineffectively — even though they need to write at work every day. Part 1 of the book covers the essentials of style, information on the Fortune 500 survey, and tips and helpful advice on how to improve your writing. Part 2 of the book includes 500+ alphabetized entries covering style and usage, tailored to business writers. Grammatical concepts as well as individual words (including numerous “new economy” entries) are included.
