Writing & Speaking at Work: A Practical Guide for Business Communication - Softcover

Bailey, Edward P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131434039 ISBN 13: 9780131434035

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2004

Synopsis

Designed to help business people improve their ability to write and speak with confidence at their jobs, this handy, brief, and economical book focuses on the practicalities of contemporary business communication—giving useful, concrete advice that readers can apply immediately. It eliminates unnecessary theoretical matters and gets right to the core of real, on-the-job communication, drawing from the author's many years of experience working with business and government. This 3rd edition of Writing and Speaking at Work is reader-friendly and easily accessible. Clearly organized and well-written, Writing and Speaking at Work is divided into two parts for easy understanding: Part I covers “writing” and Part II “speaking.” Other important topics include: effective e-mail, computer presentations, common-sense grammatical rules, writing for the Web, resumé preparation, and good techniques of delivery. For anyone in business who wishes to improve their writing and speaking skills.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The goal of Writing & Speaking at Work is to help students roll up their sleeves and actually learn to write and speak. This concise, easy-to-read text focuses directly on these two crucial communication skills. It offers students and professionals practical advice they can apply today and every day.

This third edition has been fully updated and provides the most up-to-date coverage of e-mail communication and computer presentation techniques.

New Features

A new chapter entitled "Writing for the Web" covers these key topics:

• understanding how viewers look at Web pages
• making your home page user-friendly
• making your content pages efficient
• making good design choices

You'll also find many relevant and up-to-date examples throughout the book.

Finally, a new Web site includes a concise summary of main points in each chapter and a short, interactive quiz to help reinforce those points.

Hallmark Features

• Plain English Approach: Teaches students to write and speak clearly and efficiently.
• Style: Promotes a more spoken style of writing—the standard for most businesses today.
• Organization: Focuses on presenting the main point up front.
• Document Layout: Explains how to create documents that look inviting and visually show the structure of the document.
• Speaking: Shows students how to design a presentation so it's easier to give—and easier for the audience to understand.
• Visual Aids: Emphasizes computer presentations—the up-to-date approach students must master to be competitive in the job market.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A famous adventure writer once said, "When I write, I try to leave out the parts people skip."

I've tried to do the same thing in this book. You'll find this book is shorter than most other business communication texts, but it's full of practical advice. That advice comes from my years as a college teacher and as a frequent consultant to business and government.

Instead of dealing with various theories of communication, this book focuses directly on the two most important communication skills that people in business need: writing and speaking. The first half of the book covers writing; the second half, speaking.

While writing this book, I've pictured myself talking to my readers, as though they are my students in the classroom. As a result, I've adopted a straightforward, spoken style with—I hope—an accessible tone.

What's New?

This new edition, in addition to updates throughout, has added an important new chapter: Chapter 10, "Writing for the Web."

My goal is to help students dramatically improve their ability to write and speak—so they can be confident rather than self-conscious or embarrassed. The target audience is anybody in college at whatever level. The majority of my students are graduates in our MBA program. They're successful adults who want practical help they can apply today and every day in the future. Most of the examples in the book are from their work.

But undergraduate students want the same thing graduate students do, and this book aims to help them too.

If you want a quick overview of the book, Chapter 1 is a short introduction to writing and Chapter 13 is a short introduction to speaking. They're good places to start.

Edward P Bailey
Marymount School of Business Administration
Arlington, Virginia

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0131434039
• ISBN 13: 9780131434035
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 259