The Plain English Approach to Business Writing - Softcover

Bailey Jr., Edward P.; Bailey, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195115651 ISBN 13: 9780195115659

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

In offices across America, the Masters of Gobbledygook are hard at work. They're bombarding in-boxes with those long, confusing memos that colleagues don't have the patience to read--and bosses don't have the time to rewrite. They use words like "commence" or "prior to" instead of "begin" or "before." They bury their main point somewhere in the last paragraph--and take two pages to get there. Everybody knows one of them; in fact, you may even be one of them. But now there's help for anyone who's ever fallen prey to businessese, academese, legalese, or any other "ese" when faced with a blank memo pad.
In The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, Edward Bailey--who spent twenty years working in the bastions of bureaucratese--offers readers a powerful new communications tool. Written for busy professionals who want to improve the quality and clarity of their own (or their staff's) writing style, this no-nonsense guide is an indispensable office companion. Bailey's approach is 5urprisingly straightforward: just write as you would talk. Plain English is not only easier to read; it's also easier to write. And it's so effective that many large organizations are endorsing, if not demanding, its use in the work place. Pithy and entertaining, Bailey points out all the dos and don'ts of plain English. He then illustrates them with examples drawn from a wide array of sources, including business documents, technical manuals, trade publications like Consumer Reports, and the works of writers such as Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. From the basics to the fine tuning, he offers practical advice on clarity and precision, organization, layout, and a host of other important writing topics.
A delightful, down-to-earth guide, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing is for professionals of all backgrounds (government, military, legal, financial, technical, corporate) and staff at all levels (from the company CEO to the ambitious secretary). The Plain English Approach to Business Writing can be read in an hour--and used for the rest of one's life.

About this title

Review

Memos, letters, reports--for a business world supposedly going paperless, we're writing quite a lot these days. Nonetheless, argues business communications professor Edward P. Bailey Jr., reliance on industry terminology and "business-ese" is ruining many of these attempts to exchange information. His practical guide to reversing that unfortunate situation, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, shows how to "write as you would talk," which he contends is actually easier than penning convoluted sentences filled with obscure jargon. A basic overview of organization and layout (including typefaces, headings, and graphics) is provided along with advice on proper constructions and style.

From the Back Cover

Bailey's approach is surprisingly straightforward: just write as you would talk. Plain English is not only easier to read, it's also easier to write. And it's so effective that many large organizations are endorsing, if not demanding, its use in the workplace. Pithy and entertaining, Bailey clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plain English, illustrating them with examples drawn from such sources as business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of such writers as Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. From the basics to the fine tuning, he offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and a host of other topics. This is a book that can be read in an hour - and used for the rest of your life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0195115651
• ISBN 13: 9780195115659
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144