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Rules of Thumb for Business Writers

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Book Review -- Rules of Thumb for Business Writers By Diana Roberts Wienbroer, Elaine Hughes, Jay Silverman; McGraw-Hill, Two Penn Plaza, 212.904.5951, NY 10121; www.books.mcgraw-hill.com; ISBN 0-07-145575-7; May 2005; 223 pages

Rules of Thumb for Business Writers

We may be slightly over enthusiastic about Rules of Thumb but this could be as enduring as Cutup & Center’s Effective Public Relations book that is now in its unbelievable eighth edition.

But unlike Cutup & Center, the three authors cut a much wider swath across one of the most widely covered used and abused business tools…clear, concise and effective business writing. Perhaps it is too much to hope for but the ready availability and ease of use of email has only accelerated the use and acceptance of poorly constructed sentences, stilted and acronym laden correspondence, embarrassing grammatical errors and a toleration of poor spelling and punctuation.

Rules of Thumb isn’t a textbook that should be read for classwork and then put in your professional library to gather dust. This is a workbook. One that you should read a couple of times and put into practice. It should be a part of your mentoring and staff training program to help ensure that PR people properly use a vital tool in their daily practice…writing. The discipline and guidelines the authors provide will also spill over into your verbal communications activities.

The book will probably never become a standard for use in business classes or a basic requirement in MBA programs and that’s a pity because there is a decreasing number of assistants whose job it is to clean up and improve business correspondence for managers and executives.

Most of us today have our own computer(s), a low-cost printer sitting on the credenza and Internet access. As a result it is too easy for us to write our own letters, our own business proposals, our own management reports, our own editorial and management emails and even prepare our own PowerPoint presentations. All without the use of standard software tools like spell and grammar checkers.

Rules of Thumb is an educational, reminder and reference tool that seems to have been written just to help people avoid embarrassing grammar, punctuation, style and spelling mistakes. “Facts” will probably get in the way of every public relations practitioner and his or her boss picking up, reading and using the book – “I know how to speak and write good so I don’t need a fundamental book on business writing!”

But the brutally honest fact is that we all need to work at writing more effective letters, emails, proposals, newsletters, resumes, articles and yes even news releases. The authors also give a wide range of work-saving shortcuts you can put to work immediately on using Word, PowerPoint and even writing for websites and blogs.

The authors have compiled an excellent set of bulleted lists of easy-to-read and remember guidelines. They have painstakingly developed hundreds of practical guidelines that make it easy for you to clearly understand the concepts they present.

Now in its second edition, the authors provide a large volume of insightful information and guidelines to help you improve the quality of your written work as well as how to write your correspondence more quickly and with better results. As if all of this isn’t enough, the authors have also done a lot of research for you and included a valuable resource directory to enable you to more quickly and effectively find the information you want and need on the web.

Nothing in Rules of Thumb will make you suddenly say “Viola!!!” It won’t be an epiphany to open the floodgate of your creative writing. But it will be a book you’ll want to read a few times and revisit as a refresher course again and again.

If nothing else think of it as a working guide to help you find a bigger, better and higher paying job somewhere else…or get the promotion you’ve been angling for.

That should motivate you to take a serious look at Rules of Thumb….

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