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While a basic process applies to all writing situations, the guidebook shows you how to create your own personal process and settle on a style of expression that works for you. This book always aims for the target. It provides a method for writing at work that is direct and simple with a minimum of preparation.

Successful writing is like hitting a baseball or dancing. A batter does not swing at the ball by thinking first about flexing his wrists or stepping forward with his front foot. Hitting a baseball is not the combination of many little actions. It is one smooth movement. Breaking down the parts prevents the batter from swinging naturally. The same applies to writing. So the Write Better and Get Ahead at Work method aims to make the entire action of writing work as one continuous effort. The techniques offered here serve as “spring training.” First, we sharpen the fundamentals then, during the game, we instinctively perform the necessary action smoothly. So too with writing. This book provides the means to practice so that, back at work, when it comes time to write a memo, letter or report, you do it naturally and easily, without worrying about the component parts. When you finish, you feel good about an accomplishment rather than worried about what the reader will think.

For those who do not follow baseball, the same comparison applies to dancing. You take lessons to practice all week, but when Saturday night arrives, you dance smoothly without thinking about where your feet go. Pick either metaphor you prefer. But concentrate on the whole, not the sum of the little parts. If you sit down, well prepared, and express your message by following your own writing process, you will see that the nagging little problems of punctuation or fiddling with this word or that will no longer bother you. Instead, you will swing smoothly and quickly through your writing, confident that you have included the right elements to communicate and get a job done.

Consequently, this book offers exercises on completed work only. Most people motivated enough to improve their writing do not need little grammar exercises or small writing tasks. They want to practice the whole thing. Other than the times when you evaluate some part of your current writing, the exercises are about complete memos and letters or full sections of reports.

After establishing a clear, comprehensive way to write memos, the book builds on this foundation to show you the basics of letters and reports. It explains common types of letters and reports. Many of the most frequent questions in writing courses are about resumes so the book presents a section on writing yours too.

Because everyone can improve his or her writing, following the fundamentals is a presentation on writing excellence. Genius cannot be taught, certainly not by this book. But excellence has a signature. For those who master the basics of writing at work, a later section offers ways to identify, then to achieve excellence. Excellence is even guaranteed at the end of this section (depending on one little condition explained in the text).