Quick & Painless Business Writing: An Essential Guide to Clear and Powerful Communication
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Susan F. Benjamin. Quick & Painless Business Writing: An Essential Guide to Clear and Powerful Communication
Dedication
Acknowledgments
The Quick, Painless, and Indispensable
Section I. Why Quick? Why Painless? Why Not?
Chapter 1. Five No-Worry Reality Checks
Reality Check #1: The Response
Reality Check #2: Your Reader: A Surprise Profile
Reality Check #3: Your Education
Reality Check #4: Who Needs Grammar Rules?
Reality Check #5: Let Logic Prevail
Section II. Word Use – No Pain, All Gain
Chapter 2. Ouchless Nouns
When Do We Diagram Sentences? A Flashback
Nouns: All About Them
The Question You’re Dying to Ask!
The Passive Voice
Noun Nuggets: To Do and Not To Do
Noun Uppers
Acronyms: The Naked Nouns
A Quick Q&P Acronym Q&A
More Noun Nuggets: The Secrets
Genderless-ness: Language Battles in Action
But Wait! There’s More!
Genderless Action Plan
Chapter 3. Noun Accomplices: Articles, Pronouns, and Adjectives
Articles
Another Quick Q&P Q&A…This Time About Articles
Pronouns: The Rule Breakers
I-phobia
Me-phobia
The Myself and I Syndrome
Your (a) Gold Star
The Its-It’s Conundrum
And Ever More Pronouns…
The Great Who/Whom Debate
Adjectives
Chapter 4. Verbs: The Power Words
Action Verbs
Harnessing Verb Power: A Quick and Painless Approach
The Good Guy Verbs – A Reminder
Tense About Tense?
The Noun-Verb Marriage: A Brief Interlude
Tense Agreement: A Quick and Painless Approach
The Top 10 Agreement Hang-Ups
A Brief Outburst Plus the Author’s Response
Metaphor: The Powermonger
Linking Verbs
So What About Them?
To Be – But for How Long?
Helping Verbs
Adverbs: Too Much, Too Often
Chapter 5. Glue Words
The Review
Conjunctions: The Review
The Case of Then and Than
Never Use Three Where One Will Do
Prepositions: The Review Two
Preposition Problems?
Glue Words Controversy #1: Conjunction Consumption
Glue Words Controversy #2
Last Word: Preposition Past
Chapter 6. Sentence Savvy
But First! An Answer to the Eternal Sentence Question
The Assembly: Sentence Types
And Now…The Exceptions
The Compound Sentence: Siamese Twins
The Complex Sentence
Compound-Complex Sentences
Sentence Bits and Pieces for the Maximum Effect
Phrases
Misplaced Modifiers
Don’t Forget These Strategies:
Section III. Quick, Painless, and Plain: Almost All You Need to Know About Style
Chapter 7. Plain Language Primer: So What Are the Big Guys Afraid Of?
Top Reasons You, Your Boss, Your Employees, Your Friends, and Yes, Even Your Attorneys, Should Use Plain Language at Work
So Do You Use Plain Language?
Plain Language: The Sordid Details
Your Tax Dollars and Plain Language: The Mix
Chapter 8. Why the Active Voice Isn’t, and a Few Words About Being Concise
Cousin It
And the Prize Goes to…
Passive-Active Q&A
And Now…A Few Words on Being Concise
As for Cloning…
The Style-Content Connection
Chapter 9. Reader-Focus: Bowing to the King and Queen of the Universe
There’s No Writing but Marketing Writing
Case Study
On the Couch
The “Show, Don’t Count” Phenomenon
A “Show, Don’t Tell” How-To
Hold On! What Do I Do Instead?
Wait – We Weren’t Done! Back to the Couch
When Your Point of View Counts
Chapter 10. The Truth About Tone, Damn It!
All About Jargon!
Category 1: Jargon
Category 2: Industry Terminology
On Closer Inspection: The Jargon-Industry Terminology Distinction
The Industry Terminology-Jargon Trail
Tone – The Big Three (Plus One Cousin)
The Audience Factor
Tone Reminder
Other Tones Too
In Closing…Web Thoughts
Section IV. Cohesive Structure: Keeping It Together
Chapter 11. Seducing, Spinning, and Sedating: All About Structure
Structure: The Great Unnatural Act
Listing: The Anti-ramble
Reading Reality Check
Repeat Structure Repeats
Closing Big Picture Question: A Personal Question to the Author
Chapter 12. The Paragraph: On Closer Inspection
Paragraph Myth and Reality: A Jet Back in Time
The Paragraph-Brick Connection
In the Beginning…The Pre-paragraph
First (Introductory) Paragraphs
Opening Paragraph Possibilities – In Closing
Beyond the Beginning: Imposing Order
The Inverted Pyramid
Analysis and Support
Paragraph Length: How to Tell…
Final Word on the Final Word: Why Paragraph Length Matters
The Big Four: Equal Facts, Chronological, Descriptive, Compare and Contrast
Equal Facts: The Bullets
Bullets: The Use and Misuse
Large-to-Small
Most- to Least- or Least- to Most-Noticeable
And Now For a Reality Slice: The Un-paragraph
Mix ’n’ Match Paragraphs: The Examples
Chapter 13. The End
Summaries
Conclusions
Numbers
Letter closings
And…Goodbye
About the Author
Отрывок из книги
Writing a book is never easy. Okay, actually, writing this book was easy, but who wants to start an acknowledgment page that way? So, I want to acknowledge not the people who helped me trudge through the misery of the writing process, but those who made it possible for me to write – and delight in – this book.
First, my agent. Let me tell you, every good writer (and every bad writer for that matter) needs a good agent. And Grace Freedson’s the best. She’s available, interested, and willing to drink a glass of wine with her author even when better judgment tells her not to. More than an agent, she’s a dream-maker and friend.
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Of course, fortifying the writer’s life are all the people who say things like: “How’s the book going?” which I take as encouragement, and “Don’t worry, I’ll take your son for the afternoon while you work.” In particular, Kathryn Stellar, Lissa and Garth Jansen, Rose McKee, and at the old home front, Margie Green and Susan Erony for their goodwill and good wishes. And finally, thanks to Kitty Clark, modern dance teacher, for showing me my body can do more than sit in front of a keyboard.
Get help. Lots of help. Professional writers, including New York Times journalists and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists, have a squad of professionals giving feedback on all they write. As for me, I have an editor, agent, book coach, proofreader, and assorted content experts full of ample supplies of feedback. Usually, they comment on my genius and offer heaps of praise. I’m kidding; I’ve experienced waves of negatives. When they’re constructive, I wallow in them a while, and then do what they suggest. When they’re uselessly critical, I swim right past them. It’s either that or drown.
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