Table of Contents
Foreword xiii
Preface xvii
Introduction 1
For Instructors And Students 2
How To Write Anything 2
To Write or Not to Write? 4
What Communications Professionals Want You to Know About Writing at Work 6
What Kind of Writer Are You? 8
The Seven Steps 9
Step 1 Get The Ask Clear 11
How to Write Avoiding Writing 19
Step 2 Write For Your Reader 21
How Writing a Business Plan Can Make You a Better Business Writer 28
Step 3 Start Strong And Specific 40
Step 4 Be Concise 47
Writing Is Rewriting 66
Step 5 Fill In Missing Content; Delete Extraneous Content 68
Step 6 Write In Plain English 75
Step 7 If Something Feels Wrong, Fix It 86
The Checklist 96
The Checklist in Action: Before and After Examples 98
Write It and Then Read It Out Loud 104
Types of Business Writing 106
The Basics 106
E-mail 106
Hints and Tips for Effective E-mails 111
The Etiquette of E-mail Writing 113
Requests 114
Escalated Request When a Deadline Is Approaching 116
Bad News Messages 118
Instant Messages 118
Presentations 120
Creating Visuals 123
Proposals 128
Business Relationships 131
Introductions 131
Recommendations 133
Thank-yous 137
For Deeper Connection and Reflection, Write It by Hand 139
Apologies 141
Promoting Your Business And Yourself 143
Web Copy 143
Blogs 146
Social Media 148
Creating Content for Your Website or Biog 149
Press Releases 155
Speeches 158
The Art of the Anecdote 161
Bios 163
Employment Matters 166
Résumés 166
Cover Letter for Your Résumé 169
Follow-up Message After a Job Interview 171
Five Tips for Communicating with Millennials in the Workplace 173
Job Descriptions 175
Job Advertisements 177
Performance Reviews 179
Resignation Letters 182
Termination Letters 184
Resources 187
Writing Skills 188
Overcoming Writer's Block 188
The Secret to Overcoming Writer's Block 191
Editing Your Own Writing 193
Style 197
Active Voice-Make Your Writing More Direct 197
Reading, Writing, and Leadership 199
This What? 200
Gender-Neutral Language 201
Grammar And Usage 205
Sentences, Fragments, and Run-ons 205
Pronoun Pitfalls 206
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 209
"That" and "Which" 212
Split Infinitives 213
Ending a Sentence with a Preposition 214
"Unique" 215
"Would Have," "Could Have" 215
Commonly Confused Words 215
Punctuation 219
How to Use a Comma 219
How to Use Colons and Semicolons 221
How to Use Parentheses, Brackets, and Dashes 222
How to Use Capital Letters 223
How to Use Quotation Marks 225
Acknowledgments 229
Appendix A Business Writing Survey 231
Appendix B List of Common Prepositions 235
Contributors 237
Index 243
