How Not to Write: An Office Primer for the Gramatically Perplexed

By Terence Denman

Book Overview

In a fast-paced workplace, where emails fly at lightning speed, precision and brevity are essential for good communication. But all too often we let spell-checkers do the dirty work--because many of us have forgotten the simple grammar rules we learned in school. In How Not to Write , Terence Denman, instructor with the U.K.-based Plain English Campaign, sets out the top 10 grammar myths and the 10 grammar rules to live and work by. Readers will learn to: - Position prepositions - Chop off unwanted auxiliaries - Root out passivity - Eliminate extraneous adjectives - Punctuate with impunity With a breezy, wry, and accessible tone that never scols but always enlightens, How Not to Write is an indispensible guide to clear, concise, and correct language in the workplace.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594740712
• ISBN13: 9781594740718
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Quirk Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.8" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

More than Office Communication

You don't need to only write office communication to find value in this handy little guide. It's full of sound grammar advice written in a concise manner. Keep it next to your computer for quick and easy reference. Karen Reddick, author of Grammar Done Right!

Essential guide for business writers

I'd recommend this book for anyone who needs to write as part of their work - and that includes most of us! It's packed full of simple writing tips to get you writing in plain English - but what I really liked was the debunking of the grammar myths. These are "rules" that you might remember from school or college (or heaven help you, a grammar book) that get in the way of writing clear, concise, conversational writing at work. This is good value book and well worth the investment, not just for the grammatically perplexed but for anyone who wants to be a master of plain English.

Grammar Refresher

It's a great guide to grammar and suggestions of how to write better business English. Littered with some real-life examples of corporate-speak this guide stresses simple, effective writing without jargon. Terence Denman makes this normally stuffy topic quite readable and easy to follow. A book for almost anyone who writes as part of their job. It's designed for the British English market so may not be as useful for the US market, still, some of the rules and ideas are timeless.

Educational and entertaining

Terence Denman is an instructor with the Plain English Campaign, a U.K. based, but world-wide organization dedicated to improving writing skills and promoting the use of crystal-clear language in business and government communications. In this wonderful little book, Mr. Denman lays out ten grammar tips on better writing and ten writing myths that will foil your attempts at clear and concise writing. Using a great deal of wit, he educates the reader on many common errors that people make while writing, and steers you quite handily towards better English. This is a great book, one that should be read over and over again, and studied like a school book. Indeed, this would make a wonderful foundation for a class on clear writing given to all office workers! The author does an excellent job of writing in a fun and easy to read manner, which makes reading the book both educational and entertaining. I greatly enjoy this book, and hope that studying it will improve my writing skills. My hat's off to Mr. Denman for writing such an excellent book!