Plain Style: Techniques for Simple, Concise, Emphatic Business Writing

by Richard Lauchman

Overview

Good writing is good business. Simple, straightforward writing saves time, creates good relationships, and prevents expensive misunderstandings. But why is it so hard to achieve? This incisive guide suggests ways to think about writing -- what it should look and sound like, as well as what it should accomplish -- that can simplify how writers choose to express their ideas. It examines the reasons why many businesspeople with good skills tend to write strange, needlessly complicated sentences -- and shows them how to break the habit. Plain Style offers 35 practical techniques that foster simplicity, conciseness, and emphasis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814424292
Publisher:	HarperCollins Christian Publishing
Publication date:	12/19/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	842 KB

About the Author

RICHARD LAUCHMAN through his company The Lauchman Group, has been training professionals, in the area of writing, for over 25 years.

Editorial Reviews

Lauchman, who teaches business writing to corporations, adopts a low-key, practical, sometimes iconoclastic approach to the writing that people are required to do every day ``where money changes hands.'' Writers, he says, should convey and not express. He talks in terms of ``the order of words'' rather than of dangling participles and misplaced modifiers. The many examples are often humorous and the comparisons excellent (e.g., extra words are compared to too much water in tea). Interestingly, he declares that bad writing is not taught in school but learned on the job and is often perpetuated by company style guidebooks and managerial reviews. Although the book is sometimes redundant and awkward in its attempt not to sound like a traditional grammar, business writers will enjoy it and benefit from it. Of interest to public, academic, and special libraries.-- Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.

Library Journal

A commonly voiced complaint today is that the average person cannot express him- or herself in writing. Lauchman, head of a firm specializing in training professionals to write better, disagrees. The problem, he says, is that writing is often intended to impress others or conceal meaning. He describes the result as counterproductive, irresponsible, and needlessly complex. What Lauchman offers are three dozen guidelines designed to eliminate obfuscating jargon and convoluted constructions. He also dismisses as grammatical "dogma" rigid injunctions against split infinitives and one-sentence paragraphs and offers examples of when such violations may be appropriate. "Plain Style" is a fine addition to any memo writer's reference shelf.

David Rouse