Plain English At Work

One of the nation's top business and government consultants presents a complete guide to writing and speaking clearly, effectively, and persuasively. Edward Bailey offers down-to-earth tips for revolutionizing writing and speaking, including specific advice for designing and giving presentations.

'Effective writing: plain English at work' is about writing that works: it is based on sound English grammar and plain English style. Through this book you will gain the skills needed to write cohesive paragraphs and to consider your target audience. This second, updated edition also considers workplace writing not covered in the first edition such as writing emails and material for websites.

Annotation. 'Effective writing: plain English at work', second edition, is about writing that works: it is based on sound English grammar and plain English style. If you want to write in a way that is clear and meaningful, to avoid writing `gobbledegook¿, and to be able to explain effective writing to others, this book is for you. Through this book you will gain the skills needed to write cohesive paragraphs and to consider your target audience. This updated edition also considers writing emails, material for websites, and other workplace writing that wasn¿t covered in the first edition.- How do you explain to a colleague why their writing `doesn¿t make sense¿?- Why does choice of font matter in a document?- What is appropriate use of social media in the workplace?- Why is white space important in an email and in a printed report?Many such questions are answered here. You can practise writing and check your progress by doing the activities after every topic. Use this book as a self-tutor or as a class textbook.

Businessese, academese, legalese--these painful eses appear all too often in memos, letters, reports, and papers. You have probably fallen victim to them yourself, writing "commence" and "prior to" instead of "begin" and "before," burying your main point somewhere in the last paragraph. Now Edward Bailey offers help in The Plain English Approach to Business Writing . Bailey has spent twenty years working in bastions of bureaucratese, helping businessmen and government workers write in direct, effective plain English. This no-nonsense guide is an indispensable office companion. Bailey's approach is surprisingly straightforward: just write as you would talk. Plain English is not only easier to read, it's also easier to write. And it's so effective that many large organizations are endorsing, if not demanding its use in the workplace. Pithy and entertaining, Bailey clearly lays out the dos and don'ts of plain English, illustrating them with examples drawn from such sources as business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of such writers as Russell Baker and John D. MacDonald. From the basics to the fine tuning, he offers practical advice on clarity, precision, organization, layout, and a host of other topics. This is a book that can be read in an hour--and used for the rest of your life. Features Shows readers how to improve the quality and clarity--and increase the speed--of their business writing Provides a practical model that helps writers get started and stay organized Includes dozens of real-life examples drawn from business documents, technical manuals, trade publications, and the works of well-known writers

Everyday we write countless memos, letters, and reports without a second thought. Likewise, we give presentations, both formal and informal. Often this writing and speaking gets criticized for being jargon-ridden, obscure, or long-winded--in short, for not being in "plain English." But what is plain English, and how do we go about writing and speaking it? In Plain English at Work, Edward Bailey gives the answer, with down-to-earth tips and practical advice. Bailey, an expert in business communication, gives us a simple model for writing: · Style: write more the way you talk. · Organization: make your point easy to find. · Layout: use headings, lists, and other white space so readers can see the structure of your writing. Psycholinguists, Bailey points out, have proven that the techniques of plain English writing are far easier on your readers; experience has proven that writing in plain English is easier on you--the writer, too. Bailey also gives you a wealth of practical advice for presentations including: · How to remember your talk. · How to design visual aids. · How to design computer presentations. · How to set up the room you'll be speaking in. · How to develop a successful delivery style. Perhaps most impressive are the many detailed tips he gives here. For instance, when using a pointer, hold it in the hand closer to the screen (otherwise, you turn your back on the audience, making it harder to hear you). When designing a visual aid, use at least 28-point type, and seldom use all capital letters (which are harder to read). And when presenting a bar chart during a computer presentation, build it--a bar at a time--to focus your audience's attention. Drawing on two earlier and popular books, The Plain English Approach to Business Writing and A Practical Guide for Business Speaking, this new volume has been significantly updated. It includes up-to-the-minute information on using computers, computer graphics, and typography for your writing, and on using the same technology for designing your presentations. The result is an authoritative and comprehensive single volume that will be the essential guide for everyone wishing to communicate more easily and effectively at work.

Plain English is an essential tool for effective communication. Information transmitted in letters, documents, reports, contracts, and forms is clearer and more understandable when presented in straightforward terms. The Oxford Guide to Plain English provides authoritative guidance on how towrite plain English using easy-to-follow guidelines which cover straightforward language, sentence length, active and passive verbs, punctuation, grammar, planning, and good organization.This handy guide will be invaluable to writers of all levels. It provides essential guidelines that will allow readers to develop their writing style, grammar, and punctuation. The book also offers help in understanding official jargon and legalese giving the plain English alternatives.This guide gives hundreds of real examples and shows 'before and after' versions of texts of different kinds which will help readers to look critically at their own writing. Helpfully organized into 21 short chapters, each covering a different aspect of writing. Clearly laid out, and easy to use,the Oxford Guide to Plain English is the best guide to writing clear and helpful documents.

In this volume, the author draws from more than a decade of editing experience to explain how to craft clear, understandable, and highly readable planning documents. The author suggests ways to overcome planners' most common writing foibles: acronymns, jargon, and overuse of the passive voice. And the author provides handy lists to transform mushy nouns into powerful verbs, pare down bloated sentences, and translate ""bureaucratese"" into everyday language. The author even includes practice exercises designed to help you recognize and overcome bad writing habits. But even the best writing skills won't help if your document is organized poorly and aimed at the wrong audience.The author also explains why it's essential to know who your readers are before you start writing and how to organize your work so that it will be easy to understand and use."

Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please seeks to change public and legal writing--by making the ultimate case for plain language. The book gathers a large body of evidence for two related truths: using plain language can save businesses and government agencies a ton of money, and plain language serves and satisfies readers in every possible way. It also debunks the ten biggest myths about plain writing and looks back on 50 highlights in plain-language history. The first edition was described by reviewers as "powerful," "compelling," "inspiring," and "astounding." This second edition has been updated and expanded throughout. Professor Joseph Kimble is a leading international expert on this subject. Here is the book that sums up his important work, with a message that is vital to every government writer, business writer, and attorney.

Scientific writing is often dry, wordy, and difficult to understand. But, as Anne E. Greene shows in Writing Science in Plain English,writers from all scientific disciplines can learn to produce clear, concise prose by mastering just a few simple principles. This short, focused guide presents a dozen such principles based on what readers need in order to understand complex information, including concrete subjects, strong verbs, consistent terms, and organized paragraphs. The author, a biologist and an experienced teacher of scientific writing, illustrates each principle with real-life examples of both good and bad writing and shows how to revise bad writing to make it clearer and more concise. She ends each chapter with practice exercises so that readers can come away with new writing skills after just one sitting. Writing Science in Plain English can help writers at all levels of their academic and professional careers—undergraduate students working on research reports, established scientists writing articles and grant proposals, or agency employees working to follow the Plain Writing Act. This essential resource is the perfect companion for all who seek to write science effectively.

Just as he did with the bestselling ISO 9001 in Plain English Cochran has written a comprehensive yet easily understandable guide to ISO 9001:2015. ISO 9001:2015 in Plain English was written so that anyone at any level of the organization can get to the heart of the standard’s requirements and how they apply to the organization quickly and simply. This straightforward book is ideal for people who are new to ISO 9001:2015, experienced ISO coordinators who want to get more out of an established system as they transition to the new standard, and for employees who just need a basic understanding of what ISO 9001:2015 is and how it applies to them. Cochran explains each of ISO 9001:2015’s sections and clauses using real-world examples and frequently asked questions.