To perform my ‘judging duties’ for the Global eBook Awards, I had to read ebooks – lots of them – over several weeks earlier this year. At first, I was a bit concerned that I might end up reading a load of rubbish, but we got off to a great start with Writing at Work – A quick and easy guide to grammar and effective business writing, by Ellis Morgan, published by UK’s Dormouse Press. Well, I know what you’re probably thinking: ‘Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnn …’ But you’d be wrong. Ms Ellis is a proponent of plain English, which makes this book not only a neat, straightforward and very helpful read for the average busy business person, but also a must-have for the world’s verbose and unnecessarily wordy writers (and tautologists) such as myself! This is not one of your dry, boring text books, it’s a handy reference book for anyone that has to write anything for work – whether it be a letter or email, or something meatier such as a report, brochure or website. Despite being an IPEd Accredited Editor and having attended quite a few courses and workshops over the years, complemented by much reading on writing, there are still little things which pass me by from time to time, or of which I need to be reminded, so I found this book surprisingly helpful even for my own needs. And it has fun bits, too! For instance, did you know that a group of geese on the ground or water is a gaggle of geese, but once they take off and are in the air, they should then be referred to as a skein of geese? I kid you not.This book is not large, it’s not a tome, it’s a quick reference guide that’s meant to stay handy and be read quickly from time to time as a refreshing reminder of what those poor old school m’ams were trying to get into our thick heads all those years ago!The only comment I do need to make is that you will probably find this more useful if you are writing for a British/UK or Australian audience, but not a US one, due to the different spellings and forms that exists between the two markets. But if you need to write anything at any time, this book is a good little investment.
To perform my ‘judging duties’ for the Global eBook Awards, I had to read ebooks – lots of them – over several weeks earlier this year. At first, I was a bit concerned that I might end up reading a load of rubbish, but we got off to a great start with Writing at Work – A quick and easy guide to grammar and effective business writing, by Ellis Morgan, published by UK’s Dormouse Press. Well, I know what you’re probably thinking: ‘Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnn …’ But you’d be wrong. Ms Ellis is a proponent of plain English, which makes this book not only a neat, straightforward and very helpful read for the average busy business person, but also a must-have for the world’s verbose and unnecessarily wordy writers (and tautologists) such as myself! This is not one of your dry, boring text books, it’s a handy reference book for anyone that has to write anything for work – whether it be a letter or email, or something meatier such as a report, brochure or website. Despite being an IPEd Accredited Editor and having attended quite a few courses and workshops over the years, complemented by much reading on writing, there are still little things which pass me by from time to time, or of which I need to be reminded, so I found this book surprisingly helpful even for my own needs. And it has fun bits, too! For instance, did you know that a group of geese on the ground or water is a gaggle of geese, but once they take off and are in the air, they should then be referred to as a skein of geese? I kid you not.This book is not large, it’s not a tome, it’s a quick reference guide that’s meant to stay handy and be read quickly from time to time as a refreshing reminder of what those poor old school m’ams were trying to get into our thick heads all those years ago!The only comment I do need to make is that you will probably find this more useful if you are writing for a British/UK or Australian audience, but not a US one, due to the different spellings and forms that exists between the two markets. But if you need to write anything at any time, this book is a good little investment.