Description
Book SynopsisStyle guides come in many shapes and sizes, usually focused toward scientific or academic use only. However, business writing is a space occupied by many individuals that has not been given the attention it deserves. The Style Guide for Business Writing, Second Edition, is designed specifically to assist business writers in both the public and private sector, including those publishing with English as a second language; authors of academic papers; business book authors; financial journalists; and writers of reports, proposals or even just e-mail and memoranda. This book provides a comprehensive guide to clear and precise writing that will help develop basic communication skills for the beginner, and refresh the basics for the experienced business writer. Major topics are arranged alphabetically and the cross references and index enable quick and easy access to information. Michael C. Thomsett is a market expert, author, speaker, and coach. His many books include Stock Market Math, Candlestick Charting, The Mathematics of Options, and A Technical Approach to Trend Analysis.
Table of ContentsA 1 A or an 1 Abbreviation 1 Abridgement 6 Abstracts 6 Accessibility 7 Acknowledgments 8 Acronyms 8 Active and passive voice 9 Adnouns 12 Afterword 12 Agreement 12 Alphabetizing 17 Annotations 21 Annualization 22 Anonymous publication 23 Anthology 23 Antonyms 24 Appendices 25 Appositives 25 Apps 26 Archive 26 Articles 27 Artwork 29 Attribution 30 B 33 Backmatter 33 Baseline 34 Bibliography 36 Blogging 37 Budgets and forecasts 37 Bullet points 39 C 41 Callouts and sidebars 41 Capitalization 41 Captions 44 Case studies 45 Casual assertions and inferences 46 Charts and Graphs 48 Circa (ca.) 57 Circular arguments 57 Citations 58 Clauses 64 Cleft sentences 65 Cliches 66 Coinage of words 73 Colloquialism 73 Compound Words 74 Conclusions 75 Copyright 76 Cross reference 77 D 81 Dangling modifiers 81 Data analysis 81 Databases 85 Data collection methods 85 Data matrices 86 Dates and times 87 Decimals, fractions, and percentages 92 Definitions 96 Denotation and connotation 98 Derivative work 99 Descriptive statistics and inference 99 Desktop publishing 100 Dictionaries 101 Double negatives 101 Dysphemism 101 E 103 Editing and proofreading 103 e.g. and i.e. 106 Electronic mail (email) 106 Electronic mail formatting guidelines 108 Emphasis 109 Empirical approach 114 Endnotes 115 et al. 115 Euphemism 116 F 117 Fact checking 117 False subjects 117 Figure of speech 118 File naming 119 Financial reports 120 Flowcharts 122 Footnotes 124 G 127 Generalizations 127 Gerunds 128 Glossary formatting 128 Graphics 129 H 131 Headings 131 Highlighting in text 132 Homonyms 135 Hyperbole 135 Hyperlinks 136 Hypothesis formulation 136 I 139 Ibid. 139 Idiom 139 Imperative sentences 140 Indexing 141 Introductions, forewords and prefaces 143 Irony 145 J, K 147 Jargon 147 L 151 Legends, titles, and labels 151 Letters 152 Lists 163 M 169 Manuscripts 169 Mathematical symbols 171 Means testing 175 Measurement strategies 175 Memos 177 Metadata 179 Metaphors 180 Money and currency 180 N 183 Nominative, objective, and possessive pronouns 183 Numerals and numbering 184 O 191 Obfuscation 191 Objective and goal statements 192 Online etiquette 194 Op. Cit. 196 Organization charts 197 Outlining 199 P 203 Paradox 203 Paragraphs 203 Parallelism 207 Parentheses and brackets 209 Participles 213 Parts of speech 213 Patents 234 Peer review 234 Photographs 235 Planning documents 236 Possessives 239 Presentations 240 Problem statement 242 Procedures manuals 243 Proposals 246 Punctuation 248 Q 269 Quotations 269 R 273 Redundancy and repetition 273 Relative clauses 274 Reports 275 Rhetorical questions 278 Rhythm in sentences 278 Roman numerals 279 Run-in quotations 280 Run-on sentences and sentence fragments 281 S 283 Salutations 283 Sampling 285 Sarcasm 286 Scaling 287 Scientific method 289 Screen shots 290 Sentences 291 Sexist writing 296 Signs and symbols 298 Similar words 299 Similes 317 Singular and plural 318 Spacing 321 Spelling 323 Statistical references 329 Style and tone 329 Suffixes 332 Summarizing 333 Superscript and subscript 334 Symbolism 335 Synonyms 336 T, U 339 Table of contents 339 Tables 340 Technical writing 341 Tenses 342 Titles 343 Trademarks 344 Transitions 345 Translations 349 V 351 Variable measurements 351 Variable relationships 351 Video best practices 352 W 355 Webinar and conference call etiquette 355 Webpage references and citation 356 Websites 356 Word processing 357 X, Y 361 X and y axes 361 Z 363 Zombie nouns 363 Index 365
