The Elements Of International English Style: A Guide To Writing Correspondence, Reports, Technical Documents, And Internet Pages For A Global Audience (Paperback)

by Edmond H. Weiss (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Equally useful for students and professionals in business communication, marketing communication, and international business, The Elements of International English Style is filled with realistic examples, problems, and projects, including: 57 specific tactics to internationalize one's English; hundreds of before-and-after comparisons showing the effects of editing for an international audience; models of international correspondence; practical discussion questions and work projects; useful resources for further study, including books, articles, and websites.

Product Details

• Paperback: 162 pages
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe (February 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076561572X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765615725
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #370,539 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many useful ideas; could use better editing, June 1, 2005

By	Thomas K. Gally (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Elements Of International English Style: A Guide To Writing Correspondence, Reports, Technical Documents, and Internet Pages for a Global Audience (Hardcover)

As a translator and writer who often produces English documents for readers who are not native speakers of English, I have long wrestled with the problem of how to adapt my English writing style so that it is understandable to the widest possible audience. This book offers many useful ideas and pointers for people like me: avoid ambiguous and culturally-bound expressions, anticipate how individual words will be translated by readers into their native languages, avoid sarcasm and humor, and much more. I thus recommend this book strongly.

I wish, though, that it had been more carefully edited. In my first few minutes of skimming through it, I came upon several embarrassing errors: "The shorter Oxford English Dictionary has 25,000 entries" (p. 17) should be "The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has [some much larger number of] entries"; references to "German-English" and "Hebrew-English" dictionaries (pp. 21-22) should be to "English-German" and "English-Hebrew" dictionaries; the example sentence "an investigate trail is cold" (p. 23) must be a typo (of "an investigation trail is cold"?); examples of hyphenation usage (p. 74) are unclear because the examples appear at the ends of lines; and an example text that is described as being in a mono-spaced font (p. 82) is in fact in a proportional font. Such mistakes distract from the book's overall worth.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for Business and Technical Writing, June 13, 2005

By	Jonathan Friedman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For about 10 years, I have given every new employee of my engineering firm a copy of Edmond Weiss's 100 Writing Remedies. I came across International English when I was ordering new copies and now I'm going to give this one to new employees also. There's something that business and technical people need to know on every page. And I had a shock of recognition when he explained why "yes" doesn't always mean "yes" in negotiations with "high context" suppliers. I hope the business schools will make this book required reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsory Reading!, July 23, 2005

By	Nurel Beylerian - See all my reviews

I think Dr. Weiss's new book, "The Elements of International English Style" should be compulsory reading for anyone who creates documentation, with the possible exception of literary works. He rightly places the responsibility of the legibility of a document on the writer, rather than the reader who should be concentrating on the ideas or processes discussed, without having to struggle with the medium. Well done!

Nurel Beylerian Ph.D., PE