Customer Reviews

The McGraw-Hill Handbook of More Business Letters

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a terrific reference book for anyone who's ever sat hunched over trying to write what should be a simple business letter-you know, writing, crossing out, rewriting, etc. The guidelines and tips at the beginning are very useful-I found lots of information I didn't know I needed. The sample letters can be used as they are, or modified to suit a particular need. The book is so well written and organized that there's no flipping around looking for a subject. The pages are designed nicely-very reader friendly!

The Handbook of More Business Letters is an inspirational source for every letter you have to write. While focusing on business, it is also a useful reference in the home library. It covers everything from complaint letters to condolence letters. The book is well organized and easy to adapt to contemporary, real life situations. It makes a great gift for the business people in your life.

I ordered The McGraw-Hill Handbook in hopes that this was finally the book that would be approprite for the business professional. This book contains sample business letters that were so simple, a child could have written this book. The sample letters were on average three sentences long, which can be useful if you are informing someone of a schedule change or a quick thank you note. However,when you have much to cover in a letter or want to be absoultely clear on how to put a delicate subject the right way as to not offend someone, this book then becomes no longer useful. The author stated that the letters are based on real life scenarios which in fact is true. Anyone in a business atmosphere will need to write letters that thank the client for some reason or request a meeting with someone regarding business. However, the examples that she uses are targeted so precisily to the type of business that she made up that if anyone trying to use their own business in the letter, would no longer have an example to go by. This book was extremely disappointing. So dissapointing in fact that I will never buy another book from this author again.

I was extremely looking forward to recieving this book in the mail. All of the reviews stated that this book was excellent for the busines writer. I, on the other hand completely diagree. I work in a professional atmosphere and need a book that will emulate the professionalism of the company in which I am employed. The author has geared this book towards people with absolutely no writting skills what so ever. The sample letters that are supposedly consice and right to the point are so simple that a child could have written them. Going through this book I saw letter after letter that contained on average three sentences for the whole content of the example letters used. I understand that letters that get right to the point are the most effective, however I was hoping for many examples of a certain type of letter than just one for each subject. The author wrote each letter using a made up business with certain characterists and stated that one could rewrite the letter to fit the characteristics for their own busines. In order to do this, one would have to completely rewrite the whole letter. What is the point of spending money on this book to just have to write your own letter anyway?