Customer Reviews

Get to the Point! Painless Advice for Writing Memos, Letters and E-mails Your Colleagues and Clients Will Understand

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Elizabeth Danziger's advice on using clear, clutter-free language is consistent with the classic On Writing Well by William Zinsser, but this book is more useful as manual, whereas Zinsser's book is more conceptual.

For a book on business writing, the grammar review feels too elementary at times, but the well-organized layout makes it easy to skip ahead. I found the section on frequently misused words particularly valuable: affect/effect, discreet/discrete, disinterested/uninterested, premier/premiere, etc.

When is it appropriate to use which or that? The author provides an informal "just do it" rule and a formal "grammar police" rule.

"The fundamental purpose of language is not to avoid all grammatical errors. It is to convey meaning," Danziger explains. "If bending the rules is the best way to get your meaning across, then bend them. All I ask is that you know what you are bending."

This book is simply the best in its category. It walks you gently through the fine art of writing clearly and precisely, all without making it a heavy burden. The grammar review--simple enough even for nonwriters--is clear, relevant and oh, so needed these days. It alone is worth the price of the book. But, there's so much more. Author Elizabeth Danziger covers planning and organizing your material, formatting it for clarity, and using punctuation correctly, among many other relevant materials. Go, buy and read it ... you won't regret it!

Elizabeth Danziger in her book Get to the Point attempts to offer readers a game plan to reduce stress and anxiety in an effort to write more effective memos, letters, and e-mails. Danziger is the fonder of WorkTalk, an organization dedicated to improving the communication of individuals and organizations, & she has written for popular magazines such as: Readers Digest and Family Circle. In this book, Danziger offers solid advice on how to deal with writer's block, & in some chapters, she gives visual checklists to help guide readers in the writing process.

However, readers will find the book unfocused; for example, in Chapter2 entitled: Planning your Writing, she has too many headings & subheading; one heading is: Analyze your reader before you start, which is about a half a page, then on the next page, she talks about how to connect with your reader using a 3 level formula. Yet, no where in the 3 level formula does she go into any detail, then jumps to a topic called "hot buttons" in which she offers little examples of how to determine the "hot buttons" of the writer's audience.

In addition to the lack of focus, you will find that the book is poorly organized. Some chapters have visual examples, and others do not. Chapter 6, Choose words Wisely, Chapter 7, Help for the Grammar Phobic, & Chapter 8 Mark my Punctuation should have all been combined as they deal with many of the same topics.

All in all, Danziger's book is a good example of a person that might be able to write magazine articles but does not have the ability to write a book. It's ironic that on the back of the book cover it says, "Get to the point! Is the only writing book you'll ever need" and I am saying this is the only book you should run from don't waste your money on this.

So many people have no idea as to how to communicate, especially in a business context. Liz Danziger's book is concise and tightly woven to provide the nuts and bolts of clear, direct communication.

I actually really like this little book. Not only is it clear, practical and very thorough, but it is also written with humor and personality. It really speaks to the reader in an engaging and personable tone, which made the topic come to life for me. Well done!

Not only useful for writing, this book helps your people communicate better, particularly for:
1) people from other disciplines who need to communicate effectively like finance people
2) people writing in English as a foreign language
3) experienced communicators looking to polish their skills

The author covers strategic writing such as 'audience hot buttons' as well as practical such as weak verbs to avoid like 'go', 'say' and 'do'. You may like her approach to writing creation using 'organic outlining' in part 3 to organize information effectively, where you express ideas as sentences on post-it notes.

This book is my first recommendation for people to communicate better. Because it is the most practical that I've seen comparing to others like "Elements of Style", etc.

I wish I had had this book in grade school !

Get to the Point provides a wonderful, practical, and useful guide to writing. I recommend it highly.

This book is great! Funny, easy to read, and phenomenally useful. Everyone should own one.