Revising Business Prose [Paperback]

Richard A. Lanham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0023674652 | ISBN-13: 978-0023674655 | Edition: 3

As its title implies, this book deals with revising, not with original composition. In business writing, where a first draft often emerges quickly under the pressures of facts, figures, and deadlines, revision is typically the major part of a writing task, and collaborative revision often produces the final document. Revising Business Prose provides detailed revision guidance and a collaborative approach to writing easily applied to writing in business, industry, government, and academics. Based on the premise that bad writing in organizations imitates the bureaucratic style The Official Style, as it's called here this book shows readers how to transform stilted, dense prose into plain English. For anyone interested in the revision process in every business writing context.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Here is a brief self-teaching guide to business prose revision, one which stresses the 8-step "Paramedic Method" of revising official prose into plain English. The "Official Style" and its pitfalls is covered in-depth, and a full chapter on electronic literacy makes this one of the most modern books on the subject of busines writing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Coll Div; 3 edition (August 13, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0023674652
• ISBN-13: 978-0023674655
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,820,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Focus, Good Examples, Will Improve Your Writing, May 30, 2004

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Revising business prose (Scribner English series) (Paperback)

There are two kinds of bad English: one is the bureaucratic bad English, using 100 words where 10 will do, and the other kind is the one I have suffered from for decades, complex layering of convoluted ideas with too many commas and semi-colons, and too few periods. In a word, undisciplined.

This book will help both kinds of English. It is short, to the point, and after reading and practicing what this book preaches, you should be able to cut your confusion of words in half, and increase your clarity and communications value by 100%

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plain English for the business writer, October 31, 2002

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Revising Business Prose (4th Edition) (Paperback)

For years, Professor Lanham has been after us about wordiness. He calls it the Official Style; it's practiced whenever writers want to sound important, and to achieve this effect inflate what they write like Macy's Parade balloons. His "Paramedic Method" of rescuing hyper-inflated prose is directed in this slender volume to writers of business communications: memos, reports, policies, procedures, you name it. By following his advice step by step, it's possible to achieve directness, clarity, even simplicity by finding the plain English that neatly expresses what we want to say. And that means finding and disposing of all the unnecessary verbiage, which by Lanham's estimate comprises about 50% of what we write.

Take the following cumbersome sentence, the likes of which routinely typify everyday business communications: "On the basis of the answers to these and other questions which the team might ask, I would expect the team to present us with detailed recomendations for enhancing the effectiveness of our reporting." Lanham shows how to transform it into something elegantly precise: "By answering questions like these, the team should be able to recommend improvements in our reporting." A reduction, he would be quick to point out, from 34 words to 16 words. True, as the saying goes, it takes longer to write something shorter, but the finished product is more likely to be read, understood, and acted upon by its intended audience.

Lanham's approach to all this is hardly stuffy. He has a good time poking fun at egregious examples of ponderous prose, and he also has a good time whacking it into something presentable. And the end result isn't just readable; it's alive, full of energy, and packs a wallop. This book is for every business person who has something important to say and wants to be sure that what they've written gets read rather than shoved to the side because it's a chore to plow through. Buy this book, read it, and reread it. You won't be sorry.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for those revising for Clarity, April 2, 2002

By 

Jerome Stueart (Whitehorse, YT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Revising Business Prose (4th Edition) (Paperback)

I was given an earlier edition of this book by a colleague in the English department. I laughed when I thought this little David was going to tackle the Goliath of Business prose, but darned if he didn't come through like a crackshot. Lanham effectively teaches writers who hide their ideas in complicated and wordy prose how to cut through the fog and reveal their ideas. Sometimes--and no offense to university teachers (heck I'm one of them) students get it into their heads that convolution leads to respect--and that may be for those writing books on theory--but most of the time convoluted prose just leads the reader to a lot of head-scratching. If you are writing, you need to be clear. This is especially true if you are writing for business. Lanham helps you dissipate cloudy phrasings, and pull ideas out into the light of day. I had to give my copy back to my colleague, but I'm ordering my own now. (I also shudder to think how my prose in this paragraph would stand up to scrutiny--which is why I'm buying and memorizing the book.) I recommend this for English teachers and those writing for businesses--after all there are lots of assessments, idea-pitching and grant writing that need clarity. Lanham comes through like a hero.