Words At Work: Business Writing In Half The Time With Twice The Power [Paperback]

Susan Benjamin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 1997

Today’s business prose has to be done yesterday. And it has to cut through gigabytes of other information. Can your memos and marketing material compete? do you spend so much time agonizing over words that you have no time for other work?With Words at Work you can make your writing faster, more foreceful, and more fun. Susan Benjamin’s six-step process can turn your next business documnet into the best you’ve ever written. Learn to: Raise a “writing umbrella” to make your message memorable; exorcise the demons of past criticism and bad advice; strengthen your style at a glance with “no-read” editing.Words at Work gives you quick-and-easy recipes for the most important letters, reports, and proposals. It steers you around the potholes of punctuation, usage, and grammar. Soon all your business documents, from press releases to e-mail, will reflect your best work—and leave you enough time to do that work!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Good writing has long been undervalued in the workplace. After all, business letters, memos, proposals, and the like are about communication, not literature. And, true, the readership probably couldn't care less about sentence structure or tone. Still, something inspires the recipient of such material to either read it or toss it, and that something is very often the quality of the writing. Words at Work is a practical guide by the founder of a company that offers writing services for businesses: Susan Benjamin. She believes that the average letter has to be "captivating within the first five words." She hauls away tired phrases ("I enjoyed speaking with you on the phone last week" and "Our company is committed to meeting your needs"), clichés, and jargon, encouraging businesspeople to be specific, fresh, anecdotal, and grammatical in their writing. Benjamin's analogies may make you cringe ("Go for ordinary, clean words, which your reader can glide across like a skater over ice"; or "'To whom it may concern' is as old and bland as Lawrence Welk reruns"), but her system won't. Her strategies are easy to follow and are sure to make for crisper corporate correspondence.

About the Author

Susan Benjamin is founder of Words at Work, Inc., which offers writing services and strategies for all sizes of businesses. “Few medium-sized companies, or big ones for that matter, can boast of its skill bank,” wrote Tom Peters in his book Liberation Management. Benjamin has also taught writing at Berklee and other colleges in Boston.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (September 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201154846
• ISBN-13: 978-0201154849
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,166,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Benjamin is founder of Words at Work, Inc., which offers writing services and strategies for all sizes of businesses. "Few medium-sized companies, or big ones for that matter, can boast of its skill bank," wrote Tom Peters in his book Liberation Management. Benjamin has also taught writing at Berklee and other colleges in Boston.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing Words that really work, December 5, 2004

By 

LATH (Silver Spring, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Words At Work: Business Writing In Half The Time With Twice The Power (Paperback)

This is an exceptional book. It is a quick read with outstanding points for writing in different aspects of business. The author, Susan Benjamin, gives you six steps to use when writing anything. I especially appreciated the section on how to make a quick list of the points you want to cover in your writing before you start writing then using this list to write fast, saving the editing and proofreading for later. Moreover, Ms. Benjamin states that you should find an editor, a good editor, to review your documentation. I suggest that if you want a good book on business writing, this is the one. Buy this book. You will not regret it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Resource, April 13, 2009

By 

Anthony M. Davis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Words At Work: Business Writing In Half The Time With Twice The Power (Paperback)

Susan Benjamin put together a great resource. I've read this book numerous times so far, each time learning something new (or being reminded of something I forgot.) Her book helped me to put together an important list as I began writing my book. I recommend this to anyone who wants to write.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Word Hunter, May 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Words At Work: Business Writing In Half The Time With Twice The Power (Paperback)

Bad habits and working conditions get in the way of WORDS AT WORK. Writing is easier if you look at it as a process: listing what needs to be covered and when; writing and rewriting for an attention getting opening, a smooth main part, and a memorable ending; editing; getting feedback; and proofreading. Author Susan Benjamin also says to build a portfolio of regularly written documents, find mentors, make reading and writing comfortable habits, pay attention to budgets and deadlines, take classes, use common sense, and write what the boss wants. With her emphasis on appropriately personal or professional tone, lively word use and solid structure, her book works well with Cosmo Ferrara's WRITING ON THE JOB, Marcia Layton's THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO TERRIFIC BUSINESS WRITING, and Jeffrey McQuain's POWER LANGUAGE.