Rules of thumb for business writers / Diana Roberts Wienbroer, Elaine Hughes, Jay Silverman

Includes bibliographical references and index

Part 1 The Writing Process -- Writing in the Business World 3 -- Finding Your Focus 6 -- Sizing Up Your Work Style 8 -- What to Do When You're Stuck 11 -- Organizing Your Ideas 14 -- Paragraphing 18 -- Continuity 22 -- Adding Visual Interest: Layout and Illustrations 24 -- Revising 26 -- Proofreading 29 -- Part 2 Writing with Power -- Steps Toward a Clear Style 35 -- Writing to Persuade 38 -- Writing with Energy 43 -- Trimming Wordiness 47 -- Grammar Review: Common Sentence Patterns 50 -- Avoiding Tangled Sentences 55 -- Varying Your Sentences 58 -- Eliminating Biased Language 63 -- Part 3 Specific Business Writing -- Guidelines for all Business Correspondence 67 -- E-mail and Fax Messages 69 -- Memos 72 -- Letters 75 -- Agendas and Minutes 80 -- Instructions and Directions 82 -- Reports 84 -- Newsletters and Press Releases 89 -- Proposals 92 -- Resumes 96 -- Part 4 Special Projects -- Research on the Internet 103 -- Crediting Outside Sources 109 -- Recurring Projects 112 -- Long-term Projects 114 -- Collaborative Projects 118 -- The Spoken Word 121 -- Editing Other People's Drafts 123 -- Writing for Others 125 -- Part 5 Correctness -- Usage -- Confusing Words 129 -- One Word or Two? 136 -- Spelling 139 -- Capitalization 142 -- Abbreviations and Numbers 144 -- Correct Pronouns 146 -- Consistent Pronous 148 -- Pronouns: Avoiding Vagueness 151 -- Verbs: Agreement with Subjects 153 -- Verbs: Consistent Tenses 155 -- Word Endings 157 -- Part 6 Correctness -- Punctuation -- Periods: Avoiding Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences 163 -- Commas 169 -- Semicolons and Colons 173 -- Dashes and Parentheses 175 -- Hyphens 177 -- Apostrophes 178 -- Quotation Marks 179 -- Italicizing (Underlining) or Quoting Titles 183 -- Sample Memo 187 -- Sample Bad News Memo 188 -- Sample Letter 189 -- Sample Letter of Recommendation 190 -- Sample Meeting Agenda 191 -- Two Sample Press Releases 192 -- Sample Cover Letter 194 -- Sample Resume (Emphasis on Accomplishments) 195 -- Sample Resume (Emphasis on Skills) 197 -- Sample Resume (Limited Experience) 199 -- Sample Resume (Significant Experience) 200 -- The Anatomy of a Sentence: How to Diagram 201