Style Guide for Business Writing: Second Edition

by Michael C. Thomsett

Overview

Style guides come in many shapes and sizes, usually focused toward scientific or academic use only. However, business writing is a space occupied by many individuals that has not been given the attention it deserves. The Style Guide for Business Writing, Second Edition, is designed specifically to assist business writers in both the public and private sector, including those publishing with English as a second language; authors of academic papers; business book authors; financial journalists; and writers of reports, proposals or even just e-mail and memoranda.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to clear and precise writing that will help develop basic communication skills for the beginner, and refresh the basics for the experienced business writer. Major topics are arranged alphabetically and the cross references and index enable quick and easy access to information.

Michael C. Thomsett is a market expert, author, speaker, and coach. His many books include Stock Market Math, Candlestick Charting, The Mathematics of Options, and A Technical Approach to Trend Analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547400232
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	04/09/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	390
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael C. Thomsett, Business and Investment Writer, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Table of Contents

A  1

A or an  1

Abbreviation  1

Abridgement  6

Abstracts  6

Accessibility  7

Acknowledgments  8

Acronyms  8

Active and passive voice  9

Adnouns  12

Afterword  12

Agreement  12

Alphabetizing  17

Annotations  21

Annualization  22

Anonymous publication  23

Anthology  23

Antonyms  24

Appendices  25

Appositives  25

Apps  26

Archive  26

Articles  27

Artwork  29

Attribution  30

B  33

Backmatter  33

Baseline  34

Bibliography  36

Blogging  37

Budgets and forecasts  37

Bullet points  39

C  41

Callouts and sidebars  41

Capitalization  41

Captions  44

Case studies  45

Casual assertions and inferences  46

Charts and Graphs  48

Circa (ca.) 57

Circular arguments  57

Citations  58

Clauses  64

Cleft sentences  65

Cliches  66

Coinage of words  73

Colloquialism  73

Compound Words  74

Conclusions  75

Copyright  76

Cross reference  77

D  81

Dangling modifiers  81

Data analysis  81

Databases  85

Data collection methods  85

Data matrices  86

Dates and times  87

Decimals, fractions, and percentages  92

Definitions  96

Denotation and connotation  98

Derivative work  99

Descriptive statistics and inference  99

Desktop publishing  100

Dictionaries  101

Double negatives  101

Dysphemism  101

E  103

Editing and proofreading  103

e.g. and i.e. 106

Electronic mail (email) 106

Electronic mail formatting guidelines  108

Emphasis  109

Empirical approach  114

Endnotes  115

et al. 115

Euphemism  116

F  117

Fact checking  117

False subjects  117

Figure of speech  118

File naming  119

Financial reports  120

Flowcharts  122

Footnotes  124

G  127

Generalizations  127

Gerunds  128

Glossary formatting  128

Graphics  129

H  131

Headings  131

Highlighting in text  132

Homonyms  135

Hyperbole  135

Hyperlinks  136

Hypothesis formulation  136

I  139

Ibid. 139

Idiom  139

Imperative sentences  140

Indexing  141

Introductions, forewords and prefaces  143

Irony  145

J, K  147

Jargon  147

L  151

Legends, titles, and labels  151

Letters  152

Lists  163

M  169

Manuscripts  169

Mathematical symbols  171

Means testing  175

Measurement strategies  175

Memos  177

Metadata  179

Metaphors  180

Money and currency  180

N  183

Nominative, objective, and possessive pronouns  183

Numerals and numbering  184

O  191

Obfuscation  191

Objective and goal statements  192

Online etiquette  194

Op. Cit. 196

Organization charts  197

Outlining  199

P  203

Paradox  203

Paragraphs  203

Parallelism  207

Parentheses and brackets  209

Participles  213

Parts of speech  213

Patents  234

Peer review  234

Photographs  235

Planning documents  236

Possessives  239

Presentations  240

Problem statement  242

Procedures manuals  243

Proposals  246

Punctuation  248

Q  269

Quotations  269

R  273

Redundancy and repetition  273

Relative clauses  274

Reports  275

Rhetorical questions  278

Rhythm in sentences  278

Roman numerals  279

Run-in quotations  280

Run-on sentences and sentence fragments  281

S  283

Salutations  283

Sampling  285

Sarcasm  286

Scaling  287

Scientific method  289

Screen shots  290

Sentences  291

Sexist writing  296

Signs and symbols  298

Similar words  299

Similes  317

Singular and plural  318

Spacing  321

Spelling  323

Statistical references  329

Style and tone  329

Suffixes  332

Summarizing  333

Superscript and subscript  334

Symbolism  335

Synonyms  336

T, U  339

Table of contents  339

Tables  340

Technical writing  341

Tenses  342

Titles  343

Trademarks  344

Transitions  345

Translations  349

V  351

Variable measurements  351

Variable relationships  351

Video best practices  352

W  355

Webinar and conference call etiquette  355

Webpage references and citation  356

Websites  356

Word processing  357

X, Y  361

X and y axes  361

Z  363

Zombie nouns  363

Index  365