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Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?
4

Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

(OP)
Hullo!

My first language isn't English, but I often get to write formal letters in English as it became a wide-spread trend to use English in business communication throughout Europe (even if I get glared at / not replied to by French. Aw.) Plus, I am horribly picky and hate to recieve anything written with bad grammar / lousy spelling / filthy style. This will demean that person's value (and, consequentally, the value of their firm / possible business relationship) in my eyes; and I feel many other people feel the same, so I am trying my best to "clean up" my English and write as accurately and as properly as I can. However, that has not been easy due to the lack of proper literature that I could use to expand my knowledge... So I'd like to ask for recommendations on books (Cds, ebooks, .pdf files) that you've encountered on this subjects - formal writing in English for business purposes, business conduct (prefferably British, as it's the closest to general European business conduct style), business dictionaries (English - English, prefferably digital form) and such materials that you've found helpful... I'll be very grateful for any help!

Turbo!

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

The first Commandment: THOU SHALT PROOF READ.
You wrote: "........Plus, I am horribly picky and hate to recieve anything written with bad grammar / lousy spelling / filthy style..............."

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

(OP)
Yes, I know I wrote that, rnd2... Actually, I wrote it on purpose. Why? Because after that, I wrote "And I feel many other people feel the same".
Meaning, I don't want to sound like "that" when I write to other people who RECIEVE my mail.

Also... Please don't patronise. My mother used to say "if you can't say anything nice, keep quiet".

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Check out Technically Write by Blicq.

I have the second edition published in 1981 and I expect that there are some later editions.

Published by Prentice Hall ISBN 0-13-898700-9

Also use the grammar checker in Word and aim for a grade 7 to 10 reading level. (Hard to do in technical writing because of the need for adjectives and polysyllabic words. This post is grade 8.2 level)



Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

"The Complete Plain Words" by Ernest Gowers has been around for a long time, but is still a useful reference.

It was originally intended as a text to encourage British civil servants (who at the time were notorious for their impenetrable prose) to write stuff that could be understood correctly at the first attempt without sending the reader to sleep.

A.

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

(OP)
Thanx everyone, you've been of great help! You've no idea how difficult it is to make one's way through all the available literature and find something useful on one's own! Thanx again! thumbsup

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Turbo
Assuming recieve was a deliberate misspell, and the explanation provided by you is cogent, would you be kind enough to enlighten us as to why you twice misspelled preferably?
Proof reading really is, really important, My post was meant to be constructive, certainly not intended to patronise you. Sorry you felt that way.

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Come one rnd2... he misspelled it because he misspelled it, because English is not his 1st language. You meant to be constructive but you did not answer his question. Besides... an Eng-Tips post is not formal business communication.
Word can catch 99% of the spelling mistakes, proof reading IMHO is less important than choosing the right words, using the right constructions.
I would like to invite any native English speaker who finds joy in spotting spelling mistakes in other people's documents, to write a formal letter in French and find out how easy THAT is.
smile

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

(OP)
No, actually, in a uniquely rude way, rnd2 WAS helpful... I guess I always misspell the word "receive" and didn't know I WAS, in fact, misspelling it... I thought you were reffering to the fact I didn't say "send". Thanks for correcting me. Also about rudeness, well, maybe you weren't really rude for your (American?) standards, but in my country such behaviour, specially in such a situation, would be percieved as very rude.
But back to spelling... It's really difficult, once you get used to spelling something wrong, to correct it - you'll know if you speak any other language beside your own. I have horrible grief with "finally", too, I ALWAYS spell "finnaly" instead... and Word spell checkers and stuff make it worse, they correct it and you don't have to LEARN better. And no, honestly I didn't proof read - as epoisses said, this is a net forum, not formal communication, so I get a bit careless.

But please bear with me, all of you, if I thought my knowledge of English was perfect, WOULD I be asking for books and stuff which will help me learn better...?

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

So there will be no more recieving? wink
In future be a little more honest and a little less defensive.
This forum is for fun as well as learning. It is right and proper to be checked for bad grammar and no-one should feel bad about that. Our fearless leader jimbo's slogan for this forum is " Buy a dictionary and use it".
Good luck

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

(OP)
Oh I shouldn't be defensive, but it's OK to call me dishonest. I love your style, write some more, LOL!

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

TurbulentFluid : A way to remember (which English school children used to be taught) is ""i" before "e" except after "c"". The trouble is, there are exceptions to this (a common one being "their"). But I think your English is remarkably good considering it's not your first language. One problem with learning another language is that you only need to get good enough to be understood without ambiguity. After that, it seems that many non-native speakers don't improve much because there is no incentive, and nobody corrects them because it is considered impolite and/or pedantic.

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

The complete rule is

"i" before "e" except after "c", when the sound is "ee"

I'm sure there are still exceptions.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Well - I never heard that last bit before! Either I wasn't paying attention or I had a lousy education. I Learn something here nearly every day.

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Quote:

Use I before E
Except after C
Or when sounded as "I" as in Einstein
Or "A" as in weigh
Neither, weird, foreign, leisure
Seize, forfeit, and height
Are the common exceptions spelled right
But don't let the C-I-E-N words get you uptight!

http://www.spelling.org/Books/Mastering_I_before_E.htm


Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: Good, solid book on grammar/formal writing/business conduct?

Hey, I got a lousy education, but it didn't bother me; I didn't pay attention anyway.

I recently downloaded Google Earth, and with it came a toolbar.  I was about to delete it when I noticed that it had a web content spell checker on it, and not only that, it spell checks in several languages that I speak or write in.

I recommend it highly.

One comment about spelling errors in other than your first language; (assuming that spelling in your first language is not problematic) it is hard to detect spelling errors in other than ones first language.  The eye is just not trained to pick them up.  And in my case, I learned at least one language as an oral language, not written and did not learn where to put all the accents and thingies that are needed to be grammatically correct.

TurbulentFluid, I think your English is just fine, but I applaud your attempts to master it grammatically, that is.

Now, I can't wait to e-mail this thread to my Venezuelan son-in-law who has occasional beefs with the oddities of our English language.

rmw

And PS: the google spell checker found 5, count'em 5 spelling errors in the above, not counting TurbulentFluids handle.

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