(Oakland, CA -- April 12, 2011) --Write It Well President Natasha Terk recently analyzed writing samples from a group of senior executives at a large multinational corporation. "I was horrified," said Terk. "There were run-on sentences, semicolons thrown in at random, and misused words."
She wondered how these executives could maintain their credibility in light of these widely disseminated, embarrassing e-mails. Terk set out to develop a tool to help these executives and other businesspeople save face.
Terk's new book, Essential Grammar, is a self-paced training manual. The book provides an economical and private solution for executives and professionals at any level to improve their basic writing skills. "I know that some of these folks don't want to attend a grammar workshop. Others might want to but don't have the time," she says. "If you give them the book, though, they can read it and work through the exercises on their own time."
"You can read the book at home and tuck it away for reference in a desk drawer. You can improve your grammar skills while you're waiting in line at the car wash," says Christopher Disman, the book's editor. "The book includes a few details of usage that many highly educated writers get wrong."
Some adults learned standard-English grammar in unfavorable learning environments, and many adult writers forgot what they did learn as soon as they left school. "We didn't let this book get bogged down in stuffy grammar rules," says Terk.
There are countless guides to punctuation rules for U.S. English, but Write It Well's new book is focused on just what you need in today's business world. Its tips and tools include punctuating bulleted lists, when "him and me" is indisputably correct, and whether it's safe to write "None of them are going."
"Over the years, our clients have sent us thousands of business documents to edit, sometimes including their everyday communication. Often, it's the casual e-mail that reveals the author's real weaknesses," Terk says.
"E-mail grew up in the lawless frontier of the Internet, without the traditional rules of old-fashioned letter writing," author and Pew fellow Deborah Fallows wrote in an e-mail to Write It Well. That's one reason many business writers think of e-mail as an informal medium where careless writing is probably OK.
Write It Well has found repeatedly in its research that people form negative impressions of writers who make frequent or basic punctuation mistakes. Most employers review writing samples before offering jobs or promotions - from skimming cover letters to evaluating portfolios to conducting performance tests.
"Grammar and punctuation mistakes are some of the quickest deal killers we see when we read through a stack of job applications," says Peter May, president of Greener World Media. "It's surprising how many people fail to see that correct language is part of their business skill sets and that it's a necessary contribution to their employers' success," he adds.
Writing is a fundamental business skill. Whenever employees write people who are outside their organizations, incorrect punctuation can make both the writers and their employers seem less reliable.
"We're thrilled to offer this resource to writers everywhere," says Terk, "and we didn't stop with the individual learner." Facilitator kits are available for institutional trainers. The kits include 20 books, a leader's guide, and a set of customizable PowerPoint slides.
Write It Well's line of books for business writers includes Professional Writing Skills - a book to help writers plan and draft full documents; E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide; and the forthcoming Reports, Proposals, and Presentations.
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Essential Grammar: A Write It Well Guide, ISBN 978-0982447123, is now available at
www.writeitwell.com or at Amazon. Visit www.writeitwell.com for more information about Write It Well's books, on-site training, and facilitator guides.
