- Little, Brown Handbook, a simplified, comprehensive book on all aspects of writing.
- The Grammar Bible: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Grammar but Didn’t Know Whom to Ask, by Michael Strumpf.
- The Write Way: The S/P.E.L.L. Guide to Real-LIfe Writing, by Richard Lederer. A witty, enjoyable book about common writing problems that baffle most business professionals.
- The Associated Press Stylebook.
- The Gregg Reference Manual or the Chicago Manual of Style is a good supplemental resource. These are the most commonly used style guides in business. The AP Stylebook is the single most common and is more of a usage guide.
- Thesaurus and a hard-cover dictionary.
- The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White.
- Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English, by Patricia O’Connor.
By Ken O’Quinn
Focus on Them
Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill)
TD at Work — Business Writing for Managers
As a contributing author in this book on leadership, Ken offers insights and tips for managing difficult conversations, providing effective feedback, and being authentic. Order here.
Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill)
Provides the right words and phrases for any situation - quickly. The book was reprinted in Japanese because of high-volume sales there.
TD at Work — Business Writing for Managers
The Association for Talent Development invited Ken to write this 22-page booklet for the TD at Work series.
Current Blog Post
Passive Voice is Not Always Wrong
The passive voice remains an easy target of business writing critics, but sometimes it is preferable to an active sentence. …