- 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
Use a Dash for Emphasis, a Hyphen for Clarity
People often confuse dashes and hyphens. Dashes are used for three reasons, most commonly to mark off information that you …