Compendium of good writing / N.E. Renton.

Includes index.

First published as: Elements of style and good writing, 1990; 2nd ed. published as: Good writing guide, 1994.

1. Introduction - the art of communication -- 2. Aspects of style -- 3. Internal consistency -- 4. Americanisms -- 5. Neologisms -- 6. Business correspondence -- 7. Internet considerations -- 8. Some troublesome concepts -- 9. Concord -- 10. Other common grammatical erros -- 11. Auxiliary and modal verbs -- 12. Words and phrases frequently misused -- 13. Plurals -- 14. Numbers -- 15. The role of punctuation -- 16. Apostrophes and the possessive -- 17. Hyphens and compound words -- 18. Capital letters -- 19 Quotation marks -- 20. Common punctuation errors -- 21. Towards a house style manual -- 22. Automatic spellcheckers -- 23. Editing and proofreading -- 24. Indexing

"Business communication is changing rapidly. Today we don't pick up the telephone or meet face to face so often. Meetings are frequently held online, with new contacts made via the Internet and everyday business conducted through the exchange of e-mail. The impression we give of ourselves or our company and the perceptions we have of others are gleaned from the written word. Good literacy and communication skills are therefore more important than ever. In this practical style guide, prolific author Nick Renton deliberately sets out to offer prescriptive rather than merely descriptive advice. He analyses numerous examples of poor writing practice and gobbledegook found in actual business communications. He also presents simple, lucid explanations of grammatical concepts and stylistic usages, demystifies the role of punctuation and introduces essential self-editing techniques. Compendium of Good Writing deserves a place in the personal libraries of all amateur and professional writers. It will appeal equally to word lovers, business communicators and students of English whether as a first of second language."--Publisher's website.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.