Preface

Effective communication is the essence of good business. We serve customers, co-workers, employers, suppliers, and the community well by sharing relevant information clearly and efficiently. We fail to serve them when we communicate in unclear, bland, misleading, or irrelevant ways. That’s why this book is essential to all organizations—businesses, government agencies, or educational institutions.

The aim of this fifth edition of the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication is to help you serve your customers and co-workers in these ways:

• You will be complying with the best current practices in business and technical communication.

• You will solve problems more effectively and make better decisions.

Comply with the best current practices in business and technical communication. Many useful stylebooks serve the needs of professional writers, scholars, editors, and publishers. This book, by contrast, is for people in the business and technical professions. All guidelines, examples, and model documents come from the real “world of work” rather than from the academic world. Everything in this book has been tested and refined in workshops with thousands of professionals literally around the world—from the oilfields of Saudi Arabia and Indonesia to the pharmaceutical industry of Switzerland to the aerospace, engineering, service, and manufacturing centers of North America and Europe.

Solve problems more effectively and make better decisions. Writing in the workplace is far more than pumping out emails, checking grammar, and fixing spelling. It is a problem-solving and decision-making process. Cogent and persuasive business plans allow swift, logical management decisions. Analytic and well-crafted scientific reports lead to robust dialogue and sound policy decisions. Well-designed and clearly written user information builds customer loyalty and prevents costly downtimes.

New in the Fifth Edition

The most current guidelines on email, information management, and online documentation. Learn how to manage the flood of email coming at you and to get results from the email you send. Find out how to add distinctiveness and power to your online presence.

Updated best practices for graphics. Here’s the best current thinking on visuals for documents and presentations, charts, color, illustrations, maps, photos, and tables—including all new examples.

Guidance on global English. There is a new section on English as a second language for business professionals, as well as updated guidance on international business English.

Valuable new insights for knowledge workers. Learn new ways to think and process information better in updated sections on thinking strategies and the writing process, as well as practical guidance for managing projects and meetings.

Model documents for today. As email supplants traditional business letters and memos, you need new models to follow. See the MODEL DOCUMENTS section for updated samples of sensitive emails, reports, proposals, procedures, and resumes.

Everything in this fifth edition has been updated to help you meet the communication challenges of the high-tech, high-demand business world of today.