Revising Business Prose

by Richard A. Lanham

As its title implies, this book deals with revising, not with original composition. In business writing, where a first draft often emerges quickly under the pressures of facts, figures, and deadlines, revision is typically the major part of a writing task, and collaborative revision often produces the final document. Revising Business Prose provides detailed revision guidance and a collaborative approach to writing easily applied to writing in business, industry, government, and academics. Based on the premise that bad writing in organizations imitates the bureaucratic style The Official Style, as it's called here this book shows readers how to transform stilted, dense prose into plain English. For anyone interested in the revision process in every business writing context.

Genres: Writing

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Ed Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A witty, readable, often eye opening treatise on clear writing. I fear the author’s critique of this review. Modern writing is officious and convoluted. Lanham shows how to write clearly. A great resource.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years, Professor Lanham has been after us about wordiness. He calls it the Official Style; it's practiced whenever writers want to sound important, and to achieve this effect inflate what they write like Macy's Parade balloons. His "Paramedic Method" of rescuing hyper-inflated prose is directed in this slender volume to writers of business communications: memos, reports, policies, procedures, you name it. By following his advice step by step, it's possible to achieve directness, clarity, even simplicity by finding the plain English that neatly expresses what we want to say. And that means finding and disposing of all the unnecessary verbiage, which by Lanham's estimate comprises about 50% of what we write.

Take the following cumbersome sentence, the likes of which routinely typify everyday business communications: "On the basis of the answers to these and other questions which the team might ask, I would expect the team to present us with detailed recomendations for enhancing the effectiveness of our reporting." Lanham shows how to transform it into something elegantly precise: "By answering questions like these, the team should be able to recommend improvements in our reporting." A reduction, he would be quick to point out, from 34 words to 16 words. True, as the saying goes, it takes longer to write something shorter, but the finished product is more likely to be read, understood, and acted upon by its intended audience.

Lanham's approach to all this is hardly stuffy. He has a good time poking fun at egregious examples of ponderous prose, and he also has a good time whacking it into something presentable. And the end result isn't just readable; it's alive, full of energy, and packs a wallop. This book is for every business person who has something important to say and wants to be sure that what they've written gets read rather than shoved to the side because it's a chore to plow through. Buy this book, read it, and reread it. You won't be sorry.